ctbeck11
Grangestone Highland Single Malt Rum Cask Finish
Single Malt — Highlands, Scotland
Reviewed
January 4, 2021 (edited January 29, 2024)
Nose - banana, pineapple, vanilla cream, honey, caramel, cereal grain, hay, apple juice, citrus zest, light oak, floral notes, mild to moderate ethanol burn.
Taste - vanilla cream, honey, apricot, citrus zest, young grain, black pepper, ginger, caramel, banana, apple juice, hay, brine, light oak, moderate alcohol bite, finishing fast with young, bright alcohol, nondescript citrus, brine, and grass flavor.
It seems my Grangestone horror show gets one more chapter, as I overlooked this beauty hiding at the bottom of my Total Wine sample bag. To be fair, this isn’t horrible. Much better than the Sherry Cask, slightly better than the Bourbon Cask, and certainly worse than the 12 year.
It’s obviously very young, as there’s a marked malty graininess to the entire experience. I get the rum finish in the form of some pineapple and banana notes, but it’s not overpowering and seems reasonably well done (or perhaps I’m still just scarred from the Sherry Cask nightmare). Hopefully now I can put Grangestone behind me. I’m a bit interested in trying some of their higher age statement releases, but not enough to take a flyer on a bottle.
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Thanks for this very thorough review! It was so insipid that I couldn’t bring myself to expend any energy more in my notes. I wrote, “I’m SO glad that I only had to endure a mini. Drinking 50ml was about 40ml too much.” My rating = 2.8/10
@Ctrexman Agreed. Don’t think I’ve liked much of anything from their house lines, Grangestone and Winchester specifically. I grabbed a bunch of TW samples over the holidays, so I’ll be working through and reviewing them in the coming months.
I too gave this a spin and regretted. Its not bad but its just not worth buying. I doubt I will buy any total wine brands again. have tried about 7-10 of their offerings and not once did I say yeah yeah Ill buy this shit again