Auchentoshan 12 Year Old

Enjoyed this with some new friends at a little bookstore and bar. Cozy place.

Nose: Vibrant flowers, honey and citrus.

Palate: One word, honeysuckle. If you were fortunate enough as a kid to find some wild honeysuckle and you knew how to get the dew out and drink it, then your childhood was at least a partial success. And that's basically all I get here. Honeysuckle and more floral notes.

Finish: Short and crisp with some lingering sweetness.

Overall: This goes down easily. Triple distilled and only 40%abv makes this crisp and easy to down. Reminds me of some Irish whiskies the way it drinks. The 5 of us finished the remaining half of the 700ml bottle. It's not a whisky to sit down and over analyze. It's a good entry level drink, it's simple and refreshing and not offensive in the least. Get some friends on a spring or summer day and just drink this.

Now that the temps have dropped I thought it would be a good idea to open up something new, and what better then a bottle that's been sitting in the cabinet for over 3 years.

Nose - Sweet smooth toffee, vanilla, caramel, raisins, fruit cake, hints of oak, and pungent berries and fruits. A fairly thick nose on this with a strong sweet-syrupy note.

Palate - Fast, sweet arrival with fruitful tannins and a dry fruity complexity. Something citrus'y in here as well.

Finish - Dry yet sweet. Some bitterness with a shy woody note coming through. Decent length here!

So how does this whisky stack up overall? A very nice surprise indeed. I was putting this off after reading reviews about it not being anything special and fairly average, but I must say this is quite a nice change to all the smokey drams I've had over the summer.

If i had to choose this over the Glendronach 12, I'd take this. The Glendronach was a slight disappointment (despite the fact I gave it a higher rating.)

The Auchentoshan has more to offer in terms of taste and really was a nice surprise to what I was expecting. Not overly complex, but not the least boring either. Nice mix of sweet tannins with some fresh fruits and very decent smooth finish.

This malt is quite a rich amber colour, hopefully natural coloured. The nose on this is all about the vanilla, but a few other smells are present including linseed oil, olives and some new leather.

There is a pleasing light oiliness to the mouth feel of this dram, mouth coating without being weighty. More vanilla but it’s less dominant than on the aroma, some malt, oats, and more of the leather and linseed. The finish is of moderate length and much of the interest dries up quickly for me, maybe a hint of coffee bitterness?

Overall this is a very quaffable malt ideal for a summers evening, not that we get many summery evenings here in Northern Ireland, possibly one reason why this bottle is not opened more often...

THis was a bottle bought for me at Christmas.

This gets talked about as a starter whisky or a good whisky to introduce beginners to. If you're looking for bold character in a whisky then you'll be wasting your time with this. However, whilst it's a simple whisky, it's got some subtle positive characteristics, and when you come home and don't want much complexity, boldness, or iconoclasm, and just want a simple, light and subtle whisky, this often it's the spot.

Colour is very pale and light amber.

Nose is lemon citrous, honey, light fresh white oak, toasted almonds, some light spice, pepper and ginger. light barley. Also some crystallised stem ginger.

Taste is very subtle. Light honey, lemon peel, kick of pepper, spice, ginger, slight toasted oak wood coming through. Finish is peppery, slight barley, lemon and grapefruit rind tang. After a couple of minutes the oak wood is still there. Very very slight peat/tar somewhere way back in the background?

Nice easy drinking whisky, with a simple palate and some light citrous tangs alongside toasty oak, and quite a nice lingering finish, which belies some very subtle complexity.

This one replaced their 10YO in 2008, and apparently it has been an improvement to their core range. Auchentoshan 12 yrs is matured in 80% re-fill and 20% first fill sherry wood.

For my taste, this one's an okay dram. Light like Auchentoshans tend to be – but manages to offer some nice flavors without being too stingy.

Nose: Honey and barley dominate gently. Delicately nice and sweet.

Taste: Sweet with barley and tropical fruits. There's some lemony feel. Hints of toffee stays int he back.

Finish: Nice length. Ginger is the main note. Some dryness and a stingy feel.

Balance: Very delicate single malt with character.

This is a very light, fruity and smooth dram...Very Sweet and dry. Probably a very goo starters whisky.. everything is pleasant but nothing really stands out.. Except the pleasantness.... :-)

Wonderful toffee, vanilla with the faint wisp of smoke. A great lowland malt from Dunbarton and at a very attractive price point @ $50 Cdn, this is a very safe buy for a gift or for your own bar. No water required as this is a very light and easy down. Slainte!

Well, TIFF is finally almost over (two more screenings tonight, and then we're done), but I had some time this afternoon to write this one up. I'll dedicate this dram to Peter Stebbings' film Empire of Dirt, which won a special citation at TIFF today for the three lead actors. Congratulations!

While the Classic is the more entry-level Auchentoshan, it is not one you can get here in Ontario. So the 12 Year Old is much more ubiquitous here.

The colour is a dark honey. On the nose, lots of vanilla and toffee, roasted almonds, marzipan, and some dark fruits in the background. Significant sherry cask influence, which is more prevalent with a drop of water. A slight hint of mint. Very nice and delicate, but also straightforward.

On the palate, more dark fruits, Christmas cake and baked apples (some cherries as well). More vanilla and toffee. Spicy, with pepper and ginger. Smoother with water. Also very nice - and straightforward.

The finish is rather gentle but lengthy, with more herbs - slightly bitter, but in a good way. I've always been hit-and-miss with Auchentoshan - I don't like the Three Wood, love the 2011 Valinch but find their other limited editions all over the place. But for a standard malt, this is very good. Nothing outstanding, but is an excellent representation of the smooth, clean and flavourful distillery character. Jim Murray rates this a 91.5 - I wouldn't go that high, as it doesn't bring anything new to the table, besides being a well-done, decent, satisfying malt.

Color: light copper.

Nose: airy and floral, with a tang of orange zest and the faintest whisper of Tiramisu sweetness in the background. A little water brings forth some maltiness. Lovely, but a little light-weight.

Body: light and smooth.

Palate: citrusy with hints of coffee and cocoa complexity. That's about it, but it's delicious.

Finish: root-beer and chocolate-covered peanuts. Short, but again, quite pleasant. Maybe a bit more satisfying than the Three Wood?

The Auchentoshan Three Wood has been a personal favorite for a while -- not necessarily a top-rated whisky, but a very solid performer. While this 12-year is significantly less complex than the TW, at $25 cheaper, it gets the job done and satisfies all the while. In a blind taste test of 5 whiskies with friends, this ranked third, well ahead of two far more expensive bottles. I really don't think you can go wrong with a bottle of this in your collection. It's a great inexpensive dram to share with friends.

Nose: interesting botanical notes here. Herbs, dried flower petals. Tangy notes of dried fruit (dates, raisins). A bit of toasted oak. Subtle but pleasant.

Taste: bittersweet, dryish, becoming quite tangy at the back of the tongue. It has a character quite different from most of the other unpeated malts I've tasted. Perhaps just a bit too much bitterness mid-palate.

Finish: a tad sour.

Balance: good whisky but there is something sharp about it. Maybe just an artefact of triple distillation? In any case it goes down well and has good body (feels well-matured). Good value, but not something I would buy again.

This is a more grown up and slightly darker version of their Classic. The nose has more lemon, but the grass taste is toned down considerably. The color is also slightly darker and it costs about $12 more. Not quite rated into the "would buy again" group, but still very good and different.

Founded in 1823, Auchentoshan are the only distillery in Scotland to have a third still. This is for the triple distillation of every drop. This has to be taken in context as they are not the only Scottish distillery to triple distill.

Distillation takes the fermented liquid at Auchentoshan from around 8% ABV (alcohol by volume) up to 81%. Double distillation usually reaches just 70% ABV.

Auchentoshan new spirit is the highest distillate of any single malt distillery in Scotland. This is claimed to make it cleaner and crisp in the mouth.

Nose. Sweet stewed plums and Orange peel

Palate. Mild spices, sweetness, orange peel, citrus and oak. It is gentle on the tongue.

Finish medium sweet finish with a fruity tang lingering on the tip of the tongue

I would recommend this as a good bottle to try for any Whisky fan looking to broaden their horizons. We tried this at Stroud Whisky Club and it went down well and proved very popular. Not world beating but for the money it delivers good value

eye: nice viscosity, standard bee-honey color.

nose: a lot of dried figs, hints of apple cider and fresh green apple, smashed - not entirely mature - greenish banana, light vanilla, discreet caramel and toffee notes, bright raisins, impressions of almond paste (marzipan), powdered sugar, fresh springtime flowers (not to sweet, more delicate), golden tobacco. if I should symbolically pick a season to define this malt it would be definitely spring!

taste: fresh and spicy impact - nearly not warming, light vanilla, light and delicate sherry, some white pepper, very subtle sweet tobacco notes.

finish: subtle caramel and toffee, again impressions of golden tobacco and american oak, some leather, hints of angelica and gentian root at the very finish (again the oak), nice bitter-sweet interplay, but a bit short.

conclusion: all in all a very "bourbonesque" single malt in my opinion, that is heavenly (!!!) on the nose (I could sniff this malt forever), decent taste-wise and a bit to moderate on the finish. I got this bottle for my 30th birthday from my girlfriend a few weeks ago in December and I immediately felt in love with the bottle design, thumbs up for the marketing guys! After 1/3 of this bottle I am definitely very interested to try some older Auchentoshan bottles with some more sherry or wine finish. though I saw on their website that they currently just have the 11y old Bordeaux cask matured and the surely to expensive 1977 sherry cask matured. maybe a standard 15y old bottle of such a malt would be an idea...? perhaps I'll try the "three wood" at 43%, though again I am afraid I wont get the longer finish and deeper aroma experience taste-wise (?). 82 points for me, but since it was my girlfriend's birthday present and the bottle design is just how I personally would design it for a whisky I'll give it 84 points, 'cause finally the feelings and the emotions related to a bottle influence us a lot!

summary: celestial smell, catchy taste, moderate finish.

Triple distilled, quite soft, yes. But there is just nothing especial going on

So I'd heard about Auchentoshan for months now, especially reading Markjedi's reviews and facebook posts. It interested me, but I never got around to buying a bottle because something else always had my eye. I couldn't try it in a bar because I could never find it in one. I'd wanted to try a Lowland whisky for ages though and was starting to feel very very frustrated.

At the same time I've been planning to send some whisky samples to my friend and fellow Connosr member, Systemdown, as he had the good idea that exchanging samples would be a good way to experience more whiskies for much cheaper.

So when I emailed him saying I was going to buy some sample bottles and drink them, then refill them with the whiskies for him to sample. He then promptly replied back asking if I was buying the Auchentoshan sample box from Dan Murphy's that he'd just seen.

I was flabbergasted! I'd only seen the usual Jack Daniels, Johnnie Walker, Jim Beam samples at Dan Murphy's. So I promptly pulled up Dan Murphy's online and found that sample box. There were just a few left locally and they were quite a drive away so I ordered a set and sat down to wait.

Three days later the sample arrived along with a very chatty mailman who informed me that I was very lucky to be married to an asian wife and then proceeded to tell me why I was so lucky to be married to one.

Anyway....Creepy!!

Especially when I find out that he's talked to my wife and told her that she should have married an asian man and why hasn't she had babies yet?!

I find this out as we're discussing the Auchentoshan sample box and it's arrival...Again CREEPY!!

As dinner approaches I crack open one of the bottles, the sample case consists of the 12 yr old, 18 yr old and the Three Wood.) So I crack open the 12 yr old and pour it into my glencairn.

I start to nose the glencairn as we get dinner ready and the strongest odor coming through it is cut grass, but I continue to nose the whisky as we sit down to eat and slowly some other aromas appear. I start to find some apples, a little bit of caramel and a hint of pears. In the background there is just the slightest appearance of lime, but it disappears very quickly.

I taste the whisky and I taste cut grass, as does my wife, along with oak. It's different, but not unpleasant. Following and hidden by the cut grass is some of that caramel and a hint of the pear, quickly swallowed by the grass once more. It's not unpleasant, but it feels very weak and watery at 40% ABV.

The finish is of average length, with the oak and grass dominating.

This is a entry level malt sitting at around $70 AUS and it decent value for money. It is a little more complex then Glenlivet 12 yr old which I call the Apple Juice Malt, but the lower ABV hurts the flavor profile so I hate to say it but I dub this "The Grass Juice Malt"

I'd be interested in trying this one again and seeing if I get the same results at a bar or in a full sized bottle.

Color: Deep gold

Nose: Beyond the basis of soft caramel, elements of orange creamsicle: white chocolate, smooth coconut and fresh orange. Faint oaky spiciness.

Palate: Spicey oak at first with some citrus acidity; then clean, slight toffee, with vague fresh laundry.

Finish: fresh macadamia nuts, just slightly sweet with lingering oak.

Best smelled and sampled after a good 5 minutes breathing in the hand. Overall smooth and light flavors aside from spice. The oak and acid first shock like a dive in the pool; but then this quickly mellows, comfortingly. The nose is excellent and somehow addictive in deep breaths-- I could be convinced it contains pheremones.

In general, I would prefer smoother entry and more development in the mouth before fading. But most of the experience is pleasant, so it is a good multipurpose Scotch. "I like it."

This was my very first Auchentoshan, and having heard a lot of good things about the 12yo I was naturally quite curious to taste it myself.

Considering the overall experience I liked the nose best. My first impression was of creme brulee, with distinct elements of toffee and sugar. Wonderful!

The palate displays the same, now almost tongue-coating sugariness. The whisky rolls across the tongue in a very smooth manner, almost like silk.

The finish is unexpectedly long and smooth with, again, a distinct touch of toffee.

This is a dram that one can enjoy at every occasion, be it as an aperitif or after dinner. I prefer it without water in order to fully savour the unmistakable creme brulee flavour.

A nice and smooth taste

Nose: Grassy and citrus fruit. There is a bit of ginger to it.

Taste: Sweet citrus taste of orange, lime, and maybe a bit of honey.

Finish: Light and smooth at the beginning they has a spicy dryness to it

Nose: caramelized apples, oak and lemon tart, rather fresh.

Palate: Sweeter than the nose, with ginger candy, oak, raisins, tangerine and citron. Gentle on the palate with not a lot of body, but very drinkable.

Finish: medium. Nutty and semi sweet.

All in all this is a fine dram, but nothing to get all excited, It’s fresh, with some sherry notes, and lemon and citrus ouotlining. Nice for a summer evening here in Israel, or as an aperitif. Not very impressive, but again, as a young 40% entry level dram (it’s not the youngest, as they also releaser a ‘Classic’ NAS expression) it delivers. Pricing is fair, yet I think you can do better at that price range.

Sampled in a Glencairn, without water but with a satisfied smile on my face.

The legs are thin and a bit weedy, like the kid at school who always got picked last for the playground footie match.

Nose: Toffee, fudge with orange elbowing its way between them. A very full flavoured aroma that I could sniff for ages.

Taste: Toffee and fudge again, berries of some sort and maybe raisins. Very full, rich and satisfying.

Finish: Quite long and satisfying, the toffee and fudge remain and I get a lingering feeling of warmth and all being right in the world.

This dram makes me feel like I’m sitting in front of a warm log fire whilst outside the wind blows a gale, the rain falls and the temperature drops. The TV is on and I’m watching my favourite football team win 5.0 against their biggest rivals and their star player has just got sent off for diving in the penalty area. It doesn’t get any better.

Can’t wait to try some other 'toshans. They might taste like England winning the World Cup (but we’re getting into fantasy now).

When poured the color is light caramel learning towards amber. The nose was hard at first to put a finger on but after a short while, cigar could be smelled, but not only cigar it was a feeling of being wrapped in a blanket near a warm fire somewhere in the woods. The nose lingered for the remainder of the dram, exposing whiffs of caramel along the way. The taste was an average one with something there just not yelling as loud as its nose. It was satisfying and a relaxing drink to have after work or a small meal.

I have been interested in picking up this bottle for quite some time as I had read many positive reviews of the bottling. It also represents a great value in Ontario @ Can$45, which is actually cheaper than Glenlivet and Glenfiddich 12! As for background on the product itself, make sure to check out Connosr’s own “Toshan Man” and his website at www.markdermul.be/toshanman/ . This excellent site also includes a link to the re-designed Auchentoshan website

I have shared this bottle with other novice and experienced whisky drinkers and all have enjoyed it. This dram was tasted in a copita glass, without hand warming or water added. Now on to the notes…

Nose: Toffee, butter, and most noticeably, caramel coated almonds. I also detected a slight hint of orange once or twice, though it does not provide a consistent presence.

Palate: The buttery sensation translates nicely from the nose to palate. The underlying orange sensation also make an infrequent appearance that, when apparent, provides a nice contrasting flavour to the general buttery/toffee/almond combination. A slight black licorice note is also detected fairly regularly. A mild peppermint note also appeared suddenly and briefly. I’m not sure what to make of this, as I have not noticed that note on a consistent basis with each sample. Please comment if you have noticed this or can provide a theory on it.

Finish: The licorice note detected on the palate carried through on the finish that I found to be of medium length and drying. It had a slightly harsh quality that detracted slightly from the experience.

Balance: There is a good transition of aromas and flavours between nose, palate, and finish. I found most flavours to be consistently present, without being in competition with one another.

Overall, a very nice dram that is an excellent value product that I find to be superior to the traditional Speyside gateway drams. It will have a continuous presence within my cabinet. I would particularly recommend this to people who are interested in getting into SMW’s, but have enjoyed sweeter liquers in the past such as amaretto and Grand Marnier.

Mellow magic dram. One for all you lovers of proper water from the land!!!

It took a second visit of this and three small glasses in to appreciate this offering. The best taste came after leaving out the water, so taken neat, and leaving the glass to stand for 10 minutes or so before drinking. Light syrup and slightly spiced on the nose with a smooth and lightly peppered taste and warm finish in the throat. A perfect after dinner or Christmas Whisky, if anything a little too sweet for me that left me wanting something a little more complex... perhaps one of the older Whiskeys in the family will have that extra depth.

A friend owed me a bottle of scotch, so I chose this one. I was surprised!

Price: Low Tier. Region: Lowlands.

Nose: Exceptional. Sweet waves of caramel, sugar pies, cream - a tsunami passing through a bakery - batter your nose. Out of the bottle and into the glass, slight hints of apple cider and tobacco arise.

Body: Quite soft. Much more viscous side than oily. Smooth on the tongue with little obstruction upon agitation in the mouth.

Taste/Palate: Major: Spicy, sweet Minor: Some salt, some caramel

Finish/Aftertaste: As expected - easy without much smoke. The aftertaste was interesting to me; a distinct dryness and the green stems of summer fruits.

Really good nose, but this raises expectations a bit too much. I Found it difficult to find the reflections of the nose in the actual taste itself. There was some sweetness, some caramel - but it mostly remained undisclosed. For its price, it was surprising though. A good budget single malt.

72/100

Smells a bit like Creme Brulee, "soft" and sweet nose. Very smooth. Glides down leaving a gentle heat on the tongue with peppery overtones. Love it.

Being a novice, I had not yet heard of Auchentoshan until a year ago, let alone know how to pronounce it (apparantly it's ocken-toshan or something like it). But this 12 year old, that I got as a birthday gift from co-workers, really is a damn good dram.

The nose is very sweet with a load of caramel, a whiff of nuts and a spoonful of honey. I like it. A lot!

The taste is sweet, but not overly so. Just a tad of lemon, but again loads of caramel and honey.

The finish is medium lenght, sweet and dry.

I like it a lot! With my birthday coming up again soon, I'm going to try to get my co-workers to get the the Three Wood :-) (And while it may have nothing to do with the quality of the whisky, I love the shape of the (new) bottle).