JoelyO
Loch Lomond 12 Year
Single Malt — Highlands , Scotland
Reviewed
October 12, 2021 (edited November 9, 2021)
Backstory: I participated in a Distiller W.O.W. (whiskies of the world) Zoom call having received 10 drams of different whiskies, actually 9 as they snuck one rum in with the mix.
See my review on Diplomatico Reserva. I am so glad to have been introduced to a rum that put my love of bourbon to the test!
This tasting event was a gift for my finance for his 50th so I got each of us a sample box and we joined in the Zoom call together one evening. It was a blast and I am glad we had two boxes as by the time we got to the last few drams my tasting notes got a little suspect as I had a pretty good buzz going! Plus, even with clearing my palette, and sniffing on coffee beans I am sure that my tasting was not as great as it was on those first few drams. We were smart to just share in the first box and save the second back for tasting over a period of a week just to be sure our notes were correct.
So our third sample was this one. I know I am supposed to like this one. I know the brand is considered high bar, and I do not mean to sound unappreciative or uneducated but if either is true it is by far the later.
In fact, I sit here with a small pour from what is left over right now and I can not honestly say my experience is much better, although not quite as harsh as my initial experience.
Appearance: Straw colored, leggy and oily.
Nose: Green apple, golden raisins, smoke, bandaid, burnt rubber.
Flavor: Rubber band, rancid fruit, day old doughnuts, strong smoke.
Finish: Possibility of death.
I am sorry, so very sorry I just can't get my palette around this one. Maybe it is me, perhaps my tastebuds are under evolved. Its just not enjoyable to me.
I feel badly about this and promise to revisit it after more experience with other scotch as I admit my experience is limited with scotch.
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@Soba45 Lol. Good ol kitchen sink to the rescue!
@Anthology Looking at both Girvan and Loch Lomond it seems the community hates both pretty evenly on average. Ah yeah musty acetone, and other foul flavours....the kitchen sink took one for the team and i sanitised my tongue with Laga 16 on one LL tasting!
@Anthology I've had a 25 year and 36 year bottlings and year not great but at 3.5 and 2.5 score still beats the pants off Loch Lomond. However including Alisa distillery it gets dragged down a bit further. But it does produce Hendricks gin so extra bonus points. Loch Lomond group does own a decent distillery - Glen Scotia. I think it had variety of labellings from the LL distillery Inchmurrin, Inchmoan, Inchfad, Crotengea, Glen Douglass, Craiglodge. From my notes there was a sour off note i detested but obviously ticks some peoples boxes. I however liken it to corked wine...
@Soba45 Lol Based on historical reviews and comments on Distiller, I thought Girvan is the anonymous, unequivocal worst distillery of all time for most in the community, no?
My scores being the 18 year old the highest scoring at a 2. 12 year 1.75, 21 year 1.75. Lowest average of hundreds of distilleries I've tried !
If it makes you feel any better Loch Lomond is my hands down worst distillery of all time. Sorry folks i find the stuff really repulsive!
@ContemplativeFox I will defer to what you think is best for my young palette on the scotch. I am eager to learn and try! Your suggestions and @cascode 's sound great and allow for some experimentation. I am such a newbie when it comes to scotch I plan to go research speysides and highlanders today.
@Ctrexman it is very possibly me lol I will continue to try scotch and wish to acquire the taste.
Yeah its you lol, I realize opinions vary but this stuff is solid. Scotch is an acquired taste
@cascode Good call on the Dalmore 12. I completely forgot that I had that, but I can send you a sample of it too if you'd like @JoelyO
It's all subjective 😀 and I can totally get that Loch Lomond would not appeal to some palates. I don't mind this 12 year old but IMHO it's at the shallow end of the Loch Lomond pool. Surprisingly, I've always thought their cheaper, base-grade blended sotch (Loch Lomond Reserve) to be superior to this, but then I don't use it as a neat sipping whisky. The notes you got in the 12 you will also find in their older core-range whiskies, but it's also a distillery that produces a wide range of expressions from their array of different stills. If you can get a sample pour, try their "Single Grain Scotch Whisky" - it's very different to this, sweeter and more Irish/bourbon in character. The two suggestions from @ContemplativeFox are good ones, I'd also suggest Glencadam 10 or 15 or Dalmore 12. The Glencadam is light and fruity when yound and gains softness and floral tones with age. Dalmore is highly sherried and "polished". Cheers
Sorry you didn't like it :( This is definitely one of the funkier highlanders. You might want to start more typical highlanders and speysiders to get more of a feel for scotch. That isn't to say that you ever need to like this particular dram - you taste what you taste after all :) I can send you some Glendronach 15 and Glen Grant 18 along with a couple of Irish ones since they might be more up your alley. Maybe throw in a single grain and Kavalan too for kicks :)