Scotch Whisky Review #136: Chivas Regal 18 Year Gold Signature

Distillery: Blend

Region: Blend

Price: $2.50 for a 50 mL mini

ABV: 40%

Age: 18 year

Color: 0.8, Deep Gold.

This is the sixteenth in my Countdown to Christmas series where I’ll be posting a review a day until Christmas. You can find the entire series here.

Nose: (according to the wife) Really straight forward. It smells of muscat grapes and acetone.

Palate: Rather thin mouthfeel but it goes down very smoothly. There’s a lot of honey accompanied by a bit of white grape juice. There’s also a bit of spice, it’s not the usual oak pepper but something closer to actual chili peppers.

Finish: On the short end of things. There’s a hint of pepper and vanilla caramel but that’s about it.

Conclusion: I’ve bought this bottle as a gift before but I’ve never actually tried this myself. I’ve got to say, I wasn’t particularly impressed. While it goes down smoothly, there’s not a great deal of substance beyond a bit of honey and a bit of muscat. And then that chili pepper note was so out of place. Perhaps I got a bad mini, but I wasn’t much of a fan. Would I buy a bottle? No, and I’m going to have to rethink my gift giving practices.

Final Score: 69.

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Scotch Whisky review #136, Blended Whisky Review #11, Whisky Network Review #182

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 (if feasible).
• 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.