Scallywag

Thanks to my wife for letting me have a sample of this.

Yeah, we’re both only children, why do you ask?

Douglas Laing, as I’ve said before, has quite a few different drams to pick from. Among them is a blended malt offering called the “Remarkable Region Malts”. One’s a mouse, one’s an oyster, one’s a big hairy man, one’s a dog, and the last is a dandy.

It’s a lineup that would make for an odd movie that very few writers/directors could pull off well. I doubt there’d be much action either.

Each has different offerings, some of which have age statements, some of which have vintages, and others have none. In this case, we have Scallywag, the Speyside malt from this odd ensemble.

The blended malt is made up of Mortlach, Macallan, Glenrotes, Inchgower, and Dailuaine, amongst others. Casks used include ex-bourbon and ex-Sherry casks.

Are there age statements? Not on this one. Do we know how much of each? No, that’s Compass Box you’re thinking of. Is it chill filtered? No, so kudos to them.

So what does it tastes like? Does it taste like terrier? That’d be insane. Let’s see if it is.

Price: N/A at the LCBO

Region: Blend

Abv: 46%

Colour: 5Y 9/8

Nose: Raisin, vanilla, heather, cherry

Raisin takes over quite a lot. Very strong on the nose. Had to go back to the bottle while writing this to even pick up the cherry.

Give this doggy some time to calm down a little bit. Especially if it’s before you give it to your daughter (assuming she’s of age of course).

Taste: Caramel, corn, fennel, cloves, cereal, raisin

Nice mouthfeel. Strong flavours, good amount of corn and caramel. You’d think for a blended malt that the nose would be the strongest part. This is different though. Amps up on the first taste.

Also they’ve taken very different flavours and paired them all together. Each is distinct. Quite interesting.

Finish: Pear, butter, oak, raisin, brine, heather

Less spice. Heather has a honey-like note, though with more grassiness. Wish some of the spice had made it’s way to the finish, however I do enjoy the strong pairing of sherry influence mixed with the sweet aspects of the ex-bourbon.

Conclusion: The bottle stated chocolate, however I didn’t notice too much. What I did notice is they’ve taken some quite nice sherry cask influenced whisky that’s been mixed with ex-bourbon notes to make for a rich, sweet dram.

The different balance of notes on the taste really set a high bar. I wish there was a little more to the nose and finish, however the fact that someone crafted this from various single malts goes to show that blending is still, indeed, alive and well.

Makes me want to try more from the lineup, and this is an easy daily drinker for me.

78/100

Scotch review #703, Blend review #76, Whisky Network review #1165