Chivas Hundred Cask Selection
Delightful but diluted
0 088
Review by @newreverie
- Nose20
- Taste23
- Finish22
- Balance23
- Overall88
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Chivas is best known for producing good blended whiskey. The Royal salute rage is the top of their line, with the hundred cask selection being near the top of this range. The hundred cask selection is designed by the chivas master blender. He individually chooses 100 casks from their stocks to blend into each release. One has to wonder what sort of thought process goes through a blender's mind as the 100 casks a chosen. Bottle 17584/31999 release 16 40% ABV Nose: Sherry bomb nose, but with added scents of apple and maraschino cherries. Speyside and Highland herbal notes. Finishing with a hint of ocean salt. Really lovely and well rounded, but it really needs some peat to send it over the top.
Taste: More sherry, but peat makes an appearance right along side it. The peat isn't heavy as to overpower the Sherry. It is more like a joyful husband and wife embracing in their first kiss. Joining in the celebration are crisp apple and sweet waxy honeycomb. In the background a symphony plays with notes of the well chosen casks that joined to make this blend. Finish: Cinnamon pop rocks. Do they make those?, because that is what this is. Cinnamon bursts over and over, never burning, more of a sweet cinnamon like Big Red gum. The scotch closes with a flavorful herbal mouth feel that only a blend of this quality and depth can achieve. Balance: Soft, subtle, and diverse. This is the blend that Johnnie Walker Blue wants to be. Still, it isn't the best Chivas I've ever had. 38yr Stone of Destiny and Century of Malts are superior. This is wonderful stuff, but better drams are attainable for hundreds of dollars less.
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