Single Grain Scotch Whisky OB | 43% ABV

Finding my way to new bottles… and completely new whisky

Despite the fact that my bourbon and rye exploration continues, I always and primarily have my eye on Scotch whiskies.

Finding outlets that can ship to me, reviewing auction sites to find one (read here: any) that are not cost-prohibitive, finding and using a mule network...all have been in play and utilised. 

However, nothing compares to walking into a brick and mortar joint, taking your time to take in the room, visually poring over shelves of malts, examining and comparing various bottles, and finding unexpected veins of malt gold. Outside of a surprise diversion to a liquor store in Washington, DC in July, that experience of walking into a brick and mortar liquor store stocked with a range of interesting Scottish whiskies has escaped me since December 2023.

This past week, however, plans were hatched to escape from Fort Malt Desert. I was off from work. Mrs. Shaw and I originally had planned to make a road trip through central and western North Carolina during the week, but the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene tabled our original plans to follow The Bumble through the other side of our newly adopted home state. Our Plan B was now on the table. We decided to play the week ad hoc style. Whatever seemed to hit our fancy, we’d place on the list of items.

As soon as that discussion about an ad hoc style vacation was discussed, I think I heard Ralfy in my ears speaking the words “right…single malt it is”. I think I quivered a bit – enough so that Mrs. Shaw looked at me a bit quizzically, smiled, and asked if we could make a trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I looked at her as she asked the question – and as she asked it, I noticed a knowing twinkle in her eye. I paused, and then embraced her and started laughing. We both were excited at the thought of making the run to South Carolina. She – my better half and equally as enamoured with uisge beatha as I – was also giddy at the thought.

A quick dash to our laptops and we were able to secure a very good rate on a nice hotel along the beach; a last-minute discount given by the property to fill the room. The next morning, we packed a bag, and were on our way. Thoughts of Clint Eastwood in “Escape from Alcatraz” and Kurt Russell from “Escape from New York” danced in my head. 

The weather was wonderful as we made our way. We stopped half-way, roughly an hour and a half later, in the Wilmington area to visit some family and to make some purchases of items that we would not find so readily near our home. The stops were just long enough to derail the whisky hunt that evening. 

After our time in Wilmington and then getting back on the road, we checked into our hotel around 6:30pm. We had a lovely dinner, enjoying our time together and enjoying the fact that I didn’t have to wake up early the next morning, get into a suit, and drive to work. We retired to our room on the 18th floor and grabbed two patio chairs. Our patio faced south, and we enjoyed the sounds of the surf hitting the beach to our left, and looking at the lights of Myrtle Beach in front of us and to our right. We watched the crescent moon bearing a crimson hue set into the horizon as we relaxed and talked about what we wanted to do when we grew up.

All the while – as children go to bed on Christmas Eve with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads – we went to bed with dreams of single and blended malts. Saying that out loud is, admittedly, somewhat disturbing, if I’m honest… but we were certainly looking forward to a malt whisky hunt once again.

We awoke, stretched (as we are of that age that if we don’t, the rest of the day’s inflexibility leads us to think we’d been cast in the role of the Tin Man), and had a priority diversion to get some good coffee for Mrs. Shaw. We tried using the packet of coffee provided by the hotel, but Mrs. Shaw’s horns and fangs revealed themselves as she spat out the charade of coffee that was in her mug. From the coffee shop, we drove an additional twenty minutes to Total Wine – a national chain with a not-insubstantial selection of Scotch whisky. It was 9:30am when we parked our car in front of the store. While doing it as a joke, there was more than a bit of real thanks when I dropped to my knees in the parking lot and raised my arms to the sky. (Again, admitting this out loud is, perhaps, not my most proud moment as an adult.)  A very large gentleman in an old, rusty Ford F250 pickup truck next to my car started to laugh audibly. I turned to him, and as he continued his belly laughs, he gave me a thumbs up. 

He knew. The struggle is real.

Mrs. Shaw and I walked into the store, and the aisle to our immediate left was clearly the lane for Scotch whisky as I recognized the Diageo-shaped bottles on the top shelf. I made a bee-line to the aisle, with my wife close in tow. However, one of the salesmen for Total Wines – trying to be helpful, but not reading the room – intercepted us. He asked if I needed help finding anything.

As is painfully obvious after two years’ worth of reviews, Ogilvie Shaw is a talkative and social guy. However, in that moment – barring one episode, I had been starved of this experience for most of a year – I was absorbed in what was in front of me. I wanted to soak up what I was seeing. I wanted to pour over these shelves of Scotch whisky. 

I know when to speak and when not to. I will greet someone or speak to someone, but if there is a clear reticence to engage in chat, I will not pursue it. Reading the room is a must. The salesman did not appear to have that skill. My amazing wife stepped into the breach to give me time to soak in what was before me. 

Poor Mrs. Shaw tried to distract him, seeing that I was singularly focused. I could hear him try his best to deliver some canned phrases…  “Oh, if you like smoky whiskies, maybe you’ve heard of Eye-slay [his pronunciation]?” and “Johnnie Walkers are really smooth.”  It took a few minutes for him to take the hint, but my wife did manage to politely excuse us from his helpful hints. I apologise to whomever was on the floor that day in Total Wine. Mea culpa…but we were on a mission.

I took my time going down the Scotch whisky aisle, viewing the bottles on its five whisky shelves, and then came back up the aisle. I chatted with Mrs. Shaw about bottles that, at first glance, piqued my curiosity. I went over to the American whisky aisle, but then came back to the Scotch whisky aisle. We had a shopping cart, and I was not going to leave with a mere one or two bottles. 

After going through the aisle three times, there was one carton, in particular, that oddly kept grabbing my attention. I had never seen this brand, nor any of its expressions, ever before on a store’s shelf. I certainly knew of the distillery, but as ironic as it was that I had thoughts of a great hunt for Scottish malts in my head – and I did find several bottles of malt, by the way – the bottle that kept grabbing my attention was not malt. Neither single malt nor blended malt. Nor blended Scotch whisky. It was a single grain.

I was utterly surprised that it was the first item that went into my cart. Of the other bottles that found their way into my cart, I had some second thoughts about some. And yet, at no time did I doubt my selection for this grain whisky even though I have never had a grain whisky in my cabinet. I have read about grain whiskies, I have heard about a few expressions and their particular flavour and palate profiles. I was utterly curious. Was I concussed?  Did my joy of being at a brick and mortar render me non compos mentis?  I don’t believe so. Let’s see if this bottle was worth the long trip down to Myrtle Beach and the long trip back.

Review

Invergordon 14yo, Official bottling, non-chill filtered, natural colour, 43% ABV
US$60 paid (£45)

Nose

Fresh out of the bottle, the nose is somewhat muted. Letting it sit in the glass for ten minutes the aromas develop and your patience is rewarded. Whipped and salted butter on a brioche roll. Clementines. Orange pith. Vanilla cream from a Boston cream donut. Peach oatmeal. After a few trips to the nose, some golden delicious apple skins come forward. An ever-so slight waft of walking into a pastry shop.

Palate

The first sensation is…silky. Utterly silky. Vanilla cream and citrus. Lemons and clementines. Fruit cereal or oatmeal. Pastries dusted with sugar. Vanilla icing. A tinge of maltiness. Did I mention the texture is lovely? Buttered dinner rolls. The slightest hint of overly sweet pineapple.

The Dregs

Truly, a surprise. Though I was intrigued and curious to buy a single grain whisky, I must admit I kept my expectations low. I mean, really…how could a grain whisky stand up to a single malt?  

It does. And, I am happy to say this is a very nice whisky. A single grain whisky…a marked difference from a single malt whisky – and a welcome difference, at that! 

As we know, single malt whisky is produced from one distillery and made from malted barley. Single grain whisky is also the product of one distillery but (unlike single malt whisky) doesn’t need to be made from barley, nor does the grain need to be malted. Instead, single grain whiskies are often made from varied malted and unmalted grains. As is found on Invergordon’s website:

Single Grain Whisky is made from water and malted barley, and may include one or more additional grains, often rye, wheat, or corn. It is distilled from a grain or mixture of grains - malted or unmalted - at one single distillery and must be aged for at least three years. It may be produced using a copper pot, column or hybrid still and ‘single’ refers to the fact that it must be made at a single distillery, rather than from a single grain.

The Invergordon site does not give a breakdown of what grains, nor ratios, are used for this whisky. I did track down one online outlet that claims the 14 year old here is a mix of corn, malted and unmalted barley, as well as locally sourced Scotch wheat. Whatever the mashbill (strange to use that term in relation to a Scottish whisky), this expression is aged in first fill and refill White Oak ex-bourbon casks, and these casks have done a great job of imparting notes of vanilla cream in this whisky. The grain component gives the glass such a silky texture and feel that it sets the glass apart from anything else on my shelf. Just as one’s first sample of a Clynelish 14 or a Deanston 18 gives a remarkable and unmistakable waxy feel that is unique, this silkiness sets this bottle apart for me. This silky trait might be ever present with grain whiskies, as a whole, but again, I haven’t had a grain whisky before…and I am just enjoying this new sensation.

This was the best surprise whisky I have had to date in 2024. There are better whiskies I have had, but of those great bottles I had some inkling of the wonderful liquid I would taste. And, at $59.99 for a 14 year old whisky, this Invergordon hits all the right spots. 

I should point out that on the shelf at Total Wine was an Invergordon 18 year old, with a price tag of $89.99 USD, if memory serves me correctly. Yes, more expensive, but for an 18 year old Scotch whisky, not horrible.

How is this wonderful liquid only $60 USD for a 14 year old whisky?  My mind goes back to the I Am A Distillery from the Colonials Podcast Episode 2 in which the clues were for Oban Distillery. That distillery only produces 870,000 LPA. In my investigation of Invergordon – the behemoth workhorse for Whyte & Mackay – it has a capacity to produce 36,000,000 LPA. That is not a typo. 36 million. I would think the sheer capacity to make this whisky contributes to the ability to produce enough stock to keep the price this reasonable.

Scoring this bottle has been a bit tricky. I have mentioned that it is my habit to give a score based on the whisky alone. This is a solid 6/10. If price were factored into the score, maybe this pushes closer to a 7/10 – one of the few times in recent memory that price would increase a score instead of being a knock down.

I don’t want to be rash about this, but I believe that this (or another single grain whisky) might be a permashelf addition. This Invergordon will start me down an investigatory journey of different single grain whiskies to compare and contrast. Having either this bottle or another single grain whisky on the shelf simply provides another avenue for unique texture and flavour. I imagine this might do very well in blind tastings, and will curry favour with other whisky botherers. Great that my whisky hunt has another lane of flavours and textures to explore, and am very glad I listened to my gut and grabbed this bottle instead of simply staying in my single malt lane.

If you haven’t tried this bottle, and it is the same value proposition where you are, give it a try. You just might be as pleasantly surprised as I have been.

The flavour hunt continues, regardless of the type of whisky.

Score: 6/10

Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. OS

Other opinions on this:

Nothing other than the official site 🤷‍♂️

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