Loch Lomond 12 Year Old

Previously, I did some reviews on affordable whiskies, but I wanted to do another single malt that I have on my shelf that was at the same price point as the Glen Moray Elgin Classic Port Finish (SPOILER:  I didn’t love the $30 Glen Moray).  This is the Loch Lomond 12 year old.  My previous attempt at this price point failed, but it was also a NAS.  I’m not sure if a cheap “well aged” one will be better or worse, but let’s find out.

Loch Lomond puts out both single malt whiskies and single grain whiskies and it uses rectifying heads in their pot still necks to increase reflux (fancy way of saying, they can make full bodied whiskies and lighter whiskies by changing how their stills operate).  Just to be clear, the Loch Lomond 12 that I am reviewing is the traditional release (red bottle) and not the Loch Lomond 12 Inchmurrin (green bottle), which is supposed to be lighter and fruiter so I assume they are utilizing the extra reflux in the distillation process to achieve this.

According to Loch Lomond, the 12 year old uses malts from 2 styles of pot stills and is aged in 3 types of casks: ex-bourbon, refilled ex-bourbon, and re-charred ex-bourbon.

ABV: 46% (already starting off better than the Glen Moray…)

How it smells… a little bit peaty, grassy, coppery, some fresh berries (as they smell, not taste)

How it tastes…A bit of honey sweetness up front with cherry cough syrup towards the middle and ending with an earthy peatiness and finishing with some chocolate malt flavors and some peppery spice, lingering on the tongue and numbing the top of your mouth.

Price…$30

Rating...🥃🥃🥃

Final thoughts…While I do not care for the smell that much, it is much better on the taste.  This, like others, has a hard to describe flavor profile that I always find off-putting at first, but then it grows on me.  There are a few other bottles that I will review in the near future (another SMWS and the Glenfarclas 105) that fit in this category so perhaps I will have a better way to describe it by then.  At the $30 price tag, this is a solid sipper to purchase and have on the shelf, though.  While I would LOVE to only drink $80-$100+ bottles of booze, unless you are rolling in $$, it’s just not feasible.  You need to have a couple of go-to bottles of more affordable whisky, whether it be Scotch, Bourbon, Rye, or Irish to dip into without breaking the bank.  This is priced well and deserves at least a 3x 🥃.  For those that naturally gravitate towards this particular flavor profile, you might even view it as a 4x 🥃.  Great value overall though.