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

Linkwood 12 Years Review

Country: Scotland

Region: Highland/Speyside

Brand: Linkwood Sherry Wood (2000-2012)

Selected by and Bottled for Wilson & Morgan, Edinburgh

Type: Single Malt Whisky

Age: NAS (But in fact 12 Years)

ABV: 48 %

Date: 09/02/2013

Colour: Golden

Nose: Strong Nose as could be expected at 48%. This dram needs opening up so give it sufficient time. First impressions are Straw, Oloroso Sherry, Cooked Potatoes/Vegetables (Sulphur perhaps), Malt and Toast with Dairy Butter. After a while I get Honey, Oak, Vanilla, Pear and light Floral Tones. Later still, Red Fruit and Red Wine. It gets Sweeter as well after 40 minutes or so. Pretty mature Nose for a 12 year old whisky. The flavours come in layers rather than presenting themselves as a balanced ensemble right from the start. It's not a Nose that gives you immediate - and attractive flavours. You have to dig deep and use every angle to find what you're looking for. 

Palate: Strong and creamy delivery with Oloroso Sherry, Red Fruit (Tea), Oak, Caramel, Pepper, Ginger, Licorice and some Dried Fruits. There is a light Alcohol bite of course but this Linkwood is definitively smooth despite its high ABV.

Finish: Quite Long with Spices like Pepper, Nutmeg and Ginger, Red Wine, Licorice, Oak and Vanilla. Sweet at first but dryer towards the end.

I added a couple of drops of water and you get rid of the Alcohol and Potatoes on the Nose. Instead you get lots of Butter, Malt and Honey. Some extra Red Wine and Fruit on the Palate. You can certainly experiment with a small teaspoon of water here.  

Rating: 85.5 (out of 100)

Nose: 21 - Taste: 21.5 - Finish: 21.5 - Overall: 21.5 

General Remarks: The Wilson & Morgan Company is an Independent Bottler, based in Italy. Owners are the Rossi family that started importing Blends in the sixties. Single Malt Selection was added in the 1980's and in 1992 Wilson & Morgan was founded by Fabio Rossi to attend the high end Single Malt market. At various distilleries, W&M selects barrels for their Barrel Selection series. Most of the casks mature at the distillery itself. The Linkwood I'm tasting today was distilled in 2000 and bottled in 2012. It matured in Sherry Butt # 2 of a limited Barrel selection and is Non Chill-Filtered. It sells at around 60 US Dollars. The Linkwood Distillery was founded around 1820, is located close to Elgin and is now part of the Diageo Group. Most of the production goes into blends like White Horse, Haig, Bells and Dimple.

Drinking Experience Neat: Good

Conclusion: If you like sherried Speysiders, this Linkwood is an excellent alternative. Very creamy, enjoyable Palate and good Finish. The Nose opens up real slow and you need a lot of Patience there. Otherwise you might easily dismiss it as uninteresting and even a bit sour. But all in all a good performance from Wilson & Morgan/Linkwood.

Jan van den Ende                                                                  February 2013

Drumguish 5 Years Single Malt Review

Country: Scotland

Region: Highland/Speyside

Brand: Drumguish

Type: Single Malt Whisky

Age: 5 Years

ABV: 40 %

Date: 07/02/2013

Colour: Light Amber

Nose: Musty Grain, Malt, Cooked Vegetables, Metallic, Margarine and Menthol. No significant Wood influence and only a very light hint of Earthy Peat. This is a very young whisky. Too young in fact. 

Palate: Light, Watery and Medium Dry. Again, only a very light Wood influence. A bit of Menthol, Grain and Earth with a pinch of Salt.

Finish: Short and Bitter Sweet. Dry and Salty towards the end. A bit of Menthol.

I added a couple of drops of water and you get a bit more Malt on the Nose and even a distant hint of Fruit. Palate and Finish are just watered down.

Rating: 69.5 (out of 100)

Nose: 17.5 - Taste:  17.5 - Finish:  17 - Overall: 17.5

General Remarks: The Drumguish is distilled at The Speyside Distillery at the banks of the river Tromie in Drumguish, near Kingussie. It started production in 1990 and is a private enterprise of Mr. George Christie. It  takes its name from the original Speyside Distillery that was also located in Kingussie and was only operational between 1895 and 1905. It was demolished in 1911. The whisky from the distillery gets its peaty flavour from the water that flows down from the Cairngorm Mountains. The distillery also produces its flagship, the Speyside Single Malt. The Drumguish 5 years maybe hard to find, even on line. It's very cheap at around 20 US Dollars. 

*You might wonder why not all whisky of this distillery is sold under the distillery name. The reason is that owner George Christie did not want to link the name The Speyside to very young whiskies. On the other hand, the distillery needed cash in the early years so the B-Mark Drumguish was created to be able to present these young whiskies to the market without prejudicing the valuable brand name The Speyside.

Drinking Experience Neat: Below Average.

Conclusion: I can understand some of the problems of a young distillery. You invest a lot of money and you want to make a good whisky. Making good whisky takes time and requires ample working capital. So while your whisky is maturing you need to pay interest and other expenses. In order to be able to do that you have to produce some cash flow and as a result you are forced to bring an unfinished product like the Drumguish 5 Years to the Market. So what can I say, the dram does not possess extremely distasteful off notes so you can mix it with something I suppose. But it's obvious that this whisky is much too young and not at all interesting enough to be enjoyed as a Single Malt. On the other hand, Mr. Christie's strategy seems to have worked. The distillery stayed in business during the difficult early years and in the end was able to proudly launch The Speyside 12 Years Single Malt. Would be nice to taste that one in comparison!

Jan van den Ende                                                                  February 2013

The Cairngorm Mountains