Blind Dram Challenge Review Number 1 - 26th February 2021

We were offered the challenge of being sent 5 blind drams by Omar from the Black Barrel Sippers Club, initially the idea was to try and identify as much as possible the attributes and identity of each of the 5 drams, mainly to align our palates and compare tasting notes, however, not one to skip out on any challenge, we decided to record each blind dram tasting and release the video as a review, irrespective of the outcome, this could get very messy and embarrassing!

The idea is a simple one, the whisky would be provided in 30ml transparent containers with no identity to the contents, a tag identifying which dram in the sequence would be attached, in this case, dram A. On pouring the dram we would have the opportunity to assess the colour of the whisky, give our nose and palate notes, consider what cask maturation, age, ABV, whisky region and distillery or brand. Each detail would be entered into a online form created by Omar to submit for each tasting. How hard could this be?

Well actually very hard. There are so many different styles of whisky across many countries, with varying cask maturation and possibly cask finishes. It is a daunting one to even contemplate, but as we said, we love a challenge.

Here we go!

Dram A or 1;
This whisky is a pale straw colour, our initial thoughts were that this is a classic ex-bourbon/american white oak maturation.

On the nose; it feels young, it is fruity, there are green grassy or vegetal notes, our initial thoughts are this could be something like a recharred american oak cask.
There is a fantastic vanilla milk chocolate cream funk on the nose, very similar to the note we get on Bimber, Westland American Oak and even the single Daftmill that we have tried. Each of these whiskies were ex-bourbon or recharred casks.
Also on the nose are honey and citrus notes, typical of the cask style mentioned.

On the palate, this is very much the same as the nose, floral with citrus, vanilla and milk chocolate. There is a touch of grass or hay vegetal notes. The vanilla milk chocolate cream funk is there on the palate.
It is coming across hot with alcohol, suggesting youthfulness or a higher abv, maybe low 50s.
The hay vegetal notes suggests maybe a Deanston, particularly the Virgin Oak expression.

At this point we are considering either a Bimber or a Deanston Virgin Oak.
We have only tried the Virgin Oak once before at a whisky festival, however, we have experienced quite a bit of other Deanstons, particularly the 12 year old, but have never experienced that vanilla chocolate funk before.

One final sip and we believe this is a low 40s% abv whisky, giving us a suspicion that this is a Deanston Virgin Oak or similar, failing that and it is a Bimber :-)

Omar responded that we were very close, it was infact Auchentoshan American Oak!
We haven't tried any Auchentoshan previously, so is not a whisky we have previosuly experienced.

The American Oak, is bottled at 40% ABV, is chill filtered and colour adjusted, however we are suprised by the colour adjustment here as it is quite pale.
This expression is widely available and currently retails as follows

The Whisky Exchange £24.95
Masters of Malt £24.90
The Whisky World £31.90
Asda £32.00

Giving an average price of £28.44, this whisky is regularly discounted in the supermarkets, often below £23, at that price, we think it is well worth buying a bottle as it is a very enjoyable easy sipper, even for its youthful hot character.

For a value score, based on its average price, it is comparable with its peers at 83.45 out of 100. We would certainly buy a bottle once we see it on offer.

For an overall score we give the Auchentoshan American Oak 85 out of 100.

Thanks to Omar for this challenge, we weren't too far off, we got that it was a scotch and from an American oak cask, with our guess of the Deanston Virgin Oak, we got the region wrong but the cask type close enough. Lets just forget we mentioned Bimber.