Review No.64. Auchentoshan 12 Year Old

Auchentoshan is the other well known lowland distillery alongside Glenkinchie.  They are known for triple distilling their spirit, a tradition more associated with Irish whiskies.  As a result this distillery is characterised as producing light and easy drinking single malts.  I have heard some describe it as an Irish distillery in Scotland.  The Auchentoshan 12 is the second bottle in their range, the entry level bottle is named American Oak.

Whisky: Auchentoshan 12 Year Old Single Malt, 40%

Nose: Vanilla, custard, toffee, cinnamon, butterscotch, malt

Taste: Toffee, bitter grapes, leather and oak, vanilla

Finish: Very short, mild caramel

Score: 2

Summary: I don’t want to be too harsh on this because I can appreciate it can work well in cocktails as well as being a great starter malt for beginners.  At about £35 it is not too badly priced for a 12 year old single malt in the current market but at the same time I could name quite a few 12 year old single malts at a similar price that I would go for instead.  This is just a pleasant easy drinking malt, the bourbon influence shows and I enjoyed the nose more than the taste on this one.

Scoring scale: My scores reflect a balance of the overall experience, availability and cost for a whisky,

1 – not to my preference

2 – tastes fine but does not excite me

3 – more to my liking and would revisit occasionally

4 – very much to my liking and would consider as a regular feature on my whisky shelf

5 – permanent feature on my whisky shelf

Image source: www.thewhiskyexchange.com