Famous Grouse

Ok. You might think im crazy but i am unbiased here. This 16 dollar blended scotch is very good. There has to be something going on in here, since it is a very famous and a best seller in scotland. It even has books written over it. Bottled at 40%abv this is a blended scotch, deep gold color. On the nose is very sweet, you can get most of its aroma because of some grain whisky that is inside the blend, because the corn and butter notes are easily identifiable. Letting it rest for a couple of minutes will rapidly give you vanilla cake, brownies, slight touch of cola that lost its gas, chocolate cupcake, and all those butter-made deserts. Lovely. On the palate is where i was most sceptical, but it surprised me. More butter, cereal, old wood, a little pleasant hotness, pepper, tobbacco and ashes, are the main notes. The body is medium; but the aftertaste was very interesting, it left me a spicy, phenolic sensation that takes your breath away, literally, making you feel poisoned for a second and then the spicyness kicks in a full mouth experience. Amazing. Adding a single drop of water will kill any aromas, but the flavor should change into a more sweet expression, of chocolate, more butter and almonds, but with a shorter finish. Definitively something i would buy to drink like there is no tomorrow at a party, for all this interesting features and price: 84/100. Cheers!

This stuff has terrible aftertaste and smells like petrol

I was looking for an affordable alternative to Monkey Shoulder as a mixer for my scotch & soda or occassional Rob Roy and I posted a query for a few suggestions on a couple of facebook whiskey sites I follow. Famous Grouse was offered as one suggestion. My reference is Dewar's White Label, which I like but not enough to put it in my cabinet in favor of MS despite the price difference. Ultimately I'd like to find something closer to $20 than $30, and I certainly haven't had all the blends out there in that price range. So this is the first of what I think will be an exploration of affordable scotch blends. I started by tasting this neat in a glencairn. Its pale, thin, and shows little in the way of legs on a swirl. The nose is sweet and only mildly scotch-like. Tasted neat this is sweet with forward notes of honey, some orchard fruits such as apples and pears lightly playing the background. Nearly no peat nor heat. Eh.... On a large cube this didn't get better. I"d much prefer my regular Johnny Walker Black or even a Dewar's White Label. Finally with soda, mixed 50/50, this is okay. Certainly not great. This tastes like a mediocre Irish whiskey! Sweet and approachable. Probably would be good in a sweeter mixed drink like a Blood & Sand, but I don't think it will work in a Rob Roy. Overall its a thoroughly forgettable dram that might serve as a good gateway into real scotch for a first timer looking for "smooth" and sweet. This isn't a bad dram. Just boring as hell. I think Dewar's is a "bell curve" whisky at 2.5 (minus a quarter point for being too expensive). This isn't as good as Dewar's, but it IS less expensive. Still....