Review #12: The Exclusive Regions Single Grain Scotch Whisky

Distillery: Port Dundas

Bottler: The Creative Whisky Co.

Region: Lowland

ABV: 50%

Age: 12

Cask #: 001

Price: $55

Color: Color: 0.7 Amber

Nose (according to the wife): Strong, strong alcohol burn with some medicinal notes. Not particularly pleasant. Smells like acetone.

Palate: Toasted coconut. It tastes like your drinking liquefied alcoholic toasted coconut chips. It is a very hot and spicy neat, just on the edge of unpleasant and pleasant. Watered down a bit, it becomes a lovely savory treat especially as a bit of smokiness comes out.

Finish: Finish medium in length and very similar to the palate. Lots of the toasted coconut flavor with a bit of smoke.

Conclusion: This is the first dram I’ve had from a “dead” distillery. Very surprised to see how prominent the coconut is in this. If you don’t like coconut, stay far away from this. If you do (like me), it’s a nice little savory treat. I’m left wondering what a few more years in the barrel would have done to this one, some of the heat I think comes from being fairly young and bottled at a high ABV. Perhaps some other subtle flavors that the coconut drowns out would come to the surface. I picked it up because of some comparisons to the Nikka Coffee Grain Whisky. Definitely some similarities, I’m going to have to try the Nikka again sometime to see what the palate is like. If you want to try a grain whiskey, this is probably better value for your money than the Nikka is though.

Final Score: 75

Scotch whisky review #12, Lowland review #1, Grain whisky review #1, Whisky Network Review #13

Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection.
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
• Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.

Originally reviewed Apr. 17, 2018.