Scotch (3rd one, Tastings #33)

Scotch Tasting (January 25th, 2024)

This was our 3rd Scotch Tasting, and our 1st “Premium Tasting”.  Every bottle in the line-up is at least $100, with multiple in the $200+.  As I’ve learned, and most of the group has learned, the highest priced ones, rarely wins the blind tastings, but most are very, very smooth.  The bottles in question were;

We originally in November planned to have a rum tasting on this day, then we were told, by a good friend of mine, with Scottish roots, that Jan 25th, is Robbie Burns Day!  This made it clear, we could not have a rum tasting on his day, we had to have Scotch!!  So we changed to Scotch.

We had 10 people on the Zoom, 16 registered.  Mark O, was with me, as a guest, everyone else was on Zoom.  This was our 3rd Scotch tasting, in 12 months, so we are definitely doing ‘catch-up’ for not doing a Scotch Tasting in the previous 4-5 years.  This was our first “premium tasting”, as I stated above.  Macallan 12 yr, double cask, was the defending champion from the 2nd Scotch tasting in September, 2023.

So in order to do a “premium” tasting, and to hopefully unseat Macallan 12 yr, as the winner,  I did a lot of research, but often went with my gut for what this tasting group likes, and truly, what I like too.  I chose Aberfeldy due to it being the main distillery for “Dewers”, the most popular Scotch by volume in the US.  I had also read that only 1% of their volume goes into their single malt product, it mostly goes into the Dewers blend.  I had tried the Aberfeldy 12 yr with my uncle (a Dewers fan, for over 40+ years), and I really liked the Aberfeldy 12 yr, and I don’t really like Scotch, as a rule.  I chose Tomatin 18 yr, since Tomatin 12 yr, came in 2nd in September.  Aberlour 16 yr, since 12 yr had also done well also our 1st Scotch tasting.  Aberfeldy 16 yr and 21 yr, was to see how they compare, and 21 yr was on special, from its normal $250/bottle price.  Balvenie 14 yr, I had heard good things, and 12 yr was decent.  Oban 14 yr, at least 2 Scotch drinkers I knew, this was their go to, interestingly, after the tasting, I now know of 3…but our Oban 14 fan,on the tasting, rated his ‘go to’ a 6, in the blinds…ah well.  That issue happens quite often, and its one of the reasons ‘blind tastings’ are so important.  My hardest bottle to find, was the Arran Gold, funny enough, the cream ie a Scotch Cream.  I haven’t seen a 3rd Scotch cream either, so I’m not sure what I will do on our 4th Scotch tasting, but that’s a problem for later.

All this to say, I think the choices were interesting, well researched, a little unfair to Macallan 12 yr, since it was now the young’an in the group.  I have since seen Macallan 15 yr, in the US for $200 USD, sadly, that means $300 CAD landed, it would be the highest priced bottle we’ve included, if it gets in the tasting (edit I have since found it for $250 CAD + tax and shipping, ie$275).  We do/will have 2-3 bottles at $250 CAD/bottle..in 2024.  Jameson 18 yr, Aberfeldy 21 yr, FourSquare Covenant.

If you’ve read or experienced all the Scotch tastings we’ve done, you should remember the Scotch tasting map, it seems with our “premium tasting” we’ve outgrown the map a bit, only 4/7 are on the map, Macallan 12 yr, Balvenie 14 yr, Aberlfeldy 16 yr, and Oban 14 yr, are on the map,  the other 3 aren’t.

There wasn’t much ‘smoky’ or ‘peaty’ in the tasting, Oban 14 yr, had a little smoke.

I included some personal tasting notes in this tasting.  These were done when setting the bottle order, they were done with my friend Danny, who has more experience drinking Scotch than I do (which isn’t hard, I’ve stayed away from Scotch, for the most part).  I thought the personal tasting notes might help.  I added our tasting notes to the Distiller.com tasting notes, at the bottom of the page.  The best anyone did this round, was 2/7.

Allison was our official timer, we try to minimum wait 10 minutes between samples, with this quality of liquor especially, it deserves to be savoured.  I think we did all 7, in about an hour and 10 min, maybe an hour and 20 min.  The cream, Arran Gold, was very well received, receiving an overall score of 8.4 (only 2 x 7, everything else an 8 or 9).

With 16 total participants, there was 10 ounces left in each bottle, and they were pricey bottles, as previously discussed.  I was a little distracted, and so it took us awhile for me to draw names, and one of the group rules is, you have to be present on the call, to win a bottle, so there was only 7 left on the call when we drew for the 5 bottles (I excluded the two Aberfeldy bottles, due to pricing being based on 20 participants, and only 16 ended up participating).

The Winners!

The winner was “E”, Aberfeldy 16 yr with 81/100, or 8.1/10.  This is $100/bottle, vs Macallan 12 yr, being $150/bottle.  In 2nd was Macallan 12 yr, double cask, with 80/100 or 8.0/10.  In 3rd was Aberlour 16 yr, with 79/100, or 7.9/10.  To be fair, Oban 14 yr was 4th with 78/100, the other 3 were in the 60s…so not contenders.  When between 1st and 4th was 4 points (81-78), its kinda crazy.    We can’t say these are statistically significant differences..we can say the other 3 (Aberfeldy 21 yr ($250), Tomatin 18 yr ($190), Balvenie 14 yr Caribbean Cask ($200)) didn’t win.  I kinda see this as a 4 way tie for 1st, and all 4 will be included in the next tasting.

I thought Aberfeldy 16 yr was going to win, and for once it did, but not by much.

1st Place (8.1) $103/$105

2nd Place (8.0) $147/$65

3rd Place (7.9) $115/$105

The next Tasting is February 22nd or February 29th, 2024, it will be FourSquare Rum from Barbados..I’m very excited for this one, I won’t be able to repeat it, without a Herculean effort.  This will be rum I’ve hunted for over 2 years, and some I cannot replace, but they are duplicates, I’m not short changing myself, don’t worry.

The Survey Results