Grant's Family Reserve

Uisgebetha: is this your review of Grant's Family Reserve ? I know Jim Murray rated the GFR very high, and others seem to enjoy it too. But I can honestly say it has been one of the worse whiskies I have ever tasted. I struggled to consume it over nearly a year. Adding water did not help. Decanting for various periods of time did not help. Combination of water and decanting failed too. Tried vatting with other whiskies and while slightly more tolerable, it represented a waste of those much better whiskies. In the end, I ended up giving what I had left away. Perhaps I got an exceptionally bad bottle. But the bad taste still lingers, and I am not willing to buy another bottle to find out.

Yes and appologies that the title of the review is a bit unclear, this was Grants Family Reserve, although what it's been reserved for I don’t know. I found this bottle at the back of our cocktail cabinet and was intrigued enough to review to see what it was like. Your bottle if anything seems to have been worse than mine. Mine will only be used in cocktails from now on, and not replaced with the same brand!

I usually understand it when anyone dislikes a bottle which I liked, because I know that we are not drinking from the same bottles of whisky. I've seen way too much variation in batches and bottles of whisky to think that one bottle of 'whisky X' is the same as another bottle of 'whisky X'.

As to Grant's Family Reserve, even though I do like my own 1.75 L 'handle' of it very much, even with this bottle I observed significant differences depending on how much air it had taken, and especially, related to the mood I was in when drinking it, and whether I had tasted anything else with strong flavours first.

Victor, I find it hard to equate your review with the contents of my bottle. There certainly must be some batch variation, but also maybe some variation in the way blends are mixed for different markets? I don't buy many bottles outside of the UK, although I do notice that some brands in the travel trade vary from the UK domestic market.

@Uisgebetha, I have no doubt whatsover that your bottle could be very different than what I have drunk of Grant's Family Reserve, or that your experience with any whisky could be very different from my, or you own, experience of that same whisky at any other time from another bottle. I have drunk from quite a few bottles which I would have had a hard time to equate my experience with,...with bottles of whisk(e)y I have had MYSELF with the same name on the labels.

There are bad batches, and bad bottles, some huge batch variations, and sometimes huge differces after some air time.

What I am saying here is that all of these experiences are out there to be experienced, if you try the same branded whisky repeatedly, from different batches and different bottles. The whisky industry attempts to attain consistency in flavours and quality. My experience is that it succeeds in that only part of the time.

And it is not just "good" whisky that has the occasional "bad" batch. "Bad" whisky can get a really "good" batch now and then. I have not usually liked (at all) Johnnie Walker Red Label or Jack Daniels Old No. 7, but I have had some of each that I did like...from the occasional "good" batch. It was most definitely not my mood which was different. The whiskey tasted VERY different.

...which does not begin to address the topic of how differently different individuals experience even the very same bottle of whisky, tasted at the same time. That is a very large question in itself. People's taste perceptions, descriptors used to describe them, associations of those flavours with other experiences, and preferences, do vary widely.

I concur Victor, all we can do though is give our opinions unless distilleries can iron out all batch variations or someone comes up with an electronic whisky tasting machine... both are unlikely and the later is probably undesirable anyway.