White Horse Scotch is a blended whisky from Edinburgh, named after a famous Edinburgh hostelry. The production was started by James Logan Mackie in 1861. The brand is nowadays owned by Diageo and Lagavulin is the base malt for this malt and grain blend. It contains approximately 40% malt whisky. In 2007 Whisky Bible, White Horse was named the “Blended Whisky of the Year” by Jim Murray.
White Horse is indeed, a very malty one. Lagavulin has done good things to it. Still, there is that robust blended whisky note, which doesn’t suit so well for me. So not as good as I expected. Fruity notes in a rough and occasionally stingy palate is just not “my cup of tea”. We are talking about too straight forward and robust Seabiscuit here.
Still, it has character. I can imagine people liking it because of the Lagavulin involvement. I know, as a fan of Lagavulin, I should. Too much grains in a blend just ruins it for me. Even though I did manage to get some of those malt aromas while using a whisky nosing glass.
Check out my articles about:
3 Comments
It should be noted that, per good Scotch custom, that White Horse is a thrifty dram (at least in the USA) .
Have an unopened bottle of W Horse blended scotch whiskey It is over 40 years old. I am trying to determine the actual age. It has an AD number of 1006211. Label has history of the company on. On bottom there is “”SA627”. What can you tell me about this particular bottle of Scotch? Thank you for your time and knowledge. Harry
Hi Harry,
That’s a good question, unfortunately I’m not a expert. Sometimes those reference numbers on the label might be a good hint, for example 62 being the year and 11 month. But that’s just a guess. Bottles might also state the manufacturing year, usually molded at the bottom of the bottle in 2-digit format.
I found this article by Whisky Auction https://magazine.whisky.auction/how-to/how-to-date-a-bottle-part-2/ which gives a hint that your bottle could be from the 1960’s. Because of digits SA on bottom. You can also try to contact White Horse Distillers if they have more information.
best regards, Johannes