Blind Scotch Tasting Journal

[b1gcountry]

I didn't get as heavily into scotch as I did into bourbon, but I did start getting into scotch before anything else. I still am not as well versed in scotch, and I don't have many bottles, but that's only going to make them easier to work through!

 

I did make it through 4 bottles tonight. 4 left for tomorrow night.

 

Bottles

Auchentoshen American oak

Balvenie Double wood 

Dewar's 21yr double double

Dewar's 21yr double double Mizunara

Dewar's 27yr double double

Glenmorangie 10yr

Glenmorangie 12yr Lasanta

Johnnie Walker red

 

[b1gcountry]

First four samples were a few days ago on Wednesday. I'm done already but haven't posted...

 

Aroma was pretty weak. There was a faint band-aid smell, and some botanical that almost smelled like gin, but they were so faint it may have been my imagination.

 

Taste was strong and bold but simple. I'm not great at scotch tasting notes, but I mentioned menthol, band aid, sweet tarts and tobacco. The balance is definitely skewed towards menthol and peat. 

 

Finish was long and sweet. The menthol taste builds up and dominate though. 

 

64 / 100

Spoiler

Johnnie Walker Red Label

 

This is the only peat- forward scotch I currently own, so it stood out. I don't drink a ton of pleated scotch because I don't love it, but I really do enjoy red label. I think it's fairly priced and stands out on a Rob Roy or Bobby Burns. 

 

The second sample was immediately after, and I probably need to re-score it. It was also so dark I knew what it was. 

 

Aroma was sweet red wine with some scotch notes that were almost secondary. 

 

Not a strong flavor, but the wine finish stood out. I can't differentiate Sherry from port, but it's heavily finished. There is caramel/ nougat component and a slight smoke. It definitely felt imbalanced towards the wine finish. It was pleasantly thick. 

 

The finish was red wine and grappa with some chocolate toffee. Very nice. 

 

70 / 100

Spoiler

Dewar's 21yr Double Double

 

This is the older release and not the mizunara finish. I paid $40, but these got jacked up recently. 

 

I really think this suffered by following the JW Red. I normally consider this my favorite scotch of all time, but it felt a little more simple today. It is definitely skewed towards the port finish, but I normally get more of the other flavors. 

 

I did 4 on Wednesday night though, and this was my least favorite of the non-peated even side by side.

 

This is a really dark scotch, so I knew it was the 21yDD. I was sort of surprised at my score, but I don't think it influenced my score. 

 

[b1gcountry]

The next two are fairly similar. I tasted them separately, but went back and tasted all 4 at the end. 

 

The first had a nice oak aroma with bright sweetness and vanilla. The biggest flaw was how mild this was, and the aroma was weak. 

 

The flavor was also understated, but there was a lot of complexity here with layers of leather, dark fruit, chocolate cacao, and Graham cracker. The flavors were chaotic through and didn't balance well. Some over powered others, and many were too weak. 

 

Finish was good. 

 

76 / 100

Spoiler

Glenmorangie 12yr LaSanta

 

This was a pleasant find and not too pricy. There were definite flaws and this would be better at a stronger proof. Overall, I do prefer the Quinta Ruben expression at nearly the same price, and I finished that bottle much sooner than this one.

 

Sample 2 smelled almost like bourbon at first. There was also Graham cracker and a slight smoke...after scoring I went back and I didn't get the same bourbon notes, but I left them in the score regardless. I don't know what made me get this aroma, but it was pretty unique.

 

Overall, this was also fairly subtle flavor wise, and I'm scoring the scotches a lot more leniency on robustness. The complexity all centered around vanilla, and it was a very sweet profile with oaky vanilla marshmallow fluff. Despite the relative simplicity, it was very well balanced with a sweet, scotchy flavor that tasted a little reminiscent of bourbon.

 

The finish was good. There was a touch of rye spice at the end that again gave me a bourbon impression and made me bump the score up a bit. Overall very easy to drink, but all the interest and uniqueness to me was in the bourbon notes.

 

78 / 100

Spoiler

Glenmorangie 10yr

 

This was interestingly my reference scotch, and I have never gotten any notes of bourbon from this ever. Realistically, I would have scored this at around a 4 on uniqueness without the bourbon notes, and I also would have docked aroma, complexity, drinkability and finish by at least a point each.

 

Either way, I consider this a very well balanced and easy drinking scotch if you like the simple sweet profile. Today though, this was surprising me with a few additional aspects, which make me think I should give it a little more consideration for unique flavors.

 

[b1gcountry]

The next day I cracked 4 more sample bottles.

 

The first was predominantly smoke oak and leather on the aroma, taste and finish. Overall good, but somewhat limited on the variety of flavors present 

 

The finish was nice and follows the nose.

 

75 / 100

Spoiler

Auchentoshan American Oak

 

Fairly one-note. Pleasant and what was there was balanced

 

[b1gcountry]

The second was my favorite yet...

 

The aroma was pretty subtle and more on the herbal side of scotch of that's possible...

 

The taste was pretty amazing though.  Very robust with some pleasant and complex chocolate and oak.  Slight mint taste and a robust, full meatless. The sweet side was a well rounded nougat. 

 

The finish was nearly perfect except a barely perceptible neutral grain alcohol taste.

 

81 / 100 (value score in my book is wrong

Spoiler

Dewar's 21y double double mizunara finish

 

[b1gcountry]

Spoiler

21yr Mizunara

 

I liked this a bunch. I still wish it had a better aroma, and it would be nice if it had a little more of everything, but generally it was pretty good.

 

I'm not really sure if it's worth the $130 price tag though.

 

 

Edited June 23, 2024 by b1gcountry

[b1gcountry]

I did not reveal any of the last 4 bottles before tasting all of them, so I still had 4 possible bottles for these last 2 samples.

 

The aroma was sweet prunes, dates and apricots. Very sweet fruity scotch.

 

The palette hit with a solid punch of flavor without being strong or abrasive. Tasted brighter if that's possible for the chocolately oak, and mild dates. It was not overly sweet despite the nose.

 

The finish was fairly simple with oak and char. 

 

74 / 100

Spoiler

Balvenie 12yr Doublewood

 

This smelled better than it tasted. It generally felt like it was missing something else. Part of my tongue was feeling left out. 

 

Overall, it was a good bottle, but it didn't score as high as I expected. 

 

[b1gcountry]

Last sample was the best of the lot. 

 

Aroma was actually not as good as the previous sample, and it was hard to pick out notes because it was weak. The aroma was pleasant once I stuck my whole nose in the glass with coat smoke and a sweet dusty vibe.

 

Flavor picked up a lot with complex smoky oak, prunes with a complex red- wine bite to them, coast smoke and sweetness from a custard vibe. There was an amazing level of coherence and perfect balance. 

 

The finish was complex and lasting. The only thing it lacked was strength and boldness. 

 

87 / 100

Spoiler

Dewar's 27yr Double Double

 

 

This was interesting because the 27yr did not stand out when I tasted through these with friends. My two friends preferred the mizunara, and I preferred the 21yr Sherry finished. This is not quite as bold as the Sherry finish on the 21y so it doesn't stand out as boldly in any one dimension. The biggest strength is the balance, which is hard to appreciate in a lineup.

 

The price on the 27yr was double my price on the 21yr, which cost it 2 points on my scale. This was very good, but I can't say if it was worth $80 for a half-bottle. I know scotch is pricier than bourbon, so the scale is hard to reconcile on cost.

 

I did score these last four sequentially without revealing any until all scores were final. Before finalizing the scores, I also did a reverse-order comparison to validate the scores I had for aroma, then robust/body, but I didn't adjust things like balance or complexity which sort of carries over.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 24, 2024 by b1gcountry

[b1gcountry]

Scotch Summary

 

87 Dewar's 27yr 

83 Dewar's 21yr Mizunara Finish

78 Glenmorangie 10yr

76 Glenmorangie 12yr LaSanta

75 Auchentoshan American Oak

74 The Balvenie 12yr Doublewood

70 Dewar's 21yr double double 

64 Johnnie Walker Red Label

 

I didn't mention before, but I did guess 6 of the 8 samples. I got both Glenmorangie wrong, but guessed all 4 of the last sample set correct. I did focus a lot less on caring what the samples were though.