The Spirits of Sunday


And now for a brief Sunday diversion from the normal topic of this blog. I’d like to talk for a moment about whisky (although one could argue that whisky and journalism have often been closely linked…)

Some months back a jokey comment about heading out for a bottle of whisky to drown my frustrations was picked up by the team that manage the Grant’s Whisky twitter account. A little gentle leg-pulling by myself and Suw, amongst others (Twitter’s lousy search and my worse memory is making it hard for me to track down exactly who) actually led to Rebecca from the @grantswhisky team sending us all some miniatures of their products. I’ve finally got around to drinking all three, and these are my thoughts:

Grant’s Sherry Cask – the idea behind this (and the next) whisky is to age the spirit in a cask formerly used for sherry, imparting different flavours to the drink. And, in this case, the result is something a little warmer and smoother than a traditional Scotch. And, honestly, this didn’t grab me. It reminded me a little of drinking an Irish whiskey (triple distilled against Scotch’s twice), and I think I’d rather do that that drink this.

Grant’s Ale Cask – Now this was rather more up my street. The Ale cask has given a lovely creamy texture to the whisky that made me think of autumn evenings. An enjoyable, drinking whisky that I’ll be getting a bottle of once the summer is done. Something to look forward to after a walk in the woods…

Grant’s Family Reserve – If I’d drunk this on its own, I’d have really enjoyed it. I made the mistake of drinking it too close on the heels of the Ale Cask, though. They share too many notes to avoid making a comparison rather that treating the Family Reserve on its own merits. It’s less challenging to the palate that the Ale Cask, and that made it seem slightly insipid to me, but then I’ve always like my whiskies full of character and punch. I’d happily drink this, but I’d be secretly lusting after the Ale Cask.

Rather ironically, though, I wouldn’t count any of these three whiskies as the sort you’d use to drown your sorrows in. Far better to just let your sorrows drift away on an Ale Cask-aged haze…