Edinburgh International Festival Blend 2023
J & A Mitchell Blended Scotch | 46% ABV
2023 2024; The Year Of The Blend?
Is Blended still a bad word in 2024? I feel like progress has been made during the past two years to redeem this category, at least a little bit.
That’s mainly thanks to smaller companies like North Star Spirits with their Tarot series, Adelphi and their Maclean’s Nose, the Thompson Brothers with their acclaimed TB/BSW and even Cadenhead’s and their 7 Stars releases though they’re admittedly not talked about as much. I’m sure there are others I’m forgetting.
Smaller indies have also released small batch or even single cask blends as well, like the recent 46yo by Decadent Drinks. Depending on the age, these can be pricey. Most are also single cask or small batch, as there are still a lot of casks containing pre-blended whisky on the market, notably ex-Edrington stock. In this case, you can most likely expect a sherry influenced blend of North British on one side and some sort of Macallan/Glenrothes/Highland Park/Glenturret mixture on the other.
The key characteristic to a tasty blend is, in my opinion, not necessarily the age, but rather the proportion of malt whisky versus that of grain whisky. Grain whisky doesn’t necessarily have to be bad whisky, as Loch Lomond have proved many times now, but let’s be fair, the vast majority of grain produced in the big processing plants - hard to even call them distilleries - of North British, Girvan or Cameronbridge rarely excite us tasters when we try them.
The cause for that is the maximum strength at which they’re allowed to collect from the column stills. Now what do you think this maximum strength is? 80% alcohol? 85%? 90%? It’s actually 94,8%. When you know that it is impossible to distil over 96% using fractional distillation (the one using heat, used to make all spirits including whisky), and that pure, flavourless alcohol - what is legally called neutral spirit - is considered to be anything that is 95-96% alc. when coming off the still, that doesn’t leave a big margin for congeners to carry distillate character in grain whisky.
Now, you might believe in scotch whisky being protected by mythical guardians and traditions, stopping any distiller from stripping their grain whisky of all its delicious flavour in such a vile manner, but you know better. Grain whisky production is destined to be blended into low margin, mass market brands like Bell’s, Johnnie Walker or Label 5. As such, every penny that can be saved is.
The higher the alcoholic strength in the collecting tank, the more water you can add to reduce it down to the bare minimum 40%, producing more bottled whisky with the same starting quantity of new make. Maths is ruthless.
A quick online search will tell you that North British collects spirit at 94,5%, Invergordon at 94,4%, and Girvan being on par with North British at 94,5%. You may argue this is neutral grain spirit, and that by watering it down you essentially make vodka, and not really Scotch whisky.
Now, as I said, this makes economic sense, because when the goal is to sell a litre bottle of whisky in another country for less than €20, a price including raw materials, working hours, transport, customs, and everyone’s margin and VAT, some sort of sacrifice has to be made.
Some (a lot of) people want to drink a 20€/£/$ bottle of whisky and won’t ever pay more. The fact that 95% of those blends is ultra young neutral grain spirit passing itself as whisky doesn’t matter to them, because as long as the liquid is of a brownish colour and that it vaguely tastes of whisky flavours, they’re happy. I’m not trying to be condescending here, whisky is just a drink for many, and they are not as invested as we are.
And that’s fine. Frankly, not all of these supermarket blends are horrible, as a matter of fact, I’ve tried my horrible dumpster fire of a Laphroaig next to an old bottle of Grouse I keep for making cocktails, and let me tell you the Grouse was mighty fine in comparison.
Anyway, let’s segue back to our original subject. If all grain whisky is basically fire water, how then do you make engaging blends for us enthusiasts? Well it’s simple, and you already know the answer. Start by upping the malt whisky components.
The reason Maclean’s Nose tastes this bloody good is because it’s 70% malt whisky. Anything north of 45-50% malt can be considered a high malt content blend, while I suspect supermarket offerings rarely go beyond 20% malt, and I fear I’m being generous here.
Review
Edinburgh International Festival Blend 2023, J & A Mitchell’s, 46% ABV
£25 paid, sold out
When in Edinburgh, wandering on the Royal Mile, people tend to gravitate towards the top of the street, close to the castle. That’s where you’ll find most whisky shops. I would only advise going to Royal Mile Whiskies, some of the other shops are known for inflating prices to take advantage of the hordes of tourists looking to bring back a souvenir. However, if you decide to travel down the street, towards the Scottish parliament, you will at some point stumble upon the wonderful Cadenhead’s shop.
The bottle I’m reviewing today was purchased there last February. I remember harassing the very polite and knowledgeable Tony there for at least 30 minutes. It’s never boring to realise how we are all connected through the medium of great whisky.
They have loads of interesting bottlings there of course, and quite a few of “world” whiskies as well. You can also buy hand-fills of three blended malts that sit at cask strength in demijohns. But I chose to bring back this humble blended scotch, bottled for Edinburgh International Festival 2023, for a few different reasons. Firstly, I had never heard of it or seen it anywhere. Secondly, a sherry forward blend made by Springbank sounds very interesting. I had wanted to take a punt at quality blends for a while as well.
However, the main reason was the price; £25 for a naturally presented whisky. At least, I assume it is natural, because it’s made by Springbank, but truth be told it would be nice if they wrote it down on the label. We love you Springbank, but you still have to play by the same rules as others.
Anyway, I was quick to bring it to the counter, and I was once again struck by how unfathomably stupid we as humans can be, when I was told by Tony that he was gutted to see some of these bottles of blended whisky go for double figures on secondary, simply because it’s in a Springbank shaped bottle and a limited release. We at least found solace in the fact that flippers weren’t making any money on Cadenhead’s bottlings, as I told him about my recent auction wins.
First thing I did when I came home; I broke the seal. Well, no, I took photos and then broke the seal. Be reassured Tony, this is one flippers won’t get!
Nose
Dark chocolate (75%, no less), pruneaux d’Agen (dried plums from the French south west). A hint of greens, something like charred broccoli. I mean that in a good way. Maraschino cherries with the eponymous liqueur. A hint of balsamic vinegar. Mirabelle tart and dark coffee. Interesting nose, despite the grain showing a little bit.
With water, it becomes a bit fruitier, with mirabelle and damsons. Juicy, a sudden burst of fresh orange juice. A hint of nutmeg to finish things off.
Palate
You can feel it’s a blend in the sense that there isn’t a lot of structure. Main notes are coffee, brown sugar and dark chocolate. The ABV shows a little bit, though not dramatically. There’s also a lingering note of viscous caramel (the aroma, not the texture). Water transforms the dark chocolate into milk chocolate, and the dark coffee into a latte. Finish becomes a bit spicier.
The Dregs
Honestly, there’s no real point in analysing this whisky too much, in fact, I’ve enjoyed it way more when I was casually drinking it rather than just now when I focused on all the notes I could get. This is just a good, affordable, no nonsense sherried sipper. It’s a shame that availability is so complicated with this one, even if I assume J&A Mitchell are going to release another one for the 2024 Edinburgh Festival, probably at a similar price too.
If you find yourself in the Scottish capital in the months following the festival, I encourage you to make a detour to the Cadenhead’s shop, hopefully chat with Tony or anyone among the lovely staff there, and grab yourself a bottle of this, provided you’re looking for an easy, simple sipper. At £25, you can’t go wrong. Don’t even think of buying it off the interwebs at £180 though, it definitely isn’t worth that.
Today’s musical pairing is from Temples, with their song Liquid Air.
Score: 6/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. AF