This is an own brand scotch from the discount supermarket Aldi. Once opened and sitting a while it has a muted nose, lightly floral and chocolaty with whiteboard marker undertones. It’s very thin but it has a pleasant taste of biscuit, honey, toast, matchstick, and toffee. The finish is dry with a bit of sour sharpness. Altogether it’s an agreeable sweetness without being at all complex.
This is as good as any other blend. It costs €19. That makes it cheaper than JW Red, JW Black, Famous Grouse, Grant’s Family Reserve, Teachers Highland Cream, and Black & White. In my opinion it is slightly better than all those listed, but I'm not going to replace the bottle.
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@cascode yeah, at the time I remember there were a good few online articles along the lines of “£15 Aldi whisky wins best in the world”. It didn’t even seem to matter that it was in a sub-category like best blend, under 12 year, with a colour in the title. It’s not bad though. Don’t recall seeing the LL Reserve for sale around here, must keep an eye out for it.
@cascode agreed. LL Reserve and one other, Lidl’s Queen Margot.
Good review. This was hyped to infinity and beyond when it first came out a few years ago with claims it was a giant-killer and the best blended scotch ever. Nah, it was never *that* good. It was, in my opinion, much better in its initial release and quickly dropped in quality, but as you say still a serious contender against all the lower middle-weight blends. I've not had a bottle for a while, however, as it dropped quality to the point that other things like Loch Lomond Reserve were better value.