Review: Loch Lomond Blended Scotch Reserve and Single Grain Scotch
Review: Loch Lomond Blended Scotch Reserve and Single Grain Scotch
Loch Lomond, an independent distiller and blender in Scotland, is finally bringing its wares to America. (Loch Lomond owns the Littlemill Distillery, which lays claim to being perhaps the oldest distillery in Scotland, if not the world.)
In all, 14 expressions of various brands of whisky are arriving. Today we start with two under the Loch Lomond label, a blend and a single grain whisky. (A variety of other expressions are available, including single malt varieties, but aren’t reviewed here.)
Loch Lomond Blended Scotch Whisky Reserve – Blended only from malt and grain whiskies made in-house, no external product is used. No age statement (note that the “Signature” bottling is higher up than the “Reserve” expression). The nose is interesting, kicking off with lots of cereal notes and spiced nuts (particularly almonds), but there’s also an undercurrent of more raw alcohol, common in relatively young blends, and just a hint of smoke. The body is fresher and livelier than the nose would indicate, tempering the malt with gentle notes of apple and banana, milk chocolate, and more almond. Some light cafe au lait notes bubble up on the finish, which is otherwise lightly sweet, modest in length, and relatively understated. 80 proof. B / $18
Loch Lomond Single Grain Scotch Whisky – A single grain bottling, with no other production information provided. Very light on the nose, with faint notes of peat, raw granary character, and some rubber cement notes. The body surprises immediately with a bold, tropical fruit-driven attack, with pineapple and coconut all up in there. It doesn’t last, though, with those raw alcohol and petrol notes pushing aside the fresh fruit, which tends to happen with young single grain. The finish is hot and heavy on the grain notes, ending on a bit of a rubbery character again. 92 proof. B / $28 [BUY IT NOW FROM CASKERS] [BUY IT NOW FROM THE WHISKY EXCHANGE]
Loch Lomond Single Grain Scotch Whisky
$28
About Post Author
Hi there,
not much left to own as far as Littlemill distillery is concerned. The emptied buildings burnt down around Christmas in 2004. The site was then sold.
What they do own is what little Littlemill whisky is left, some of it in stainless steel most probably.
The interesting single grain from Loch Lomond is this one
http://www.lochlomondwhiskies.com/whisky/single-grain/
because it is made from 100% malted barley but as the rules say single malt has to be distilled in copper pot stills this one from the grain column stills must be named single grain and not Coffey malt like the Japanese do… and sell.
I wish you a Happy New Year.
Greetings
kallaskander