Some single malts are ones you have to try for completeness sake only. The Glenkinchie 12 is perhaps one of those as the lowland entry in Diageo’s Classic Malt Collection. A collection of single malts where each one represents a single region of Scotch Whisky Production. Lowland whisky is the one region which always gets a bad reputation and so at least in Scotland Glenkinchie gets largely ignored. The export markets are much better for Glenkinchie I suspect where lighter and fresher whiskies are in high demand. Places like France and Spain in particular as I understand it.

The Distillery

Glenkinchie single malts are branded as “The Edinburgh Malt” being 15 miles outside the city in the town of Tranent.

Currently owned by diageo the distillery dates back to 1837 having been built by George and John Rate. Having gone bankrupt the distillery was turned into a sawmill before going back to its whisky making roots in 1881 with a rebuild. Today the distillery uses 6 stills to produce some 2.7 million litres of alcohol with a lot of it used in blends and the rest used in the small single malt brand which has been around since 1989

The Dram

The 12 year old expression is the standard ongoing release which is widely available for around £40. This is bottled at 43% ABV and will be coloured and filtered in line with a lot of the big brands from Diageo. There isn’t really much else to say about it and there is little information available. All very secretive and standard Diageo really.

Tasting Notes

Colour – whisky

Nose – light, grassy and citric

Palate – Quite an initially sharp bite with cereal and honey in the development. Lemons

Finish – Quite a short finish but more cereal and grassy notes. More citric lemons

Final Thoughts

I tried this malt in a group alongside the Antiquary 12 from the last review. Like me they thought the blend was best. There is nothing particularly wrong although I think it is hotter than it really should be. It is just very blah really I suppose.

So blend was best but how long has it been since that was said with any regularity.