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Radermacher (Belgium) Lambertus 10 yo Grain Whisky

Corn and Chemicals

0 1156

@VictorReview by @Victor

24th Apr 2013

0

Radermacher (Belgium) Lambertus 10 yo Grain Whisky
  • Nose
    16
  • Taste
    14
  • Finish
    13
  • Balance
    13
  • Overall
    56

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Distribution of ratings for this: user

  • Brand: Radermacher (Belgium)
  • ABV: 40%

A friend living in Belgium who knew some Scotch but didn't know Belgian whisky, brought us the only Belgian whisky she could find. We were very grateful for the effort. This will be a sequential format review

Nose: strong sharp chemical odour, with toffee, subtle corn, and flowery perfume. This wouldn't be bad if you could remove the chemical industrial quality

Taste: very sweet on the palate, more so than in the nose. The chemical quality remains, which ruins everything. You can atually taste a little corn here, which I find unusual and laudatory in a corn whisky aged 10 years in wood. Usually the wood obscures any corn flavaours. Here there are almost no wood flavours to taste

Finish: sweet with chemicals and some corn flavour; stays on your tongue longer than you would prefer

Balance: I really like that you can smell and taste corn here. To my palate that is rare with all corn whisky which is aged in wood. Unfortunately industrial chemical flavours ruin this whisky

(If 56 looks like a low number, please read 2013 Jim Murray)

11 comments

@PeatyZealot
PeatyZealot commented

The Gouden Carolus Single Malt will be bottled at the end of the Year. Its a distilled beer so kinda like Charbay, but a lot cheaper. Gouden Carolus beer is usually very good, so Im looking out for this one! Maybe your friend can bring some

10 years ago 0

@Pudge72
Pudge72 commented

What would be the source of such a prominent chemical profile? Bad cutting of the distillate (i.e. too much feints or foreshots), or something else (bad or too inactive wood for the casks)?

More importantly, how could something so prominent be missed by the distillery?

10 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

@Pudge72, yes, an excessively wide cut (in a pot-distilled whisky) would seem to me to be a prime candidate for some of the unattractive chemical flavours in a whisky. Another candidate would be inadequate provision of metallic copper in the stills, thus yielding a cruder product. Beyond that? I am not sure.

10 years ago 0

Rigmorole commented

Just saw you bought a bottle of Blantons, Victor. Me too! Just in time for the Kentucky Derby. I'm going to a Derby party this Saturday. That reminds me, must get my white suit pressed and cleaned! Blantons is awesome bourbon and the bottle is even better!

10 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

@rigmorole, I am indeed loving my new bottle of Blanton's Original. I am looking forward to trying the uncut version fairly soon, also. That one has to come in from abroad, though. Why it is not available in the USA is a mystery to me.

I guess that you have to be especially careful not to spill whiskey on that white suit when you are at the Derby parties!

10 years ago 0

@Nozinan
Nozinan commented

I caved. My friend asked me to try it....

Smells like a corn cob after the kernels are off. Something " off". This does not smell like any whisky I have known.it is like the smell when you enter a hoarder's house and move a few books around.

Taste. Clearly they did't taste it before bottling. Thank goodness this is not cask strength .

Not one to finish...

10 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

@Nozinan, GEEZ! Where did you even GET a bottle (or sample) of Lambertus?

Our friend in Belgium mentioned to @markjedi1 that this was the bottle she had given us. He told her that in Belgium they refer to Lambertus Single Grain 10 yo as "the gift of poison".

10 years ago 0

@Nozinan
Nozinan commented

I have a friend who likes to pick up Whisky in the duty free. On a recent trip to India he and his wife came home separately . He brought home the Bowmore 100 proof - decent dram - . She chose this. He said something to the effect of "don't ever buy Whisky without me again..."

Pretty glad I tried it. Makes me appreciate JW RED. And I never thought a drink could reproduce that smell...... Once I a lifetime, as in, NEVER again!

10 years ago 1Who liked this?

@Pandemonium
Pandemonium commented

The main problem with Belgian Whisky is that it is expensive sewage water in a whisky bottle. Like the Lambertusa single grain being sold for €40? Maybe there is something wrong with their production process when it comes to cost efficiency or maybe the just thought they could get away with squeezing as much cash out of their customers as they possibly could knowing they would never buy another bottle again. The experience of drinking this crap reminds me of taking a sip of Drumguish of the Speyside distillery.

10 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

@Pandemonium, it really makes you wonder whether the people making Lambertus have ever drunk any real whiskies and whether they have been sampling their own product before offering it for sale. Anyone with any real experience of whisky would likely be unwilling to ever ask for a second drink of this one.

10 years ago 0

@Pandemonium
Pandemonium commented

There are many bad whiskies out there, I believe they sometimes must realize that they created something awful, but they did invest a lot of money in it. Just smile and pretend your whisky is the shit, maybe some idiot will buy it eventually. I can't imagine the people of Mannochmore were really proud of themselves when they made loch dhu, but they still decided to put it on the market.

10 years ago 0

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