Certainly one of the most well known and reasonably priced whiskies in the UK, Grants Family Reserve can be found in off-licences and bars all over the country. Popular as it is, is it any good? Our resident whisky obsessive, Jack, takes a more detailed look at the ‘Real One Off’.
Verdict? Economical but pretty harsh…
Rating
Price
£15
In A Nutshell
A very accessible price point, but not really a whisky for beginners. A bit much for me…
Grant’s make time for the family and this happens…
Grant’s site proclaims “If you’ve got this far in life without owing anybody anything, how far have you really got?” A good question, and I suppose one in reference to the fact that the 130 year young whisky brand is still family owned and run. Onto their 6th generation and with a credible claim to being ‘SCOTLAND’S OLDEST CONTINUOUSLY FAMILY-RUN, BLENDED WHISKY MAKERS’ (they sure love using capitals on their website…), Grants is actually one of the younger of the distilleries. Though, as the world’s third largest scotch whisky brand, that hasn’t stopped them.
If you ever been to an off-license in the UK you’ll have noticed Grant’s distinctive triangular bottle (which does not apply for some of their rarer and lesser known expressions). What you probably saw was the Grant’s Family Reserve – with its red label and accessible price tag, much beloved of people drinking purely for the sake of it, but a pretty enjoyable dram all the same. This is what you’re looking at here, and it seemed about time that Tasting Britain did something with it, considering how popular it is round here!
However, the Family Reserve is but the gateway to what is an varied and vibrant portfolio of firewater. Grants have some lesser known and more premium offerings such as the ‘elementary’ (coming in such chemistry oriented offerings as oxygen, carbon and copper – each representing the process used in production, I think). And yes, they have a 25 year…
We taste it, stuff happens
Nose
‘Fruitcake assault’. It’s weighty and spiritous, heady and musty. There’s something sour – glue (?), wood glue for wood flavours? Shoe polish, honey, sugar and woodsmoke. Lots of alcohol evaporating off of it. Quite ‘hot’ for something at a ‘mere’ 40%
Palette
Put it in your mouth and you will soon have an experience that is both sweet and slightly acerbic/sour. On your tongue, it’s immediately sweet and hot. A young, fiery and temperamental whisky.
Swallow and yes, there’s sweet honey caramel and dried fruit for your booze chute, intermittently (though more of the honey). Meanwhile, a heavy, oily ashen sweetness dances around on your tongue – oh myyyyyyyyy.
It’s heavy duty but… generic, and after a few drams, kinda cloying. Old leather, slightly worn in – seems to more leathery the more I drink it. New wood, wood varnish that is quite hard to deal with after a few drams.
I couldn’t ‘session’ this, and there’s nothing really new here – though it does turn out to be smoother than nose belies.
Finish
Breathe the fuck out, it goes straight to Metaxa stewed fruits and that rubbery note. More sourness. Leather, honey and caramel comes out more, it may remind you a little of Werther’s Original toffee, with… a little extra. That spiritous, wood polish heat is a theme that follows this whisky from nose to lingering finish. It is very rich…’filling’ might be the word.
The overall impression is of something that would be hard to keep drinking for too long. The last thing you have is stewed fruit turning to toned down honey and that and drier lingering vanishing varnish tarnish. It’s quite a long finish, too. So, if you like it, this is great. It sure has staying power!
Verdict
It’s not so characteristic but it is well priced. It’s still a bit too harsh after extended drinking to be an ‘everyday dram’ for me. I certainly couldn’t drink too much of this whisky. What would it be suited for? You don’t usually buy whisky because its cheap, but with this, maybe you do? I haven’t tried mixing it but it might hold its own in a cocktail with a lot of other ingredients. Not sure I’d trust it in an Old Fashioned :3