Kirkland 12 Year Blended Scotch

I'm on a quest to find the best blended scotch for my "handle" shelf of liquor. The everyday pours. The cocktail bases. The bulk buys. The stuff that's affordable enough that you don't think about it when playing around with a new idea. It was inevitable that Costco would become involved. In one fell swoop I brought home this, it's bigger 17 Year old Speyside Single Malt brother, its Kirkland London Dry gin cousin and distant cousin (and repeat visitor) Kirkland French Vodka. For this review, I tasted from a bottle that's been open a couple weeks. This scotch was sampled neat from a NEAT tasting glass. On the nose this gives up apple juice, slight ethanol, very faint notes of plum and whiffs of barrel wood. This is not a very forward nose, but the aromas are pleasant and quite appropriate for a quality blended scotch. On the palate the entry is sweet, soft and silky. This is a very easy neat sipper with little trace of ethanol, a fruity sweetness that fades to something like wet cornflakes in milk, and a trace of lemony, pithy wood bitterness. The finish is lightning fast and fades cleanly. I'm sitting here trying to find something to complain about. The sins of this blended scotch are sins of omission. It doesn't "do" all the things amazing scotch can do flavor wise, but it really doesn't do anything wrong. What it does it gets right in a soft, submissive way. In a Rob Roy I found this scotch really loves the sweet vermouth, but it becomes a costar and really not a headliner. The vermouth is allowed to dictate the personality of the cocktail. I tried Cocchi Vermouth di Torino, Martini & Rossi sweet, and Cnia Mata Tinto Reservo Spanish vermouth. In each instance I could easily taste the vermouth and discern how the cocktail as a whole changed its face. There's nothing here to hate, or even dislike. This is a solid, inexpensive, pretty unexciting but completely solid blended scotch whisky. For the price this is one of the great VFM deals, getting an extra quarter star for affordability. I have no qualms about this in my glass. I rate on a scale of 1 to 5 where the vast majority of product is going to find itself on a bell curve. Any quality, competent product should score between 2 and 3, with the peak at 2.5. This is definitely at that peak. If you're in the market for a budget handle ($36 in my market) and you have a Costco membership, this is an easy decision.

So about a month and a half ago I was perusing the whisky aisle for something new and, more importantly, cheap to drink in mass quantities on a weekend trip. Enter the 1.75L magnum bottle of Kirkland 12 year old blended scotch from Alexander Murray for the whopping price of $53. I figured it would be more than plenty and the price was right so I bought it. Over the course of the next month I whittled it down to the point where I needed to start taking notes or it would be gone, so here’s what I found. Bottled at 40% ABV and is chill filtered and has Johnnie Walker levels of colorant added making it a dark amber. Lots of oak, honey and grain alcohol up front on the nose. Plenty of vanilla, smoky apples and pears. Light sherried raisins, burnt sugar and slightly waxy. Nutmeg and some light cinnamon and chili powder. Overall sweet and fruity, but too light to be engaging. A touch of salt/brine, orange rinds and more oak and burnt sugar. The palate has strong oaky notes, caramel and burnt sugar. Vanilla, orange and grain alcohol. Slightly smoky and peaty but more like an afterthought than a plot point. Honey with a salty undertone and a hint of pineapple and apricot. Predominantly grain alcohol and a fair amount of toasted coconut, but the standout profile is that of burnt sugar. A light to medium bodied mouthfeel that is thin and forgetful. The finish is short with vanilla, caramel, grain alcohol and, you guessed it, burnt sugar. If you couldn’t tell, the overall theme here is burnt sugar and grain alcohol. It really boiled down to those two notes by the end of every glass and it became quite boring. Not that bad for the price and quantity you get, but I’d rather spend $10-15 less and pick up the same amount of Famous Grouse, which I think is a better blend. Not recommended neat, but it’s not that bad on the rocks with a splash of water. 2.5 and a buy at your own risk only if you love the taste of burnt sugar warning. Cheers PS, this will NOT be appearing in any Dapper Drams episode. Not wasting my time or yours bringing this one to the pocket sized screen.

Nose: pleasant sweetness, malt, maybe light brown sugar, moderate darker fruit notes, rounded, vanilla, maybe an hint of spice similar to nutmeg, simple and straight forward. Taste: very much like the nose but finishes with a light smoky, peaty note. Medium finish at most. This is actually a very good budget scotch for a daily drinker. Perfect to follow up and keep your evening going after you and some friends have had a few drams of the good stuff. Edit 29May2021: Nose seems to have changed a little. I get a paint thinner/paint fume like quality from the get-go lately that takes away from the rest of the nosing experience. This very well may be a flavor/nosing drift from previous distillations. 2.5 rating if it’s like this. Still decent but can be off putting if you have it after a few other 10-15 year old scotches. Another edit, 22Dec2021: This thing is going on a interesting evolution. More flavor drift, but for the better. Way less of the paint fume quality. Perhaps a cocoa or chocolate quality on the finish now? The profile overall seems to be more true to what it was supposed to be. I’ll stick to the 3.25 rating as of this edit.

This isn’t available in my state due to liquor laws but a friend of mine managed to get a bottle. The nose is sweet and fruity. The palate follows the nose but adds some spice, a touch of pepper, and a touch of caramel/honey. I really struggled to get any peat influence, although my friend claimed to get a little peat. The ABV is 40% so no need to add water although I did try adding a few drops just to see what it did — which wasn’t much. The single-malt diehards who prefer to spend an hour with a dram while dissecting and analyzing their whiskies, should avoid this as it is definitely on the bland side of the whisky spectrum. For anyone looking for a pleasant, easy-drinking and affordable daily scotch to be enjoyed while watching a movie or reading a book, it’s fine - especially at the price point. If you are fortunate enough to live in a state that allows Costco to sell liquor, grab a bottle and give it a try. I think a 1.75 liter is around $30 or so.

Clearly this is Costco’s attempt at a JW Black - styled scotch. And they have done a decent job of creating a drink that’s clearly in the same ballpark as the Black. But it’s an imitation, not a duplication. Smooth, with some character. I enjoyed for a month. But the following month I went back to Costco and bought the JW. If I’m feeling on a particular day that I shouldn’t she’ll out $50+ for the JW, I could easily buy this as a cost-conscious substitute. But most of the time I’ll be willing to pay the premium for the real deal. This was “fine”, in a good way. Very competent blend. But nothing to get excited about.

A 12 year blend for $38 per 1.75L bottle seems like an amazing deal. So I was eager to see what kind of quality you get for that value. There is char and smoke on the nose. The palate has also has some char but it is overwhelmed by sweet cream and nougat. There are also some dried fruit and smoke flavors there to enjoy before a short finish. This isn’t a complex whiskey to sit and contemplate, but it is enjoyable and does have good flavor. If I didn’t know better I would think it was blended almost to taste like Johnnie Walker Black. If so, it did a pretty decent job.