After a 2 weeks hiatus due to my Scotland trip it’s time to get back to ‘real’ life and start posting again some tasting notes. I have some in the writing blog posts which I didn’t complete before I left for Scotland and I also have lots to tell you about the trip, but let’s start with some new and sweet whisky review – to sweeten the the comeback.

During the trip I visited Douglas Laing HQ in Glasgow and I’ll write a separate post on that visit but this time – Scallywag! I was fortunate to schedule the visit for the day that Scallywag, their new blended malt, was released, so this one post is all Scallywag.

Scallywag is Douglas Laing counterpart to their very popular Islay peated blend – Big Peat. But instead of peat, sherry sweetness!

This is what Scallywag is all about:

The vatting of several single malts from across Speyside’s distilleries – including Mortlach, Macallan and Glenrothes amongst others – uses a high proportion of liquid from Spanish Sherry Butts

Quite interesting one ah? So, of course we opened a shiny new bottle and tasted it.

Douglas Laing Scallywag blended malt (NAS, 46% ABV, NCF, buy for £36.5 here)

Nose: Oh so very sweet! There’s no mistake here – a huge sweet sherry impact, lots of sultanas and raisins, but also some young spirit wafts. once the sweetness tsunami recedes there’s weak struck match/sulfur at background with some plastic/rubber edge notes but overall very rich sherry notes and sweet but far from being over-sweet.

Palate: Starts smooth with mellow oak, still sweet sherry but less so then the nose, red fruits, some spicy note shows at the back of the mouth, nutmeg and cinnamon but very gentle, all while staying sweet.

Finish: Not too long, sweet, sherry and vanilla, very mild (and sweet) oak note lingers.

Conclusion: Well done Douglas Laing. A well worthy blend, sherry sweet and a perfect counterpart for Big Peat. With RRP of £36 (and probably a bit less on major online retails), and great packaging ,it’s a very good choice as (one of) your holidays whiskies. It should show up in stores any day now, so keep looking for it. Slainte!