Grangestone Highland Single Malt Bourbon Cask Finish

The nose carries hints of vanilla and caramel, potentially mistaken for rum but clearly reminiscent of bourbon. It also presents more hay than anticipated. The palate is grassier and richer than the Grangestone Rum Cask, with less sweetness but also lacking a distinctive character to compensate. While caramel and vanilla are present, they tend to blend indistinctly. The nose exhibits pleasant, rich vanilla with a touch of butterscotch, alongside notes of damp wood and earthy grass. The palate is intensely grassy with some earthiness and a faint vegetal quality. It has a very light flavor profile, though it does contain ample vanilla and a subtle caramel. It doesn't seem delicate so much as diluted. There's an unpleasant flavor, difficult to pinpoint, that is somewhat fiery and herbal-bitter, akin to poorly distilled alcohol. The nose is somewhat grassy and faintly vegetal, with a Scotch-like quality. The palate is sweet and light, reminiscent of an Irish whiskey. It's grassy and sweet, like the mildest caramel. It's not outstanding, but not entirely unpleasant. A slightly disagreeable bitter note lingers, but it's not a deal-breaker. The quality falls considerably short of Bushmill's Black.

Nose: Smells like apple juice, vanilla, an overpoweringly sweet floral note, honey, grape, wet grass, lemon, cereal grain, and hay, with a moderate to high ethanol burn. Taste: Sweet and sour apple juice, honey, grape, vanilla, orange and lemon zest, freshly cut grass, grainy caramel, a moderate to high alcohol bite. The finish is fast and very sweet, with young, bright alcohol and fading apple juice and honey flavors. This is not good, definitely a step down from the already very average 12-year-old offering. This one tastes very young and becomes cloying. I really dislike that sweet and sour apple juice note; it was present in the 12-year-old too, but it's much more pronounced here than I remember. For $25 for a single malt scotch, I suppose you get what you pay for. I'd rather spend the same amount on a decent blended scotch and avoid this one.

The nose has a very distinct waxy scent with honeyed raisins and a subtle amount of oak. The palate starts sweet with honey raisins, moving into oak in the middle, and finishing with some smokiness. An interesting characteristic of this single malt is its shift from slightly syrupy to very dry within a single sip, owing to the unusual cask combination. Adding a hint of water reveals some smokiness. This is a Total Wine Spirits Direct single malt reportedly double matured in American Oak and Bourbon Oak. It has no age statement, is clearly chill-filtered, and has caramel color added. It's not outstanding, but it's drinkable.

Four bottles were sampled without knowing their identities. The tasting commentary comes from this blind evaluation of the bourbon cask, sherry cask, rum cask, and 12-year-old single malts by Grangestone. On the nose, notes of honey-drenched cherries and apricots are present, intertwined with subtle hints of bergamot and lilac. The palate is immediately sweet, with apricot taking the lead, followed by a honeyed Earl Grey tea. The finish is brief, featuring a deepening of the honey sweetness and a subtle introduction of oak. This expression was my preferred selection from the blind tasting. It earned the top spot in both tasting rounds and was clearly my preferred choice by a significant margin.

Nose: Oak is very strong, and the bourbon notes compete well with it. Notes of apples and grapes. It's very dry and doesn't offer much. Palate: Sour apples, sweet candies, and an artificial fruity flavor like you'd find in a snow cone. The oak is quite prominent again. Finish: Very brief. It doesn't linger at all. Dry and sour. It's very hard to describe. Overall Thoughts: Just don't buy it. It's another generic offering from Total Wine, but it's simply not good in any aspect. This is just bad whisky. After having another Grangestone earlier, I thought I'd like this, but I was very mistaken.

EXPLORATION: At first serviceable, but lacks complexity. Nose is vanilla, orange, and cereal. Tastes sweet, bitter orange, with a brief vanilla finish. Upon further tasting it begins to flatten. I wouldn’t buy a bottle of this, but I’d be happy throwing it in a cocktail or, gods forbid, some coke. But perhaps there's nothing wrong with that. EXHORTATION: Seek not, unless you are in the market for tasting samplers from different barrel finishes, or you need a cheap mixer. Though I feel there might be better mixers for the same price.