ABV: 40 %
Origin: Scotland unspecified
Type: Blended
Bottles in collection: 0
Emptied bottles: 1
Impression: 1/5

Tasting notes
Nose: This is grainy and sweet. At first there’s a thick layer of badly aged grain spirit and an aspartame sweetness. There’s also a black liquorice note and just a tiny hint of heather, and, with some imagination, a hint of fruits. With time in the glass vanilla starts to come forward. This helps it along a little, but it’s basically just very unpleasant and sharp.

Mouth: It starts out very watery and after a second or two the grain spirit start to come through which isn’t a good thing. It comes with some vanilla, liquorice and honey notes, but mostly with a not-so-good bitterness. There is still a tiny hint of fruits and heather, but it’s buried deep within the unpleasantries.

Finish: A small surge of vanilla sweetness pass by on the way to a very flat and boring oakiness. The vanilla hangs on, but it’s just creating a thin veil above the bitter oak. The finish is rather short which in this case is a good thing. This is one of the worst scotch blends I’ve ever tasted and should not be had neat, nor be used as a mixer. In fact, it should only be used as a last resort kind of drink.

Additional information
The Family Reserve contains a lot of different whiskies and is based on single grain whisky from Girvan. It is aged in virgin oak, american ex-bourbon oak, and refill american ex-bourbon oak barrels. It’s made by William Grant & Sons.