Origin: Scotland
Type: Blended Scotch Whisky
Strength: 40%ABV
Ageing casks: N/A
Chillfiltered: Yes
Added colouring: Yes
Owner: Diageo
Average price: € 30.00
Official website: www.haigwhisky.com
Vote: 62/100
Whisky drinkers don’t live of single malts alone, but also of blendeds…. Indeed, many aficionados began with blended whiskies, perhaps the most famous ones, the ones you find in every supermarket: Johnnie Walker Red Label, Ballantine’s Finest, Chivas Regal 12yo. Then, happily, they moved on to something else.
Jokes aside, blends still represent the overwhelming majority of whiskies sold (and drunk), and therefore cannot be dismissed with a shrug of the shoulders.
Today we taste Dimple 15yo, the fourth best-selling blended whisky in the world (after those mentioned above, probably), most popular in the United States, where it is known as Dimple Pinch and is proposed at 43% ABV.
Marketed in a bottle all too reminiscent of the Italian Vecchia Romagna, it’s a blend of more than thirty different whiskies (malts and grain whiskies), ‘the best’ as the packaging states.
As far as we know, the lion’s share is accounted for by Glenkinchie and Linkwood.
Tasting notes
The colour is amber.
On the nose, the first impact is with a sweetish note that isn’t exactly captivating, reminiscent of fruit that has gone bad and which acts as a stopper to a hint of white-fleshed fruit so vague as to resemble a mirage. The situation doesn’t improve with time, as a memory of solvent and wet cardboard come forward that is extremely repelling.
In the mouth, the entry is slightly spicy (ginger?), with an aroma of vanilla in the background. Unfortunately, the sweetish note mentioned above still dominates, along with an impression of polished wood.
The finish is short, of vanilla and spice, and is undoubtedly the best part of the drink.
The few pleasant sensations remain on the borderline of the indefinite, the unpleasant ones can be felt perfectly. Tastes are tastes, and are not up for discussion: everyone is free to like what they like, and who are we to judge? But in all honesty it seems to us that even the most naive drinker can aspire to much better.