Auchentoshan – American Oak

As part of the generous beast that is our whisky club, we decided to start collectively buying birthday presents, so that each regular attendee would get a dram selected for their birthday. Little known to me there were four birthdays in the first month, so it was a bit of a manic month of researching and purchasing. One of the bottles was purchased, as it seemed to fit the flavour profile of the whisky club member and also answer to question from the last whisky club: Can you buy a good whisky for less than £20?

The bottle for review is Auchentoshan – American Oak.

Auchentoshan is known as “Glasgow’s Malt Whisky” as the distillery sits so close to the city. It is also apparently referred to as the “Breakfast Whisky”, due to its generally sweet and and delicate flavour notes. It sits in the Lowlands and is one of six distilleries that sit in this area.

This bottle is as it sounds is a NAS whisky that is matured solely in American Bourbon barrels. What you might not know, is that this whisky is triple distilled. This makes it unique amongst Scotch whiskies… For more information on Triple Distillation, click here.

Price: £25-35

Appearance: 

Aroma: Jolly Ranchers Apple, Citrus and Children’s cereal.

Taste: The start of this whisky is incredibly creamy and light. It feels almost faultlessly smooth. This could be the whisky equivalent of milk. However this could be influenced by the next part of the flavour profile.

The middle flavour reminds me of children’s cereal. It is creamy, sweet and there are notes of different cereals present here too. There is a fruityness in the background that could be peaches or apricots. This all combines to be yoghurt like. There is spice, but it is never more than lingering in the background.

The final flavours are vanilla, coconut and the lingering spices. There is also a waft of smoke that floats across the tongue and brings liquorice style notes with it too.

Mouthfeel: Unflinchingly Smooth and Creamy.

Overall: For a whisky that you can buy with one £20 note, it is incredibly easy to drink. There are none of the sharp, pungent qualities that I associate with cheaper whisky. It would be interesting to get to drink more of this whisky and see if I still like it. However for its current cost, its difficult to find a reason not to try it.

Real Dram Factor: 6.9

More Information: Auchentoshan Website

Purchased: Tesco