Whisky : Whyte & Mackay’s Shackleton Blended Malt

Country/Region : Scotland/Blend

ABV : 40%

Cask : American Oak, Ex-Sherry

Tasting : Neat in a Glencairn @ Home

Nose : Sweet and fruity with pleasing floral notes. The aroma reminds me of picking blueberries and blackberries of sun spatted bushes. There is a big of graham cracker crust as if we are getting ready to bake a pie along with some sour rhubarb and faint smoke.

Palate : After such a pleasant aroma I was expecting a well rounded dram— yet it is extremely thin and mild in flavor. It is sweet like water that has a few drops of honey added, fruity as if a piece of strawberry or watermelon rind had at one point been soaking in a glass of water. A bit of salt as if I were drinking this ‘infused water’ a half mile from the ocean.

Finish : I’ve had water with a stronger finish than this dram. Maybe there is something metallic or astringent there, but it is so faint to be as if it were nothing more than the memory of a memory of scotch.

Score : 1

Mental Image : At a trendy yogurt café four or five years ago where the complimentary water comes out of this giant jug with bits of fruit floating in it. The water has only the very vaguest of fruit taste so that I was never sure exactly what the point was aside from maybe it looked cool? Gave off a particular vibe? It certainly seemed to be a waste of fruit otherwise, I’ve never found water so boring that I just needed a sliver of strawberry to spice things up.

Something Better : Glenlivet Founder’s Reserve (or Glenlivet 12 to go up another rung)

Something Similar : Mineral Water

Something Worse : I would say Johnny Walker Red, but I don’t think that’s entirely fair to Johnny.

Notes : I had been eyeing this bottle for a while, it spent most of the summer priced 50% off just about everywhere that had it in stock (which is basically every single store that sells any liquor— they have a great distribution deal). The discount was tempting enough that I really considered grabbing a bottle to try. I loved the idea of a scotch designed to replicate Shackleton’s 1907 expedition as part of the ‘Race to the Pole.’ However, less than positive Reddit reviews and a backlog of other drams I actually like, led me to put off indefinitely the purchase of this bottle.

Turns out that this mass market bottling is an ode to earlier reproductions of Shackleton’s original 1907 cargo of scotch, not itself a faithful recreation— just an homage to that effort. No inherent problem in that, it is certainly priced low enough that its easily accessible, but the marketing material would still lead one to believe that this bottle is in fact a more faithful recreation.

So how is it? Frankly it’s not at all to my taste, I would describe it as weak and generally flavorless. Really pretty terrible. Now, I can see some people enjoying this, especially new whisky drinkers, who may find its mellow and restrained profile far more friendly and approachable. The dram just is not for me, it is too muted and too flavorless to risk liver damage by drinking it.