NAS Blended Scotch Whiskies | 46% ABV

Was 2023 the Year of the Blend?

It was February 6th, 2023, when my review of two well-aged blended Scotch whiskies from Boutique-y aired on Dramface. The headline read 2023: Year of the Blend? So how well did my magic future-casting crystal ball do? 

Personally, it’s hit or miss but not for lack of trying. While I live in Alberta, which I lovingly refer to as Canada’s malt mecca, and have access to far more whiskies than most other Canadians, our importers and consumers generally focus on single malts. No surprise there.

So the amount of blended malt or blended scotch whiskies available is relatively quite low and often lags Scottish releases by significant lengths of time. From memory, Macleans Nose just hit the market about 2-3 months ago, Thompson Bros TB/BSW or SRV5 will never hit my market because of the release sizes, ditto for anything from Watt Whisky as well, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a bottle of Buchanan’s either.

What has made its way here and fought its way through the flush importer portfolio’s and crammed retailer shelf spaces has been North Star’s well-regarded The Fool at its excellent price point and Johnnie Walker’s Black 12 yo is easily found. However I’ve yet to pull the trigger on this duo as I don’t want to waste my whisky funds on whiskies that won’t be used as a review on Dramface and I don’t find to be overly interesting. No shocker there. 

In 2023, amongst around 370 bottle reviews, Dramface reviewed 14 blended Scotch whiskies and 15 blended malt whiskies. So definitely a far cry from being the “Year of the Blend” on Dramface as well. But again, that’s to be expected. We spend our own money on whiskies that speak to us and if blended whiskies are not rising to meet our attention, we will spend it elsewhere.

So how did these two Turntable’s speak to me? First I ever heard of them was via Roy at Aqvavitae when he was blown away by Turntable’s Purple Haze release despite it’s higher price point compared to many blended Scotch’s on the market. Fast forward six months and a trio of these finally hit my local market but, low on funds from other purchases, I didn’t pull the trigger right away.

Two months later and the heavily sherried Purple Haze had sold out. Obviously the internet buzz around this release led to the clearout but what remained was these two 2023 Special Releases. With a 20% off discount coupon in my pocket from a New Year’s sale, I snapped up these two to see what all the fuss was about for I was in a blended whisky groove and I felt like disrespecting my self-imposed purchasing restrictions. 

Every year, we pack up the family and drive to the in-laws mountain lake house between Christmas and New Year’s. We go skating on the frozen lake, go skiing at the nearby mountain with the kids, and sit around the wood fireplace in the evenings with wine and whisky in hand. It’s a great slowdown after the holiday madness. Given space in the vehicle is usually at a premium, I didn’t want to pack many bottles of whisky. And given the number of open bottles in my whisky collection (you can read all about my collection and sobering thoughts here), I wanted to bring some open bottles to finish off however many of them are on the bottom half of the fill level. Taking precious space up with 4-5 bottles of whisky seemed ridiculous so what did I do? I combined 4 bottles into 2 in a haphazard and untested heathen blend.

Now I’m not taking any credit for that apt-term, that belongs to my northern Alberta brethren the Whisky Heathens (Instagram, YouTube) who’ve coined a heathen blend as dumping the last vestiges of any number of whisky glasses together into one at the end of the evening and letting the chips fall where they may. You win some and lose some. So with the need to consolidate 4 bottles into 2, I created two heathen blends to unwind with during my mini vacation. I didn’t even taste test them before packing them, letting the jostling of the vehicle mingle the flavours on the 3.5 hour drive. 

Heathen Blend #1 was three parts Holyrood “Smoky” Blended Malt and 1 part Signatory Edradour 10. 

Yes, it’s the common peat & sherry combo but you know what, if it works it works and I was hoping these whiskies would play nice with each other. And in this case, the dash of heavily sherried Edradour elevated this 5/10 blended malt to a 6/10. A great sipper and was promptly finished in 3 nights. Nay sad about dumping those together with abandon. 

Heathen Blend #2 was two parts Arran Port Cask, one part Compass Box Story of the Spaniard. This was going to be the odd-ball here. The Arran is on the darker and more bitter spectrum and the Spaniard on the lighter and sweeter spectrum with distinct and clean red wine influence. I wanted something sweeter and unpeated to balance out the first blend to mix things up. Plus, the wife doesn’t like peat breath. And you know what, it worked! Delicious, rounded, sweet, and yummy. The CB Spaniard completely transforms the fairly dark and narrowly focussed Arran, making it brighter, sweeter, and more well rounded.

In pure coincidence, I was working my way through a G&M Glentauchers and poured myself a follow-up dram of this heathen blend. The Glentauchers, while lovely in its own right, was more watery and two-dimensional in comparison to my haphazard blending experiment.

That’s the power of a blended malt with various casking where each can complement each other and fill in gaps from another component. Now of course, blending can completely cancel another component out, detracting from the end goal but I got lucky again. The addition of the 43% blended malt from Compass Box brings this 6/10 Arran into 7/10 territory. I purposely saved a few drams and brought it home with me to enjoy in the future.

So after my heathen blending experiment success, I needed to check these remaining Turntable blended Scotch releases out. I just had to! After messaging in the Dramface writers chat that I was working on these Turntable blends, but having a hard time focussing on the flavours in my glass because I was rinsing the glass subconsciously before I could write anything down, our Wally provided this sage quote:

Blends done well are essentially cocktails. Too easy to drink…

-Wally Macaulay

Review 1/2

Turntable Blended Scotch, Track 01, Joy. Discovery. Invention. 2023 Collection (24/04/2023) Unpeated, un chill-filtered, natural colour, 46% ABV
CAD$80 paid (£47 - was closer to £70 UK retail) now mostly sold out.

Nose

A medley of tropical fruits all smeared together. Dried apricot, dried mango, candied pineapple, good dose of vanilla, and light/golden toffee all swirled together. Deliciously bright and fresh, exactly as advertised.

Palate

This is hitting all of my sweet spots. Duplicate the nose and add on a raspberry compote with a few dried cranberries on the side. Dash of cinnamon on top. Bliss. Just a touch of grain ‘bite’ is detectable on the first sip. Or is that the power of suggestion? It’s conveniently missing upon the second sip!

The finish is medium with a slightly drying feel which helps offset the involuntary salivary response, and a pleasant fading juicy sweetness. It is nicely mouth-coating as well.

The Dregs

I am incredibly blown away with the flavours and the palate experience of this whisky. This whisky begs you to rethink blended Scotch whiskies.

There’s elements of the red wine barrel here but thankfully it’s very restrained and not a sulfury cask. In fact, it reminds me of a Càrn Mòr Glenlossie 12 yo matured in red wine barriques that I’ve got stashed away. Take that single malt; grain whiskies can be delicious when matured right!

Could I tell that 43% of this blend is grain whisky? Nope! Masterful - as opposed to heathen-style - blending at work here. Do I remember that I am drinking a blended Scotch when enjoying this whisky? Not at all, it’s instant amnesia about the label details and it is all about the flavour.

Well spun Turntable, well spun.

Score: 7/10

Review 2/2

Turntable Blended Scotch, Track 02, Firestarter. 2023 Collection (26/04/2023) Peated, un chill-filtered, natural colour, 46% ABV
CAD$80 paid (£47 - was closer to £70 UK retail) now mostly sold out.

Nose

Instantly detectable smoke but it’s far from billowing out of my glass. Very recognisable and restrained Caol Ila-style smoke with a citrusy dryness and a touch of ashiness. Vanilla and toffee. There’s a lovely smoky and sweet balance that is struck here. No, it’s not bursting with fruits galore nor is it lathering sherry atop everything.

Palate

The 40% Caol Ila component is instantly detectable as a dry wood smoke. The toffee from a candied apple. Hard candies. Vanilla. Faint touch of brown sugar sweetness. There is a slight peppery bite that leaves a mild tingle in the experience but this fades with the addition of water. Not a youthful derived bite then but a byproduct of the enthusiast-focussed 46%ABV.

The finish is a pleasantly fading smoke and general sweetness. Objectively, the finish is shorter than Track 01 above but I’m not complaining. There’s nothing poky or jagged here, just a well balanced affair.

The Dregs

The whole experience is like eating a Cacio e Pepe, a globally recognised and loved pasta dish made of 4 simple ingredients (pasta, pecorino, parmesan, black pepper). Simple and elegantly enjoyable, with every ingredient working in harmony and synchronicity, elevating the whole experience to something delectable. An amazing tightrope to walk and something that artisans of old walked however modern takes on the classics have layered on supposed complexity in the pursuits of new and fancy presentations. Did you still think I was talking about pasta? Ha, got you! 

Simple oak influence perfectly balancing and tempering the peat. Wonderful.

Score: 6/10

The Final Dregs

Now, I’m no stranger to blending things, attempting to emulate or improve on a variety of different whiskies, as demonstrated somewhat in my Playing Whiskymaker feature. It’s a long read but can save you some learning curves if you’ve considered attempting to create a unique blend or use up the dregs of bottles much in the same way as making cocktails. But one thing that I did learn from experience in trying to improve on the neutered and hamstrung JW Black was that the ratio of grain to malt components can significantly influence our enjoyment of a blended Scotch as a whisky enthusiast or nerd.

For example, Maclean’s Nose, a recent and very well received and accoladed whisky features 70% malt and 30% grain. During my attempts at improving the ubiquitous Black, I found that exceeding the 50% grain component led to a poor and unenjoyable whisky (from my perspective at least!). My final blend featured 42% grain and interestingly, some of the Turntable releases match my grain ratio. Perhaps my final ratio is the sweet spot for a blended Scotch where exceeding the 40-45% grain whisky begins to detract from the experience?

As with anything on Dramface, we must talk about the price, but I have a question to ask you; in the end, are we paying for a label or are we paying for the flavours/experience?

I would wager most of us are in the latter camp, seeking exceptional flavours and experiences at an appropriate price point. With that in mind, these Turntables are priced extremely fairly (in Alberta) for the quality of product. Yes, it is priced quite high when compared against other blended Scotch’s however for the flavours in the glass and experience of drinking them, the $80 CAD(£47) I paid for mine are spot-on, even a smidge of a bargain.

The jury is out on whether or not 2023 reached its promise of being the year of the blend, but it did take positive steps towards embracing the category. These releases are very much part of that positivity. I know I, for one, will be keeping an eye on future Turntable releases.

Tried these? Share your thoughts in the comments below. BB

Other opinions on these:

Whisky Wednesday (Joy. Discovery. Invention.)

Whisky Wednesday (Firestarter)

Whiskybase (Joy. Discovery. Invention.)

Whiskybase (Firestarter)

Got a link to a reliable review? Tell us.