At just the moment I caught up with the advent calendar at the start of the week I fell behind again! Regardless, I left this off feeling like we had a glut of samples which were all very same-y. The 9th day has changed all that with a 22 year old blended whisky.

Blended whiskies of course are a combination of whiskies from a number of distilleries including those using malted barley and others using unmalted grains as their base ingredient. The blended market while not as large as it once was (it was originally the only whisky market) it is still the bread and butter of the industry. Indeed, without blends there is no whisky industry in Scotland (probably).

The Blend

There isn’t much information about the blend but the numbers we do know are the following. The youngest whisky in the blend was matured for 22 years and this is the 3rd batch of the second recipe Boutqiue-y have released. The 1650 bottles were released to the world at 41.8% ABV with each bottle costing currently £63.95 for a 50cl bottle. A regular bottle is 70cl though so the comparative number would be £89.53.

Tasting Notes

Colour – very orange

Nose – black pepper, clove and chilli powder. Even after all that time and the quite low strength it still kicks a punch. Bitter wood and lots of dirty dry spice notes.

Palate – very sweet with a thin texture. A lightly toasted bread note and small drizzles of caramel.

Finish – liquorice and brown sugar on the short to medium finish. Fruit loaf and a orange citric note.

Final Thoughts

This is traditionally what whisky *should* taste like. By that I mean it has all the well worn notes of a big brand name blend which is safe and well a crowd pleaser. If someone who has smelt or drank whisky for decades they would instantly associate these flavours with those memories quite easily.

For me though that is ultimately the problem. There is definitely a market for a premium blend on the market. I think though for the enthusiast price tag we need to add another dimension away from the safe to warrant purchasing a bottle.