St. Léger

Being an "advertised" whisky drinker, I sometimes get unexpected gifts from friends and family, especially in the form of host gifts. I received this from a friend who was staying over for the night.

Since this seems to be a whisky that sees little distribution and there's not much info on it on the internet, to avoid others from buying it, I decided to review it even if it's not really my cup of tea.

Nose: Vanilla extract and honey mixed in water. Pears dipped into window cleaner. Dust. There's also a savoury note, like old pizza spices from your grandma's cabinet. Clearly a young spirit that is throwing a tantrum from having been waken up from its cask slumber way too early.

Palate: Light and watery. Flat old cola followed by bitterness and hot alcohol. There's not much here. Maybe pears and maybe honey if I go searching for them, but do I really want to ?

Finish: No finish whatsoever, except from a lingering watered down oak bitterness that comes up if I chew after swallowing. Same feeling as drinking very diluted gin. Eurgh. Am I drinking scotch ? I don't know.

This is a blend made to be mixed and not sipped, so I'm not really doing it justice by drinking it neat.

But the thing is, it's not that good at that either ! Even mixed, the window cleaner comes through in the nose. With Label 5 (which also is not distributed everywhere so it seems), this is on of the cheapest blend avalaible in Quebec, but not by much...

Grant's Family Reserve, Black and White and JW Red are all better alternatives. Steer away. As it is a gift, I'll keep it around for guests who just want to add a splash of alcohol to their soda, but I wouldn't personnaly buy this ever again.