Mackmyra Svensk Rök (Swedish Smoke) review
January 16, 2016Jack Daniel’s Sinatra Select review
January 20, 2016Blending good whisky together
I just have to make a quick post about blending whisky from my own cabinet, again. Last time I did it, was because I had bumped into Ralfy’s vlog tip about blending bad whisky with a good one, to make the bad taste better.
This time I happened to blend together two good whiskies, by accident. One evening, I had sipped a small dram of Aberlour 12YO Non Chill-Filtered. I left my drink on the kitchen table for a while, minding my own business. Needless to say, I don’t have the memory of an elephant: I had not put on the kitchen light, and while it was dark, I forgot that there was wee bit Aberlour left in my glass and started to pour Mackmyra Brukswhisky. As soon as I started pouring my new dram, I realized that there was still some Aberlour left.
That was the beginning of my new innovation. Blending good whisky together. I decided to go with my new blending of two good malt whiskies. What would be the point in not enjoying that dram, even though it might be against some snob whisky etiquette, which some whisky enthusiast somewhere started. And by snob whisky etiquette I mean the elitist attitude you bump into from time to time: people telling you what you should or should not to experience and do with whisky.
Turns out that Aberlour 12YO Non Chill-Filtered and Mackmyra Brukswhisky go together even better than they taste separately. I must point out that I like both of the drams as they are. But this new mix tasted even better. A marriage made in heaven for my taste buds. That’s why I decided to blend them together to an empty bottle bottle of Blanton’s, which by the way, is like a cool whisky decanter. Sláinte!
To prove that I am not the only one doing this, here’s Ralfy (again) blending together three single malts. These are from the same distillery (Springbank), so Ralfy’s blend remains as a single malt, while I was doing a blended malt. Ralfy blends Springbank, Longrow and Hazelburn, calling it playfully: Bankrowburn.
Like Ralfy says, it takes balls to do it. But it’s nice to experiment with whisky, even with good whisky. Start with small samples so you won’t end up ruining a bigger batch of good malt whisky.
4 Comments
I have small amounts of Jack Daniels Old No. 7, Early Times #354 and Crown Royal whiskey. I’d like to blend together whatever I can to save space while packing to move. Can I mix any or all of these together for a creative fund?
That sounds interesting Jan, I’d go for it just for fun. And it might do good for the quality if you’re going to store them for a longer time, if the palate satisfies you. But it’s of course hard to determine whether the mix would have a good palate.
In my experience it’s usually good to blend strong expressions with milder ones, using much smaller amounts of the stronger stuff, of course. Those three are probably quite similar to each other, maybe Jack Daniel’s being bit of an exception? So if the total amount of JD is less than Early Times and Crown Royal combined together, that blend could actually work.
I’d go for it and blend it again with some other whiskey if the blend of those three doesn’t fit your palate. Thank you for such a good question.
Hey
I bought a disgusting non age-statemented Shackleton homage blend on a punt ferr mi christmas Anyway i mixed in another annoyingly liquorishy blended whisky(about 8%, not telling you which) and i then added a tiny dod of fine port to colour it. You’ll likely hate me ferr this(im English)but its a bit more drinkable now and made me feel better about mi dodgy purchase. Any thoughts on dodgy home brew blending from a pro would be interesting. cheers Rob Kidd
Hi Rob,
Adding port wine actually sounds good to me. I would also add something very smoky in it. Some affordable heavily peated whisky. Just because I tend to like sweet and smoky whiskies, and I’m not a big fan of blended whiskies. That’s why I would add those ingredients into the mix. But of course, those are just my opinions, based on my palate.
How did the two blends with splash of port taste?
br, Johannes