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Loch Lomond Original

Average score from 4 reviews and 4 ratings 70

Loch Lomond Original

Product details

  • Brand: Loch Lomond
  • Bottler: Distillery Bottling
  • ABV: 40.0%

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@Rantavahti
Loch Lomond Original

Loch Lomond Single Malt comes from the Highland region and has no age statement. The distillery has released 7 different malts under various names, and some blended whiskies as well.

I read somewhere that Loch Lomond was the favorite whisky of Captain Haddock (character in Tintin). So that's why the title. I really can't come up with more words, the whisky is too mediocre.

Nose: Reminds me of grainy blends a bit. Creamy with cereal notes and oak stepping up a bit. Light but harsh. Some caramel and leather in the mix as well.

Taste: More pleasant than the aromas, yet one-sided. Sweet with barley and honey notes. Small hints of pepper and mint. Definitely the best part.

Finish: Cereal is present again. Length is good but again, one-sided. Biscuit notes and spices in a flat finish.

Balance: Quite dull whisky, not interesting enough for a single malt. Price is low, though.

I had a bottle of this once. (It was an impulse "hey, I never saw that back home in the US" kinda pick when I was in Scotland in 2010.) It was gross. I remember nicknaming it something like "industrial floral rot." Definitely not worth hauling back home.

It was the reason I started blending stuff together at home, though, which has turned out to be fun and valuable. The continual lesson is that peaty stuff can mask almost anything.

@Nozinan Drink it, neat or mixed with something peated like @OlJas suggested. For me, this would be decent enough not to mix with anything, if I had a whole bottle. Fortunately it was my friend's bottle I sampled.

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From a 3cl sample bottle. Loch Lomond is one of the most unusual distilleries in Scotland, producing both grain and malt whisky, and has sets of standard pot stills and Lomond stills (although apparently they technically aren't, they are pot sills with rectifying columns). They produce a variety of single malts with varying peat levels and cut points, and this is their standard NAS unpeated malt produced in the 'regular' pot stills.

Nose - Very light, pine, sap, slightly floral geranium, then something slightly weird and industrial-solventy, Airfix glue, acetone, methylated spirits, turpentine, rubber, possibly bubblegum, later on with hints of vanilla, butterscotch and caramel.

Palate - Light again with a sweet arrival of pine, sweet vanilla essence, icing sugar developing into a hit of sour oiliness and rubber, still industrial, some mint sweets, Fox’s Glacier mints, some white pepper towards the end.

Finish - Short with a return of the pine, digestive biscuits and a hint of pepper and green oak bitterness.

The saying goes that there are no bad whiskies, just some that are not as good as others, except Loch Lomond. Ok, so that's not how the saying goes, and is also a little unfair. This is definitely young and rough, but then it sort of alternates between some quite nice pine and floral notes and that weird industrial solvent flavour, which is not altogether pleasant. The finish is barely there, but is actually relatively normal. I'm almost tempted to buy a bottle, just because it's so different!

Wow—except for when Ralfy* did a video on this a while back, I think this is the first review I've ever seen of nasty old Loch Lomond. I think 63 is just about right in my book too.

I had no idea what it was but I came across a bottle in at petrol station/convenience store in northern Scotland during my one trip there a few years ago. Being on a mission to bring home interesting bottles that we don't get in the US, I snatched it up almost without hesitating for the low low price £19 as I recall. I admit that the cool-looking bottle & label sold me.

I got it home, opened it, hated it. Gross. Is "industrial floral" a thing? Loch Lomond was the reason I started making my own home blends—because I was trying to blend away this nasty beast.

Nice review.

As I recall, Ralfy has quite some appreciation for it. Not that he says it's good or that he likes it, but I recall him describing it as a real throw-back, working man's kinda whisky. I should dig up that video again. It's been a few years since I watched it.

In my comment above, the weird bold "As I recall..." bit at the end was supposed to appear with an asterisk to link with the asterisk on my mention of the Ralfy video. Apparently leading asterisks produce bold formatting her on Connosr? Huh.

I just thought the otherwise unexplained "Ralfy*" was worth explaining, as was the bold.

Also, I want to try it out:

*Here's text that directly follows an asterisk. Is it bold?

Here's text that's separated from the asterisk by a space. Is it bold?

And now playtime's over.

@talexander

Loch Lomond is a Highland distillery, built in 1965 as a joint venture between Duncan Thomas and Barton Brands of America, that produces both malt and grain whiskies. It is currently owned by Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse Ltd. (whoever the hell they are). Their entry level single malt carries no age statement and is double matured (I'm guessing mainly in bourbon casks with some finishing in Madeira casks).

The colour is a burnished gold. On the nose, candied almonds, pralines, barley sugar and the slightest hint of peat. A little bit of dark honey - also slightly perfumey. Nothing too exciting going on here, but water gives it a little more depth.

On the palate, quite young and lively, and rather sweet: candy cane, buttered toast and butterscotch. As with the nose, water contributes more depth and body. Not terribly complex.

The finish is a little hot, with some raisins and a bit of smoke. The sherry cask influence seems to be more apparent here. This is an extremely light, sweet, young malt. Certainly not terrible, by any means, but not really to my taste.

@markjedi1

Loch Lomond is a factory. Their core business is the production and sales of fillings, bulk whisky at very young age. They do not make a secret out of it. Their whisky is hence not very well regarded, except maybe by Capitain Haddock, the faithful sidekick of Tintin. Today we try the NAS-version from 2010, probably a very young whisky as well.

The nose is very light and grainy. I am reminded first and foremost of a slice of white bread, with (do not laught) peanut butter spread on it. Then some cardboard and warm milk. Lucikily there are some hints of apples and sugared breakfast cereals to make up for things. A little bit of honey. But oh, so light!

On the palate as well, it is very light. Make that watery. Absolutely not good. Mild spices follow a bland palate of cardboards and sugared iced tea. Soft hints of vanilla cannot repeal the mediocrity.

The finish is mercifully short, on more cardboard.

Pouring this in a whisky-cola would be a waste. Of the cola, mind you. One of the least interesting single malts ever tasted.

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