Well if you’ve never heard of Chivas Regal, then you must be new to whisky. And possibly just new to the world. It’s truly one of the big Scottish whiskies that has thoroughly infiltrated pop culture and bars across the world. The company began, like other big and old whisky companies, as a grocery store in Scotland. The Chivas brothers opened up their grocery store in Aberdeen in 1801. They unsurprisingly sold luxury items and in the 1850’s James Chivas made their first blend, Royal Glen Dee, to suit the more delicate palates of their refined customers. In 1909 the Chivas Regal brand was born with their release of the Chivas Regal 25 year old. This has been called the original luxury Scotch and was marketed mainly toward the new wealthy class in the USA. Today their flagship whisky is the Chivas Regal 12 although they also have other expressions like the 18 and 25. However, those come with quite the premium price tag.
The company is now owned by Pernod Ricard who also own Glenlivet and Aberlour as well as quite a few other Speyside distilleries. Thus the Chivas Regal 12 contains quite a bit of Speyside whiskies.
We tried this expression at the University of Edinburgh Water of Life Society “Whisky 101 – Blends, Grains, and Malts” tasting on September 29th.
Type: Blend
Age: 12 years old
Cask: NA
ABV: 40%
Price: £25.79 at the Master of Malt
TheMadVatter
Nose
Perfume, dried flowers, very sugary milk chocolate.
Taste
Viscous, coats the mouth with sweet cream and edible dried flowers. Dried Berries. A tart old oak with caramel apples. A tanginess that is almost meaty. Like sweet BBQ pork buns.
Finish
Caramel sweetness and burnt pie crust. Oak tartness but older.
Rating
7
Afterthoughts
A flavourful blend. Smooth but with character and strength. The nose is at first simplistic but the perfume notes are quite intriguing. I really like the way it coats the mouth. Great mouth feel. I like the meaty sweet flavours. This feels invigorating. A good courage booster. This deinitely has more substance that a typical blend and would be good for both beginners and avid whisky drinkers.
Adventures in Whisky Land 
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