Review 163: White Horse Blended Scotch

Review 163

5/29/13

White Horse Blended Scotch: 40% abv

Background: White Horse Scotch is a Blended Scotch, and it marks a couple firsts for us. It marks the first time we’re reviewing a Blended Scotch, the first time we’re reviewing a Scotch under $20, and the first time we’re documenting a new experiment. I will explain that in a second. White Horse is made with a blend of Lagavulin, Talisker, Caol Ila, and Linkwood. Of course, there are many more malts in this whisky, but they aren’t all mentioned. For the price, this is a nice blend and it has a moderate amount of peat influence to it, due to the Islay Scotches involved. What’s the experiment part about? If you have paid attention to our decanter in the background, it currently has some liquid in it. It is a homemade solera vat. A solera vat is a process where a certain amount of liquid is taken out and is replaced by an equal amount of liquid of a different quality. So what we do is take a majority of a certain whisky we don’t find particularly appealing, and then add higher quality whiskies incrementally. This White Horse will be the base of a new peated Scotch Solera Vat, and we will take some notes every couple of times we add new Scotches. For now, let’s see how standard White Horse is.

Straight

Nose:  The complexities in a blended whisky are actually not that hard to find. Right off the nose, you start to see some prominent notes of champagne and creamy barley coming through. There is a lemon-like tartness and some fruity notes coming through intensely. There is a noticeable maltiness, with some sweetness akin to caramel and vanilla complimenting the grain character. Now, as you would expect there is a sense of peatiness here, but it is more like a suggestion of peat, not a huge presence of peat. Along with that though, there is a far more dominant spiciness that adds intensity and heat to the nose. The spice seems like a mixture of hot spices, but doesn’t promote a single character very definitively to us. There is also a sense of tequila present in this nose, which is kind of peculiar. It isn’t even subtle in this case. I can’t fully explain what would evoke such aromas, but we enjoy it nonetheless. Overall, this is an above average nose for a blended scotch.

Arrival: The arrival starts off soft and creamy, in a pleasant, smooth way. There is no intense woody character or harsh burn present from the grain. This is truly a higher quality than I would ever expect from this offering. It has nice vanilla and malt overtones to it, with genuine sugar sweetness coming forth as well. None of the harsh peatiness we expect from these whiskies is coming through. If you really agitate the whisky in your mouth, you can start to get some pepper notes and slight bitterness coming through, but it doesn’t strike me as off-putting or coarse.

Body:  In the body, there is still a large sense of vanilla and creaminess, which seems to be the highlight of this whisky. That soft character must be coming from the grain spirit, because the single malts listed are going to be a more dominant character. There starts to be an evolution into some soft sherry notes, although it doesn’t come out in a rich, dark flavor, but more over a light, fruity hint of sherry. There is some dry fruitiness in the body that carries over to the finish. This isn’t a flavor you’ll normally see from a single malt, and I think it has something to do with the grain whisky.

           

Finish: The finish starts to bring out the contribution of peat, although the cream and vanilla notes that we noticed in the other parts of the whisky has not diminished much at all. The grainy harshness of the barley starts to become prevalent here, but is still not terribly off-putting. By the same token, it should come as no surprise that there is some spice character coming through as well. The agave we smelled in the nose makes a small appearance here, albeit it is hardly the star of the show in this whisky. There is still the sense of a dry fruit presence, which can unfortunately provide a slightly pasty residual mouth-feel.

With Water

Nose: Generally, when we see a whisky at 40%, especially a Blended Scotch, we try to be really shy with the water, so we only added a small portion. After adding said water, the intensity of the barley spirit comes out more, emphasizing darker, richer characters. In general, the biggest highlight is some more sherry and dark fruits coming through, but they are not overly prominent which respect to the other notes.

Arrival: Surprisingly, the nose here is even softer than before, with little flavor change and just a smoother mouthfeel.

Body: The body has become hugely enhanced with the barley sugar flavor. There is a big sweetness that was not so much an overtone in flavor that comes out now, and lasts for quite a while.

           

Finish: The finish takes on the sweetness character that was discussed in the body. It lasts like a sugar cookie treat with some malt sprinkled on top. What a pleasant treat, but it doesn’t do much for the complexity side of things. It sort of overshadows the peat aspect.

Final Comments:  This whisky is only the beginning of an experience, but it might be more than that to you. It is completely drinkable neat, and requires no water. It is sweet and smooth, and is not cheaply crafted. It also doesn’t taste horribly young and doesn’t reflect what you might call a high grain content blend. It also has some interesting flavors that we enjoyed when we tried it. It is by no means a groundbreaking whisky, but for the money, it doesn’t need to be. I think this might have just replaced Dewars, Black and White, Chivas Regal, and maybe even Grants.

Why you’d buy it: You want to drink cheap Scotch but still enjoy yourself.

Why you wouldn’t: You like Johnnie Walker Red because you feel cool saying you’re drinking Johnnie Walker (that’s an IQ issue)

Score: 8.25/10

Review 159: J.W. Lee's Harvest Ale Aged in Lagavulin Cask

Review 159

5/3/13

J.W. Lee’s Harvest Ale Matured in Lagavulin Casks: 11.5% abv

Background: If you have stayed up to date on our reviews, you will know what this is all about. If you have not, just look down (you don’t have to look far) to Review 158. What you will find is that J.W. Lee’s is a brewery within the U.K. area. This is a barleywine called Harvest Ale, and the last review had the barleywine being aged in refill sherry casks. This beer was so interesting, we simply couldn’t wait to bring on the second variation of this that we had in our stocks. That could be a good or bad thing, because we had high expectations for this beer; rightly so, because this particular beer is being aged in old Lagavulin single malt Scotch barrels. Now, we haven’t reviewed Lagavulin, so I did want to take a minute to remind us what Lagavulin is. Lagavulin is a single malt Scotch made in Islay, which although not foregone, does make it a very peaty whisky. This is what interested us, especially since we thought the last Harvest Ale did contain a lot of peat and tobacco influence in it.

Nose: This starts off as a malty and wheat-like nose, with a slightly more peaty influence than the sherry-casked beer. It is also definitively woody. There is also sense of tobacco here. This beer smells old, not from a maturation standpoint, but as if it was slightly musty and briny. You will find, as a more prominent note, citrus flavors of orange and lemon. If you dig into the smell enough, you will find a sort of chemical aroma, close to wood lacquer. This sounds relatively off-putting, but it isn’t over dominant and we couldn’t find a better way to describe this smell. There is even a small portion of popery SP in it.

Arrival: There is a yeasty, malty arrival to this, more akin to the notion of a barleywine. It is decently sweet, with earthy, grainy tones coming to the forefront. There are still some thick, sweet flavors of honey that go along with the malt, with slight vanilla overtones as well. With a full glass at a chilled temperature, there is an enhanced smokiness to the arrival here.

Body: This part of the beer can be well described as a bridge between the two flavor profiles of the beer, from beginning to end. There is a stronger amount of apple cider here in the body, with some orange citrus as well. While chilled, one can find some vanilla in the body that accompanies the sweetness.

Finish: There is an optimum amount of peat in the end of the body, with the finish brandishing tons of malt flavors. There is, unlike in the sherry edition, some hops and grapefruit notes coming through as well. There are flavors of overly-ripened orange with some sour tang to be tasted. To add to the list of fruit notes that can be found in the beer, pear is also found in the finish as well. As the beer settles on the pallet, a reminiscent flavor of peat can be traced back from the taste.

Final Comments: I would like to propose that this version of Harvest Ale is not nearly as compelling as the last one we tried, which was a shock to us, and it should be a shock. Peated whisky can be some of the most complex, richly flavored, and ostentatious whisky available in the market (not meant in a bad way). So why in the world would this rich, heavy flavor not carry over into the beer like the sherry cask did? Some may propose that the sherry is more sweet and rich, and this will provide a larger sweetness to the flavor. We weren't satisfied with that, so we came up with a different theory. The theory is this: the Lagavulin cask is a highly “name” branded thing. It is like the Lamborghini of the cask world, if you will. Unlike an equivalent bourbon cask, this cask could be reused a number of times before Lagavulin needed to get rid of it. So to buy one from them would cost a fortune. What probably happened with J.W. Lee’s is they ended up getting a cask that was deemed “too worn” from Lagavulin and used that to age the beer. At this point, the oak would have a difficult time pulling flavor from the cask. J.W. Lee’s might also be a more gun shy in over-aging the beer in this barrel, so it would result in an early pull. The end result of this is a disappointingly less compelling beer, although it is adequately tasty and complex. 

Why you’d buy it: You are a Lagavulin fan and freak out at anything with the word printed on it.

Why you wouldn’t: The complexity, nor the namesake, does not warrant the amount of money they ask for the beer, and will leave you partially disappointed.

Score: 8.75/10