cascode
Glen Marnoch Bourbon Cask Finish (Aldi)
Single Malt — Scotland
Reviewed
December 13, 2018 (edited December 20, 2018)
Nose: Buttery and cereal aromas, vanilla, fruitiness (apple?) and a little oak. [The dry glass has very little aroma].
Palate: A light and moderately sweet entry, developing into a little gingery spiciness and vanilla. Some malty notes but not much more. The texture is light but OK.
Finish: Short. Sweet and moderately spicy aftertaste.
Try as hard as you might you'll never find the Glen Marnoch distillery. It's purely a brand name adopted by Aldi for their middle-shelf single malt range. I picked this one up as part of a three-miniature Glen Marnoch sample pack, and I'll be reviewing the other two expressions shortly.
This whisky almost certainly comprises minimum-age blending quality whiskies produced by an undisclosed highland distillery (or distilleries). It has a certain "highland" character but is lacking in complexity. To give it its due there are no significant faults to mention, other than that it is very lightweight in all respects.
The nose is simple, but for all that it's honest and clean. The palate is likewise simple and dependent on an interplay between sweet and spicy cereal characteristics. There's not a lot more going on here, but it's not unpalatable either and at the price is reasonable value.
"Average" : 75/100 (2.5 stars)
40.0
AUD
per
Bottle
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@Soba45 Ditto - we're very partial to their porterhouse steaks. Not quite as thick as some, but good quality at half the price. @Reverend357 Hah! Snap - I was shopping today and they have the Select and also Johnnie Walker Gold Label and Double Black at crazy low prices. The power of mass purchasing.
Huh, our Aldi version has 2 new "nice" bottles for sale as of today. Laphroaig Select and Ron Pampero Aniversario. Decent stuff...30 bucks for the Laphroaig. Not sure I envy the poor bastard that buys that without knowing what it is...
Ah interesting I was like 'what how did I miss this distillery!' and then read further :-). I hear there have been a couple of good uns as you say. We just need them in NZ for cheaper groceries!
@cascode they usually sell them as part of various promotions. They still have a couple bottles of the Ardmore Port Finish in my local one, and I think the price is down at about 35 bucks now. They usually only get a couple dozen bottles, if that at all. Currently they have 6-7 different Gin variants, from Bombay to Monkey 47. But then there are sometimes months without anythink like that. It is kinda weird.
@Reverend357 Interesting that they sell Clynelish - I've never seen anything of that stature here. This year for the first time I've seen some Johnnie Walker and Chivas Regal in their bottle section, but by far their main stock has been really cheap local wine, beer and alcopops, but it seems like they are trying to move into the middle-shelf market.
yeah, their in house discount stuff here is....well I'd say if you put enough coke in, it does the job. They do sell the occasional Ardmore, Clynelish or Cardhu. And since nobody buys those, if you wait long enough you can get them pretty cheap. I think I even saw an Islay tasting set once. Not something you'd expect. I'm usually there every day because that's where I get lunch, so I keep an eye on what's available. They also had some Tawny Port lately...5 bucks a bottle. Had to get one, never tried Port before.
@Reverend357 On the whole their discount spirits are OK, but there's no telling. The Highland Black (their premium blend) was very good when first released but the subsequent batches were only average. Their bottom shelf blend, Highland Earl, is repulsive and barely drinkable. These NAS malts are perfectly OK so far and about the same as Glen Moray bottom-tier spirits. I have been told by a mate who tried it that their discount bourbon is pretty awful. I've not had any of the age-statement stuff. I think the main issue is that everything they sell is just made to order through 3rd party merchants who use whatever is available at the time - it's entirely possible that this NAS range will never be repeated, or if it is it may be different, either better or worse.
Aldi and whisky is a very interesting combination...our version here has the occasional single barrel whiskies. Mostly highland and speyside. Currently they have a 30 year old highland single grain whisky for about 90€.... I have a couple bottles of them at home, might try those sometime. I'm just glad that a "mainstream discount super market" has some decent whisky from time to time
@Slainte-Mhath ALDI have been active in Australia for about 10 years now. Originally they only carried budget furniture and asian foods, but recently we've been getting a lot more European products, some of which are good value. The spirits ranges turned up here about 2 years ago. LIDL have also appeared here but don't have much of a market share. I think both companies have started here based on trade agreements we have with the UK - it will be interesting to see what Brexit does to that.
I didn't know that you get ALDI whiskies in Australia, interesting that. LIDL tried once to enter the Norwegian market, but they didn't make it for very long, as Norwegians tend to buy their own local products rather than cheaper imported goods.