Review: Haig Club Single Grain Scotch Whisky
Review: Haig Club Single Grain Scotch Whisky
If you’re a whiskey fan, by now you’ve heard of Haig Club, a new brand of Scottish single grain whisky that counts Simon Fuller and David Beckham among its originators. While it sounds like a vanity project, let’s put that to rest: Haig Club has a legit history and is quite an interesting spirit in its own right.
The Haig family dates its distilling heritage back to the 1600s and had one of the earliest licensed distilleries in Scotland. In 1824, John Haig built Cameronbridge Distillery in Fife, and Haig’s cousin is credited as an inventor of continuous distillation (including the column still). Cameronbridge remains the oldest grain distillery in Scotland.
Today, Cameronbridge produces grain-based spirits for just about everyone in the Diageo portfolio, including Smirnoff, Tanqueray, and every blended whiskey Diageo markets (Johnnie Walker, J&B, and of course the Haig brand). Some 110 million liters of product flow from Cameronbridge every year, and now a small amount of that production is going to become Haig Club.
Grain whiskey is a lighter and more delicate style of whisky than malt whiskey, as well it should be. Made from 10% barley and 90% wheat, Haig Club is column distilled instead of pot distilled, and is aged in a mixture of ex-Bourbon barrels, refill whisky casks, and rejuvenated whisky casks. Haig Club is clearly on the young side — again, not unusual for grain whisky — but is bottled with no age statement in a soon-to-be iconic cobalt blue bottle. (The blue glass used is a nod to the opaque tasting glasses used during by distillers in order to avoid being influenced by the color of the spirit.)
Nosing Haig Club reveals a restrained whiskey but one with youthful exuberance: coconut husk, roasted grains, vanilla and faint touches of sawdust — some of the hallmarks of many younger whiskies, even something akin to a craft American whiskey or even some white rums. The nose doesn’t immediately win you over, but the body is a bit of a surprise. Here you’ll encounter more of that coconut but less raw grain character. As it develops, you get butterscotch, some dried fruits, and even some curious evergreen notes — alongside some forest floor — on the back end. The finish is quiet but clean, unlike the brooding and lasting intensity of many malt whiskies. That said, the overall spirit is relatively muted and a bit underdeveloped. In theory that makes Haig Club a solid base for cocktails, but it sips well enough on its own — an interesting diversion from the typical world of malt.
80 proof.
B+ / $70 / haigclub.com [BUY IT NOW FROM CASKERS] [BUY IT NOW FROM THE WHISKY EXCHANGE]
Haig Club Single Grain Scotch Whisky
$70
my friend bought a bottle of haig club grain whisky bottle of 700 ml. from London – international airport, whisky world duty free shop , recently. when I checked the bottle, I found whisky was leaking from plastic seal. this was surprise to me. packing requires to be improved. cork thin washer is required to be put between bottle mouth & metal cork. I never found whisky leackage from packed bottle of any scotch whisky. request to improve packing.