The simple facts are this whisky is a speyside blended whisky, its 30 years old, it’s only available through Aldi supermarkets and it’s cost $99 AUD. So how can Aldi afford to sell 30 years old whisky for below $100? For the people out there who consider that simply the older the whisky the better it is (you know who you are… …) this is a no brainer… 30 years for $99 roughly $3.30 a year you are paying! Bargain alarm bells BUY BUY BUY!
However let us think about exactly what we are buying.
Let breakdown the label:
1. Glen Orrin – Aldi does its own bottling
2. Blended Scotch Whisky – A Blended whisky usually consist of 60% grain whisky and 40% single malt whisky and have roughly 14 to 40 whiskies used in its blend to obtain the flavour.
3. 30 aged Thirty years – The regulation is that the minimum whisky used in this has to have matured for minimum 30 years.
4. 40% ABV – Not surprising most blends are at the minimum 40% ABV
So reading and understanding this label, the key point to take in is that around up to 40 whiskies were used in this blend and all of them have to be a minimum of 30 years old. That is allot of old whisky to use in this blend, and old whisky is expensive oh wait… correction good old whisky is expensive…
So this is the beauty of blended whisky. Not all whiskies produced are good whiskies and the industry has to have a way to use or sell these not so good whiskies. Blends are an excellent way to use younger and also “less tasty” whisky to combine with other whiskies to make a blend which is firstly can be reproduced the same flavor multiple times and also an outlet to utilize ALL the whiskies they are produced.
This is a good thing, remember 90% of the whisky market is dominated by blends and blends are usually No Age Statements (NAS) and cheaper than the single malts. You can’t just only drink single malts… or maybe you can?
The noise is of sweet caramel, with a light spicy taste and a smooth but short finish. It’s deep amber in colour but not sure if it is uses coloring at 30 years you think not… Not bad at all.
So should you buy it? For its price it is the cheapest 30 year old whisky I have come across, it’s not all too bad ether just for the same price I might be able to find a single malt which could be better but probably not by much. Overall in a blind test it is an above average whisky. I’m all for tasting different sort of whiskies and this is a great example of a blend which probably didn’t have the best 30 year old whiskies as an ingredient but ended up as good blended whisky. Hats off to the master blender!
This is also a whisky which is limited in stock, it comes and goes in batches and ever since they closed the Aldi liquor store online in Australia, you would need to manually check each store for stock and each time I’ve found it in stock it’s only one bottle left!
I guess if you wanted to try an affordable 30 year old whisky from the 80’s era you can’t go pass this one!
Taste: 8.0
Price: $$
Cost per shot: $4.24
Rarity: Easter Egg Hunt – keep searching till you find the golden egg!
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May 2016
- May 4, 2016 Ardbeg Uigeadail May 4, 2016
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April 2016
- Apr 22, 2016 Glen Orrin 30 Years Apr 22, 2016
- Apr 15, 2016 Hakushu 12 Years SMW Apr 15, 2016
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March 2016
- Mar 28, 2016 Nikka Coffey Grain Whisky Mar 28, 2016
- Mar 22, 2016 World Whiskies Awards 2016 Mar 22, 2016
- Mar 18, 2016 Glen Grant 10 Years Mar 18, 2016
- Mar 11, 2016 Sullivans Cove French Oak Cask Mar 11, 2016
- Mar 4, 2016 The Macallan 12 years Sherry Cask Mar 4, 2016
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February 2016
- Feb 26, 2016 Monkey Shoulders Blended Malt Feb 26, 2016
- Feb 19, 2016 Whisky 101 - Understanding the Label Feb 19, 2016
- Feb 12, 2016 Amrut Fusion SMW Feb 12, 2016
- Feb 8, 2016 Lagavulin 16 Years Old Feb 8, 2016
- Feb 7, 2016 The Yamazaki Single Malt 12 years old Feb 7, 2016