Milliardo
Loch Lomond 12 Year
Single Malt — Highlands , Scotland
Reviewed
December 7, 2020 (edited May 13, 2021)
It’s 2020. It’s December. Let’s shut this year down with a brand new whiskey (or whisky) every day. It’s my own personal whiskey advent calendar. +6!
Dec. 7, 2020
This scotch was recommended by @ContemplativeFox Cheers!
I want to contribute to the discussion of this fine whisky whilst simultaneously recognizing that the majority of people likely to interact with this post are substantially more well-versed in scotch than I am. Ergo: fun fact time. Think you know Loch Lomand?
1) The design of the Lomond still does not originate from Loch Lomond Distillery. Both Glenburgie and Miltonduff had Lomond stills before Loch Lomond Distillery was a thing.
2) From wiki: “Loch Lomond is also the name of a fictional brand of Scotch whisky consumed by Captain Haddock in Hergé's famous comics series The Adventures of Tintin. Despite the name, the whisky has no connection to the real-world Loch Lomond distillery.”
3) Loch Lomond is the only distillery in Scotland capable of producing both Single Malt and grain whisky at the same time.
Three... is enough.
Nose has grain, but I couldn’t get much else. Then, I let it sit for about 20 minutes just to see what would happen, and I swear I’m getting honey and tangerine when I swirl my glass now.
Body is phenomenal. I really like this. Juicy and sweet from the first instant, with honey, sugar, orange, sweetened grapefruit. It reminds me of that goop they package mandarin oranges in that you always want to drink but can’t because diabetes. I actually meant that as a compliment.
Finish has a minuscule amount of smoke. It’s there, but I would never consider this peaty. There’s a nice roof-of mouth buzz that carrries butterscotch, orange jelly, and baking spices.
This is one hell of a hidden gem for me. Anytime I find something new that is affordable and readily available like this little guy, it makes me want to rethink the layout of my whiskey shelf. In bourbon terms, I think I may have found my Scottish EH Taylor. I already know this lacks the depth of other scotches, and this will likely not be one of my top 5 scotches in the long run, but in one-trick-pony lingo: I like the trick. And like EHT, it’s affordable, I can find it, and I doubt it would ever disappoint me.
One parting question to scotch people: if my goal is to understand “highland scotch” as a thing, do I need to look elsewhere? I read that this may be more in the spirit of lowland scotches, latitude be damned!
‘Tis the season. I’m day-to-day on my whiskey selection, so if you’re reading this and there’s something readily available out there you’d like me to enjoy/suffer through this holiday season, leave it in the comments. Merry whiskey to all, and to all a beer flight!
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@cascode @WhiskeyLonghorn thanks for the additional recommendations!
Great suggestions @cascode and @WhiskeyLonghorn - really helping to clarify the range of highland styles :)
"It reminds me of that goop they package mandarin oranges in that you always want to drink but can’t because diabetes." This comment is solid gold.
Note: Bento Mach should be Benromach. My aging iPhone is becoming more egregious with its autocorrect...
@ContemplativeFox is right. The Highlands have such a broad range of styles. This one is certainly a good “all-rounder” representation of the style. From here you could branch towards the more smokey, peated highlanders like @cascode’s Oban 14 suggestion. I might also suggest Old Pultney 12 on that end. The other end of the pendulum is the sherry matured highlanders (a personal favorite!). Definitely check out my favorite, the Glendronach 12. Dalmore is divisive but if the goal is to broaden your palate then you should at least try it. Bento Mach is also worth a look. Most of the big sherry monsters come from speyside, line MacAllan, Tamdhu, Glenallachie, etc. All excellent whiskies to try. I find speyside spirit to be more floral and fruit forward, while a highland style spirit to be a bit more spice forward and robust. But both take to a sherry cask just fine ;)
@Milliardo Oh, and there is one highland style whisky you do need to try at some time, but maybe not now. Clynelish 14. It has a different quality to many other whiskies and is revered by enthusiasts (some of us, anyway) and by blenders for the contribution it brings to a blended scotch or malt. Diagio (and Johnnie Walker) would be lost without it, as would Compass Box.
@Milliardo Actually I wouldn’t call Loch Lomond a lowlander – it’s a fair representation of west-highland style. Try Oban 14 – it’s both geographically and also stylistically somewhere between Talisker 10 and Loch Lomond 12.
Glad you liked it! Highland Scotch is difficult to characterize because it's such a large region that borders on so many others. It ranges from similar to Speyside with fruity sweetness to refined (as in delicate or precessed, not necessarily better) like a lowlander to salty and smoky (though rarely peaty) like an islander to rich and full in a way that's a bit more unique.
Further to that interesting point 3 you cited, Loch Lomond produces three blended scotches (Loch Lomond Reserve, High Commissioner and Clansman) which are 100% made in-house and differ only in their ratios of grain to malt whisky. As they come from a single distillery these three whiskies thus constitute the only examples of an unrecognised but justifiable whisky class – Single Blended Scotch.
Great review. This is one of my favorite value scotches. I love the autumn leaves burn pile vibe