Borders Distillery Malt & Rye
WS:01 Blended Scotch Whisky | 40% ABV
I Just Don’t Get It
I have too many of these moments. Be it clothes that cost a small fortune and would clearly make the wearer look like Kanye West’s girlfriend, to products that appear to fit no demographic.
I feel stupid when an app update changes something that, at least to me, appeared to be fine the first time around. Or when an ‘upgrade’, say for a flight or car, works out worse value than the standard offering. I know I’m not alone – we all have those moments, and I’m having one right now.
Part of me wants to say ‘well done’ – after all, name another Scotch whisky distillery who’s first release is under £40? I’ll wait. Name another new Scotch distillery that released its inaugural without any fanfare, any sense of self-importance and frankly, any marketing. Some of you will no doubt be seeing this bottle for the first time and wondering what it is and where it comes from. I know, because that is exactly how I felt when I saw this.
Let’s try looking at the facts.
The bottle clearly states ‘Entirely distilled by the Borders Distillery’ – so this is not one of those ‘pre-launch’ blends such as The One from The Lakes distillery. Nor is it like any of those deeply offensive Irish releases that have absolutely nothing to do with the distillery whose name adorns the label (yes Hinch, Teeling, West Cork, Glendalough, Roe & Co, amongst others, I’m referring to you).
So, adhering to SWA rules, that means The Borders Distillery made every drop of liquid in this bottle. We are also told this is 63.8% single grain and 36.2% single malt. The back label states “In 2019, we distilled a small batch of rye spirit and matured it in the same fresh-fill bourbon casks as the malt…’ It’s a limited outturn of 5,988 bottles.
The label also states ‘Bottled without filtration’ 40%ALC./Vol’ but no mention of being natural colour (little point, it clearly hasn’t been adulterated with spirit caramel).
And the bottle cost me £35.
Them be the facts as I have it. And I should point out, I have not reached out to the company for any clarification – that shouldn’t be necessary, really.
So, first thoughts from this info:
£35 for a first release? I mean, really? What planet has this marketing team been hiding on for the past ten years? Not one with any internet access to Earth.
40% ABV. Again, really? The whisky is young, it’s clearly not had a huge amount of cask influence and someone in the marketing team thought that reducing it to 40% would be ‘best foot forward’?
Also, ‘Bottled Without Filtration’ – I think they mean without chill filtration? All whisky has some level of filtration, at least to ensure the bits of charcoal don’t get into the bottle (or any other foreign bodies).
Whilst we’re on the label information – what is ‘fresh-fill bourbon casks’ – do they mean freshly emptied ex-Bourbon casks? Or what is otherwise termed, confusingly I’ll admit, first fill ex-Bourbon? Who is creating the language for this company?
It's almost as if the people behind this bottling said ‘Right, we’re going to do the opposite of whatever our peers are doing. If they release their first whisky with lots of bells and whistles for £80+, we’ll use the simplest packaging, have no release or launch event and offer this at supermarket prices. If they are going to use wood forward casks to offer a little flavour with their young whisky, we will use Bourbon casks and keep the wood influence to a bare minimum. If they insist on using terminology that everyone can understand, we are going to invent new terms to show our differences…’ etc
I’ll bet someone in this company refers to themselves as a ‘category disruptor’. Well, let’s see if the drink can disrupt any of my taste buds.
Review
The Borders, Workshop Series WS:01 Malt & Rye, Blended Scotch Whisky, 40% ABV
£35 direct from their website
Nose
Corn oil. Think Rapeseed oil but with a slightly fatter sensation to it. Around the edges I can get some coconut, vanilla and barley notes. Slightly buttery and if I strain really hard I can maybe, just possibly get a little whiff of a spice note – but that could purely be my imagination. With a bit of time there is a milkiness that is not sour so not overly off-putting. Water just kills this dead.
Palate
Much of what I get on the nose is on the palate. Hints of coconut, vanilla, corn and a touch of barley. It is drinkable, it is non-offensive but it is beige. Very beige. This is a beige car with beige plaid interior, an oversized steering wheel, a radio that only gets AM and an engine that has less horsepower than a smoothie maker.
The Dregs
For £35, I desperately wanted to applaud this. I love the fact that I had never seen it, heard of it or tried it. Those, in the know, that I asked were similarly clueless. I was reminded of the more than disappointing Lower East Side blend that I reviewed a while back and there are definite similarities between the two whiskies – the overriding similarity in how bland they are.
I have to return to my opening statement; I just don’t get it.
What is the point of this whisky? Who is this appealing to? Whilst £35 is extraordinarily cheap for a first release, I can go buy either Old Pulteney 12yo or Bowmore 12yo for less money and get twice the whisky. I’m glad I didn’t fork out a penny more but £35 isn’t actually cheap if the whisky is bland. Teachers, actually lets go with Black Bottle, offers considerably more punch, weight, flavour and overall experience for almost half the cost.
This is just insipid, or I guess jejune if I’m being kind. It’s not offensive to drink but its lack of any feature could be construed as offensive. Think of this as a piece of art on a canvas, lacking any of the art.
Score: 3/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. FF