Most whisky people always complain about blends. Or to be more accurate they complain on bad blends (myself included). There’s no doubt that the majority of the whisky blends created (92-94% of the entire whisky market mind you) aren’t too good – at least at the eyes of whisky single malt lovers.

However, there are some good blenders and blends out there. I’ve previously covered Compass Box blends which are very good and it’s time to try another blend from another artisan blender – The Tweeddale Batch 3 from Alistair Tweeddale.

This is a quite successful brand with 4 batches out so far – mostly sticking to the original recipe of Alistair’s great grandfather.

I got a sample of Batch 3 from Tom Thomson (Thanks again buddy!) and I’ll quote from the Tweeddale site:

In batch three the same single grain is 18 years old from sherry butts. Seven of the malts are from the same casks as batch 1 & 2 but a year older (13 to 21 years old). The core malt is 14 years old from different casks. This release will have natural colour as well as not being chill filtered and bottled at 46% abv.

Looks good ah? Let’s see how it tastes like:

The Tweeddale Batch 3 12yo (46%, buy for £37.95 here)

Nose: Greenery wave at first, vanilla, some grainy notes, biscuits, get a bit sweeter over time but with some sharp mint blended in.

Palate: spicy ginger & sweet pepper, sweet green fruits and then oak wood with vanilla.

Finish: Medium length, spicy oak wood and some vanilla – all very smooth and gentle.

Conclusion: Indeed a very good blended whisky. The recipe from old times works fine even today. easy drinking quality blend with very good price, so get a bottle and enjoy.