Further continuing my little series of reviews for affordable, good, blended whiskies, here’s my review for Scallywag, one of the new boys on the block from a great independent producer.

Here’s some of the blurb… Douglas Laing & Co have launched a new blended malt, not content with their Islay only Blended Malt “Big Peat” the team at Douglas Laing have now put together a Small Batch Speyside only Blended Malt, named “Scallywag”. It  is a Small Batch bottling created using only the finest Speyside Malts including – amongst others – Mortlach, Macallan and Glenrothes.

Bottled at 46% alcohol strength and non chill-filtered, this Small Batch bottling has a distinct rich, dark colour – extracted from the many fine Spanish Sherry Butts used during maturation. The result is a truly charming Malt with a richly spiced character fused with vanilla (from the bourbon casks used), sweet stewed fruit, Christmas pudding, dark chocolate, zesty orange and sweet tobacco.

Scallywag Blended Speyside Malt – 46% – NCF

Colour: Full gold with copper notes.

Nose: Nutty is the word that comes to mind fairly instantly. It’s a blend of speyside malts, and there’s some quality sherry notes going on here mixed with good amounts of balanced oak. As with most blends nothing really takes over here, it’s a mix of great malts.

Palate: Medium to thick oils cover your mouth nicely with a warming spirit that presents fairly delicately at the ABV. There’s a solid mix of sherry goodness, oaky casks and malty barley notes. A quality palate with everything in a nice balance, a wee back note of earthiness which is a treat and works well.

Finish: The finish is almost ashy, presumably from cask char, the earthiness making more of an appearance amongst smooth autumn fruits, apples, pears and warmed spiced orange. It’s warming on your chest and has a pleasing length, the bulk is not not entirely long, but some after notes (of sherry) stick around for ages.

Water: Makes the whisky a satisfying scotch mist (i.e. cloudy), showing that the good and tasty oils haven’t been removed. It reduces the nuttiness on the nose and increases the woodiness on the palate, otherwise, it doesn’t do too much.

Thoughts: A quality blend of goodies all wraped up and ready for you to crack into for Christmas, a worthy blend to have on your shelf, and thankfully presented just how us whisky geeks like it, non chill-filtered and at 46% ABV so you get the full goodness of what’s been produced. 87.

Available from The Green Welly Stop for £36.49
Thanks to Douglas Laing for the sample.