Dewar's Signature

Dewar’s Signature is a blended Scotch whisky with no age statement, bottled at 40% ABV. It sells for around $200-300. The Dewar’s version of things is that “the heart” of this blend is a 27 year old Aberfeldy. The heart probably does not mean the majority, or they would have used more precise wording. The heart of a human being, for example, is less than 1% of a human being, by mass. What I am trying to suggest is that how can Dewar’s afford to put anything except Mott’s Apple Juice, mixed with moonshine, mixed with less than 1% twenty-seven year old Aberfeldy when this whisky is put in an extraordinarily heavy bottle in an extraordinarily shiny lacquered wooden box, and not charge like $500? And yet they managed. This whisky is very Aberfeldy, and quite aged. There are undoubtedly some grain whiskies in this blend, but they are not there to cut costs, and add to the overall experience. Honestly, if I was trying this blind, with the false information that Compass Box composed this blended Scotch, I would believe it. The only cheap ingredient in here is water. The majority of this whisky is water. If you can tolerate a 40% ABV dram, then this one shouldn’t be too disappointing. It is, display box and all, certainly a pleaser for the masses. Most often, I get beautiful notes of orange peel, milk chocolate, honey, and sponge cake. Cake is probably the theme of this whisky. Its layers of complexity can all be reminiscent of various light cakes: peach cobbler pound cake, fresh apple cake, Rice Crispies cake. The secondary theme is flowers. You can imagine some rose in here, but mostly even lighter flowers, such as freesia, lavender, and gardenia. All of this is appropriate for this time of the year (beginning of summer). Would this be a better whisky at a higher ABV? Yes. Recently, I have been appreciative of lower ABV expressions, and wondering how much of the quest for full cask-strength expressions is just alcoholism. 40% ABV is plenty of ABV for average people, who will probably even add an ice cube to cool this “beast” down, but I have not yet returned to such plebeian behavior. I can imagine that, if this Dewar’s Signature was at 46%, it would have my full endorsement. 46%, or a heavy metal stopper. This current stopper is plastic, which is a little bit of an embarrassment. The stopper is the shoes of a luxurious whisky presentation. This is like showing up in a bespoke tailored suit from Milan and Kenneth Cole shoes. The headline for this review could be “Dewar’s Signature is surprisingly good, will appeal to most people, and you can only dislike it if you are a whisky snob AND an alcoholic”, or “Dewar’s signature is mostly water, in a bottle, with a plastic stopper.”

I'd say that it was a surprise to see that, as billed,this stacks up so well against Blue, except that I'm not that big of a fan of Blue (Green is the king of the realistically priced Walkers) so it doesn't take much. This is a good, solid scotch and a good bottle to keep on hand for respected guest because of its stature and presentation but not likely to be your new "must have on hand" bottle. Four stars is dead on at this price, cut it by a third and it would rise to a 4.3-4.7 in that range with the added value boost. I think this is a marketing issue. They should have billed it as the Platinum killer and priced accordingly. You don't take on Walker from the top of the (again, realistically priced) line, you have to climb the ladder.

Beautiful golden yellow. Nice slow legs like slow motion rain. Honey, toffee, marzipan and crème brûlée from an fancy restaurant in the neighborhood. Round, rich, well balanced flavor with warm good lasting finish. Great complement to granny's dark chocolate deserts.

NOSE: sawdust, burnt sugar, sugar cane TASTE:  strong menthol, citrus Water - light water flattened flavor. NOSE: Floral, leathery TASTE: same menthol and citrus just flattened out No water needed

Whisky mtl Honey Bacardi. Aberfeldy another of their products Highland de aberfeldy 27 yrs Glenluvet 18 Glen devront 37 yr Sherry malt cherry Coffee toasted

Nice flavors, velvety smooth, reminds of blue label but not as pretty. Still a good dram but for the money I’ll go blue label instead.