Queen Elizabeth Blended Whisky Review

*This is a picture of a bottle of the Queen Elizabeth NAS I found on the German site called Wein und Whisky Raritaeten. The only other picture available was the Group picture you will find below. The Queen Elizabeth NAS is the Johnnie Walker lookalike bottle on the left side of the picture.

Country: Scotland 

Brand: Queen Elizabeth 

Blended by Burn Brae (Blenders) Ltd., Perth

Type: Blended Scotch Whisky

Age: NAS 

ABV: 43 %

Date: 14/02/2013

Colour: Pale Gold 

Nose: Right after opening the sample tube I thought I got distant hints of Peat Smoke and Leather. But in the glass, the Nose is typically (average) Speyside with Malt, Sherry, Floral Notes, Buttered Toast, Wood and Pencil Shavings, Citrus, Honey, Unripe Pear and Dried Fruits (Currants and Apricot). Tones of young and slightly sharp Grain Alcohol and a light nutty bitterness. I would have liked to find some sweet Fruity notes here. All in all I'm not too impressed.

Palate: Sharp and Spicy delivery with Grains, Nuts, Wet Cardboard Boxes, Green Wood, Honey, Pepper, Orange and Licorice.

Finish: Middle-Long with Honey, Malt, Pepper,Nuts, Grain, Licorice, Wood and this slightly unpleasant bitterness.

I added a bit of water and the Nose gets extra Malt and Honey. You get rid of most of the sharp and bitter tones. The problem is that there's not much else left as well. Still you can experiment with a couple of drops. On the Palate and in the (shorter) Finish the Grain and Licorice start to dominate. 

Rating: 75.5 (out of 100)

Nose: 19 - Taste: 19 - Finish: 18.5 - Overall: 19

General Remarks: The whisky I'm tasting today is part of a box containing six Blended Scotch Whisky samples produced somewhere between 1955 and 1965. They are all named after English and Scottish royalties. This box-set is sold by the Dutch based Rare Whisky Site www.rarewhiskysite.com. I must admit that I could hardly find any information on the whisky I'm tasting today, the Queen Elizabeth. I know it was blended in the old days by a company that was called Burn Brae (Blenders) Ltd of Perth in Scotland. This company does not exist anymore. As far as I could find out, the company merged with - or was incorporated by J & W Hardie Ltd of Edinburgh that in turn was acquired from United Distillers in 1995 by the Japanese owners of the Tomatin Distillery. I'm not sure if the Brand Name Queen Elizabeth was also required at that time or that it's now in the hands of the Diageo Group. Bottles of Queen Elizabeth 5 Years are traded every once in a while via whisky auctions or E-Bay. I also found that you can still buy full bottles of this NAS expression at around 25 US Dollars on a German site called: 

Wein-und-Whisky-Raritaeten.de 

Drinking Experience Neat: Average

Conclusion: I was really excited to start nosing and tasting this Blend of which I only have a small 25 ml. sample. First of all because this whisky was bottled when I was between 3 and 13 years of age! And secondly it's been said and written that Blends in those days were not only much better than today's blends but also vastly superior to many of today's Single Malts. Quite a challenge therefore!
Unfortunately the reality was quite different. The Queen Elizabeth is a very average blended whisky with no specific qualities. It shows the characteristics of a young spirit matured for I would guess 3-5 years in (at least a significant percentage) of third and/or fourth re-fill ex-Sherry Casks. There's some Sherry on the Nose but it's not - or hardly noticeable on the Palate and in the Finish. This blend is not very well balanced and sweet Fresh Fruit and/or Sherry tones are sorely missed. Summing it up, we've got 1 Royalty down but fortunately still 5 to go. Better luck next time!

Jan van den Ende                                                                   February 2013