A good starter whisky. A good warm-up for a whisky flight. And if you usually buy Jameson or Black Bottle, and your local shop has run out, try this instead.
From the bottle
"Based on the antique blend of MacKinlay's rare old highland malt whisky. The spirit supplied to the 1907 British Antarctic Expedition. A contribution from sales of this whisky will be made to the Antarctic Heritage Trust (NZ) www.NZAHT.org. This will support the ongoing care of Shackleton's Antarctic base and the Trust's mission to conserve, share and encourage the spirit of exploration; a spirit embodied by Shackleton."
The details
Distillery: Blended highland region malts.
Translation: n/a
Region: Highland
Bottler: Chas. MacKinley & Co.
Age: NAS
Bottle: 70cl, cork top
Number of bottles: Mass produced
ABV: 40%
Cask type: Unstated
Barley: Unstated
Yeast: Unstated
Filtered/coloured: Unstated
Sample date: Wednesday 1st December 2021
Peated/unpeated: I would say unpeated. Or contains some lightly peated whisky that got lost in the blend.
Cost: I bought this as a random purchase in an Edinburgh Co-op store for £18—mainly because it was on offer and they didn't have anything else that was new to me.
Availability: Easy to get, online and offline.
Barcode: 5013967012035
Tasting notes
Eye
Palish gold. It's difficult to tell if it's coloured with E150. I suspect that it is, because mass-produced blends are all about consistency of taste and colour. I like the bottle design. It's fairly old-school looking (my preference; I sometimes buy old blends at auction because of the bottle design, or lack thereof) but it captures a lot of what Shackleton is about.
Nose
Fresh, light, fruity and sweet, but mainly sweet. The first distinct aroma is marzipan, followed by vanilla and fudge. I like all three. There's a nice creaminess to the nose. A bit of victoria sponge.
There's nothing potent in here; nothing that would offend anyone. Stick it under the nose of a non-imbiber and they won't recoil; there's no alcohol prickle. Many of the notes are subtle, but because it's a smooth 40%, you can give it a real huff without burning your hooter. The fruitiness is in behind the sweetness...raisin, a bit of stewed apple, dry white wine, perhaps. There's a bit of hazelnut in there as well. But...if there's any peat in here, I can't find it.
It reminds me a bit of Black Bottle or Jameson, but with less of the butteriness. So far, so good. It's a nice, sweet dram. Probably an excellent warm-up dram before a whisky flight. Or good drizzled over a bowl of ice cream. You could lob some into a cheesecake mix, but I'm not sure if that would curdle it? I just Googled it. Whisky cheesecake is a thing! Thank you Shackleton, you taught me something. I'm imagining a pale-topped cheesecake, with tiny footprints across it and a flag in the middle. How apt.
Now that I've left it for a few minutes, there's something of an eastern herb/spice note buried among the sweetness. Like a faint memory of a mild Thai curry. It's subtle and interesting to chase the aroma, but then the sweetness takes over again and suddenly there's victoria sponge right up your nose.
For the price, this is a lot of schnoz fun. I've been sniffing it on and off for twenty minutes now. There are some far more expensive whiskies that have bored me sooner. For that, I'm bumping it up from 16 to 17.
SCORE: 17/25
⭐⭐⭐
Taste
Smooth and malty. More raisin here. Some brown sugar and pineapple. Apart from that, nothing exciting.
It's smooth enough that I almost forgot to try it with a drop of water. Adding a tiny bit of water makes it smoother and, I think, brings out the cocoa note that previously waited until the finish to appear. With the alcohol dampened, the sweetness and creaminess comes up and works very well with the chocolate. At 40%, it would be easy to drown this.
SCORE: 15/25
⭐⭐⭐
Finish
Quite a full finish. Strong cocoa. I feel the highland feel is all packed into the finish. Oops. I've just run out!
SCORE: 16/25
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall
The story behind this whisky adds an angle that most drams can't provide, and I think it works. It adds something. In a blind tasting, this probably wouldn't stand out, but isn't the brain part of the tasting experience? I've heard Charles MacLean talking about people weeping at whisky tastings, because of a memory that a dram has touched. What is a dram without someone to drink it? And when is a blind tasting completely blind? There's always a context that has an influence: where you are; who you are with. A bottle with a story behind it has an influence. Bottles from the SS Politician. Prohibition stump whisky. You can't completely abstract yourself from a product. You won't catch me drinking whisky in a lab coat.
SCORE: 16/25
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Final verdict
This is a "V" shaped whisky. All the action is in the nose and the finish, with not much happening in the middle—the palette.
Put this on the list of whiskies to recommend to people who "don't like whisky". Nobody is going to be offended by this. Connosseurs aren't going to get excited about it, but it will suit casual whisky drinkers on a budget looking for something drinkable. If i was round at a non-whisky drinker's house and this was all they had, I wouldn't be disappointed. If I was round at a real whisky nut's house and they offered me this, I probably would.
For the same price bracket, I'd still recommend The Wine Society's Speyside Blended Malt for £20. But...I've spent almost an hour enjoying this one (large) dram. You should try it. If you don't like it, you can make a cheesecake with it.
TOTAL: 64/100
⭐⭐⭐
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