Review by: The Muskox
After a mostly-involuntary week off from reviewing, I’ve finally got some time to sit down and think and take notes again. And I’ve decided to fill that precious time with… a Dewar’s blend? Really?
Well, this one seems a bit different. Dewar’s seems to be marketing this as more of a craft product. It has this ridiculous 4-stage maturation process, which is pretty much just an Oloroso finish, but hey, for whatever reason they decided to bottle it at 46%. The bottle itself is sort of neat too. Also, as a Canadian, I have a natural affinity for double-doubles. Let’s see if this one is worth paying attention to.
Distillery: Blend.
Bottler: Dewar’s.
Region: Blend.
ABV: 46%.
Age: 21 years.
Cask type: Blended from single malts married together in refill bourbon barrels (step 1), and from grain whiskies married together in refill bourbon barrels (step 2). These whiskies are then married with each other in more refill bourbon barrels (step 3), before finally being transferred to first-fill sherry casks for an up-to-one-year finish (step 4).
Price: N/A, not sure what my friend paid.
Color: Artificial. Chill-filtered.
Nose: Smells aged. Lots of caramelized brown sugar and cane sugar, fried bananas, pears, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Old wood and some pencils, along with hay. Maybe a bit of olive oil. The grain isn’t apparent at first but does come out in time: some bubblegum and wood glue, not off-putting.
Palate: Medium texture. Very sweet and chocolaty up front. Chocolate-covered strawberries, orange, banana, caramel, and hay. There’s a surprising hint of peat on the development, along with some leather, black pepper, dark chocolate, and some woody bitterness. A bit of heat in the middle there. It turns sweet on the back end, almost glycerin-ish, with syrupy cherries.
Finish: Quite sweet. Plenty of tinned peaches, golden raisins, banana, vanilla, and honey. Lingering distant peat and old wood.
Conclusion: Good, but ultimately fairly boring. The chocolatey notes are nice, and the grain element seems well-aged and isn’t really obtrusive. However, there just isn’t very much complexity. The sherry finish is very light, and there are some balance issues for me with the sweetness. The peat became more distant with time in the glass too. Other than that, it’s right in the usual “Highland” profile I expected. The upped-from-40% (thank goodness) ABV helps a lot, and it helps set it apart from other similar products. Still, there’s not much here persuading me to have a glass of this rather than something else.
Final Score: 73.
Scoring Legend:
- 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
- 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
- 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
- 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
- 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
- 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
- 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
- 50-59: Save it for mixing.
- 0-49: Blech.
Malt Runners 