Dewar’s Signature is a “premium” scotch blend created to compete with the likes of Johnnie Walker Blue Label. It was developed by Master Blender Tom Aitken and being a Dewar’s blend it likely has a fair amount of Aberfeldy single malt in it. Other than that there’s not much information on it. We just have to take their word that this is indeed premium. So in that respect it is a lot like the Blue Label. Jim Murray apparently gave this expression 95 points in his Whisky Bible but then again he also said that Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye was the best whisky/ey in the world last year. So who knows right? Well thanks to the good folks at Whisky Auctioneer, we got to try a sample of this.
Type: Blended Whisky
Age: NAS
Cask: Unknown
ABV: 40%
Price: £248.43 from the Master of Malt
TheMadVatter
Nose
Fresh cut green apples and toffee syrup, scottish fudge. Sugar cookies. Papaya.
Taste
Bitter apples, kahlua cream, bananas, strange over ripe melons and papaya. A kind of fruity stinky savoury flavour sort of like durian fruit. The kahlua coffee flavour dominates. Like factory grease or something mechanical.
Finish
Bitter kahlua cream. Irish coffee. Sneaker rubber bitterness.
Rating
7
Afterthoughts
At first this comes off as a pretty standard 12ish years old ex-bourbon cask aged single malt but then there is this unique bitterness and mix of tropical fruits and machine oil. It really reminds me of the Inchmurrin 12 year old with the industrial grease note. I am not sure what I am picking up because I tried the Inchmurrin 12 at a tweet tasting and no one else seemed to get that industrial grease note but I suspect that if you do not like the Inchmurrin 12 you probably will not like this. However, if you do then maybe this is right up your alley. Definitely a lot more going in here than your typical blend. It was just a bit funky in a way that I did not appreciate as much but at least it wasn’t bland.
AliceInWhiskyland
Nose
Sweet fruit syrup, faint citrus with some cereal notes.
Taste
Cereal sweetness mixed with fresh fruits and spice, ginger and cinnamon.
Finish
Spice lingers to a long finish.
Rating
6
Afterthoughts
light and summery dram.
