Chivas Regal 12 Scotch Whisky Review

Welcome to the Whiskey Bowl. I'm trying to figure out what I'm missing because my brain was in a different place. Are you ready? I'm ready. We're going big brand. Oh, oh. You're not going to. Oh. This is going to be another one of those ones you're just not going to believe. That we haven't done. OK. You ready? No, I'm really not because Chivas Regal. 12. OK. Yeah. All right. We've done the Mizunara. Yeah. And we did a different Chivas. That I can't remember off the top of my head all of a sudden. But it turns out we haven't done Maker's Mark. We haven't done Woodford Reserve. We haven't done Jameson. We haven't done Ardbeg 10. We didn't do the 13. We haven't done Largaville and 16. You know what? I think we've never done Red Breast 12. Oh, you're right. We should do it. We haven't done Red Breast 21. It really deserves a whole week of episodes on the one bottle. Basically, I don't think we've done any of my favorite whiskeys. Yeah. So I want to talk about, by the way, this is a gift from Michael Morgan, Magnificent Bastard. Michael Morgan, you magnificent bastard. I have never reached for Chivas Regal to put in my glass. Me either. There's always other things that I'm reaching for before them. Where does Chivas Regal land within the larger lexicon of whiskeys? Well, the Chivas 12, I think, lands in the nicer Johnny Walkers. OK. And maybe the Naked Grouse, or instead of just the generic Famous Grouse. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just like, I think this one is blended scotch, but just one rung more up the ladder from budget and whatever. It's a mixer. Because the pinnacle of blended whiskey is I'm thinking of a compass box. So we're not at that level, but we're also not in the basement. We're not in, basement's maybe too harsh a word, but the entry-level budget stuff, like a Dewar's, or. When you go to a random bar that only has, what do you have for your scotch? And they only have two. And one's Glenlivet, and the other one is Chivas, or Johnny Walker. And it's like, all right, I guess that will be doing that. That's very helpful. Context is Glenlivet level. Even though this is blended. Even though it's blended. Yes. But as far as entry, it's approachable. I don't think it's going to be as good as Glenlivet, but it's been a long time since I've had Chivas 12. And this is cool. I'm going to pour another one. If I get the glass. I do have the glass. It's good. Their blender. 40%, of course. Yeah. Sandy Hyslop is their master blender. She said, I'm extremely proud to be responsible for the Chivas Regal 12-year-old blended scotch. Fabulous reputation for quality and continuity, with its heart firmly placed in Speyside. OK. So owning the Speyside. It's got, among other things, strethyla, which is a single malt that I really love. And we have. So I'm going to be curious as to whether or not we can taste strethyla. Now, we recently did an underrated scotch episode. How come strethyla didn't make the cut there? Because I could have easily pulled, like, 40. And I narrowed it down. Well, I know you also were trying to get things that most people would be able to get their hands on. I don't know if I've actually seen that on shelves. Is it really? Strethyla? Yeah. You're not. OK. Yeah. I mean, you're well at a place that has a real whiskey collection, but not like a corner store normal. Hey, it smells like Speyside. Yeah, but it's not overly young musty, right? It lost that grain-forward malt note. I would put this at about 12 years old. Yeah. Just throwing it out there. Yeah. Just my educated guess. 13 is right out. Fact shot count to 12. OK, this is jammy floral. Yeah, lots of fruits. Not as, it's softer than. It's like if you can make a jam out of the smell of wildflowers. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, it's not bad. Like it's, can I get a pour of that? No, there's some like thick, rich sweetness in there. And it has real body. Like the grain whiskey isn't punching above the malt and like cracking through into that brittle, shiny vanilla. Yeah, and then the wood layer, it's present, but it's playing second fiddle to those sweeter notes. It's kind of like a little sidekick. It's a little baseline, kind of a little foundational, a bit of wood uplifting those other notes. All right. It's nice. I like the notes. I'm going to go get the strathaloi after we try it. All right. Oh, it's a little smoky. I did not remember that about chevaux. We'll emphasize little. I was looking for none. And so the fact that at the very, very end as you swallowed, it sort of unrolled this slightly, your jacket after you wake up the next morning from a campfire, smoky. So the fact that they're leaning into Speyside, like, OK, this tastes like the most down-to-home-place Speyside collection of flavors ever. But my experience with that first sip was interesting because I put it in my face hole with the mouth thing. And it goes, oh, the flavors are there, but it's a little thin. And then, whoa, that's nice. And then it gets back down to a little bit thin again. So there's this swell of niceness right in the mid. But the first moment and the last moment just kind of gets a little bit thinner than I want. But it swells up nicely. I just tried it, but it only does that when you're swallowing it and drinking it. It doesn't do that when you just spread it around. That's got more character than I thought. Yeah. That's a nice surprise. Like, I'm finding whiskey glasses all over the place in here in, like, random corners. Yeah, I very much like that. OK, strathaloi. I think for some people, there's going to be a little bit of that. The people that don't like that funky malt note, it finishes with that sweet, funky maltiness. That's going to put some people off. The reason why some kind of don't like monkey shoulder, for example. Would you put this at a level higher than monkey shoulder? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I would, too. Like a notch or two above monkey shoulder, for sure. The reason why some people, that kind of sickly maltiness. Yeah, it's not in there. Well, no, no, it finishes on a little bit of that for me. Not too big of a difference. Oh, yeah, but not in the nose at all, and not in the real base of the palate. So that's all I've got left right now. But look, I even had to bring this from the UK. So yeah, that's not something I remember seeing on shelves here in the States. Ooh, pears. Yeah, yeah. And a little bit of this. Is this a little smoky? No. Do we know proportionally how much strathaloi is in the Chivas? No. We have no idea what the proportion is on the line. We don't know if it's an accent, if it's like a base, if it's. No idea. I can absolutely see, based on the nose alone still, the strathaloi being in the Chivas. I think it's giving that part of that jamminess. Yeah. The density. Mm-hmm. Oh, that's good. I got it, man. That's hard candy cream. And that's no joke. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Between the two. But I could see why this blends well. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because even though it has character and presence, it's going to be something that can hold a lot of other things without fighting them. OK. I'm pleasantly surprised on both things. The Chivas Rebuilt 12, pleasantly surprised. I just went back to it. Yeah. Enjoy the nose. Pleasantly surprised. The strathaloi, which I went into with next to no expectations because I didn't really remember anything about it. This deserves to be on more shelves. Yes, it does. What the hell? This is like so many of, I think, the real magical space sides like Longhorn are often used in blends. And so you don't get to experience them alone. That's lovely. But it's delicate without being boring. Yeah. No, that's really nice. What is it about some brands that they end up going into a lot of blends? But those brands in and of themselves are like, wait a minute. That's nice. That's as nice as other brands that they're not putting it out in blends. They're just releasing it. And they have this reputation for quality and all this other stuff. In my experience, it's older distilleries who were bought by the large producers of blends. Oh, the workhorse distillers. Yeah, the ones who we bought this single malt distillery so we could guarantee our own supply of that single malt. And then. Like a Glen Kinchey and stuff like that. Yeah. Or a Cardu. Yeah. Right. Johnny Walker bought, originally. Now, is Coolila owned by, are they a workhorse brand? Yeah. OK. Yeah, a workhorse distillery. Because they end up in a lot of brands. If you're looking for the smoke. Yeah, when you're looking for the smoke, Coolila provides a lot of it for a lot of places. Hey, this is a nice day. It's a good day. Yeah. I like it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do more of the stuff like that. Do more of that. I know. Yeah. Sergeant Sphinx. Hey, Rex and Dan. I know. I put that in there, and I didn't even edit it. I remember you two mentioning something along, that was so bad. That was. It's in Alex's bag. It hit the light, bounced off the box, and went into Alex's bag. I mean, usually you're at least getting in the zone. No, I was like six feet off. It would have been closer if you just threw it that way. I wasn't even looking. You were reading, and I crumpled it, and I just went like this without really looking. I think you could have gotten closer if you just closed your eyes, spun in a circle, got dizzy, and then hucked it. I'm going to leave it in there for Alex to find. It's a gift. My gift. I remember you two mentioning something along the lines of, for some people, the smokiness of an Isla Scotch presents as rubber, or something like that. I am unfortunately one of those people. I have tried LaFroigtin, Ardbeg, and Ola. Highland Park 18 and Taliskertin, all of them presented that way to me. Is there any Isla you would recommend that might open up the category for me, or should I just write it off completely and just stick to Highland and Speyside that I like? So in the comments, there were a lot of great suggestions. Maybe try some Highland peated malts instead of Isla first. But I'm going to argue that you start unpeated Isla. Buna Haben? Buna Haben. Or the Lottie, because it has some elements that taste almost peaty and spicy, but it's not peated. And it could be a nice, soft walk into. So I'm a big fan of the Ardbeg Uchtdorf. And I don't, it was almost Redemption. It was a lot closer. Still missed. It was almost Redemption. I don't get the rubber note in the Uchtdorf. But he's already tried like the Inola, so to your points, do, do, yeah. We got Backroad Junkie. They need to do a show, or at least comment, on the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission diverting rare whiskeys like Pappy Van Weekel, scamming the public. They would apparently send the rare bottles to a specific state liquor store and purchase them before the public even knows that they were available. What the hell? Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission. OK, so here's the story. What is this? No, I had read about it before this comment. I was like, oh, yeah, that'd be interesting to talk about. The head of the liquor board for the Oregon, so Oregon is a state-controlled liquor state, which means. A little pair of vanilla cream, though. State-controlled liquor stores. And so they decide what is available for sale in all the stores. Evidently, the head was like, as things were coming in that were like allocated things and stuff like that, he was funneling them to the store by his house and then having them set aside for him so he could buy them. Now, when he was interviewed, he resigned. When he was interviewed, what he said was, all I did was go into my local store and request it. And then they would bring it in. And so it's this super, like, well, yeah, but you're also the one who decides the stock. I'm very much of a split mind here. Because on one hand, it's like, don't hate the player, hate the game. On the other hand, it's like, screw that guy. Yeah, this is why you don't want to be in charge of any of those things, because if you're a real whiskey fan, because if you're a real whiskey fan, you just, it's like, if you ever want to. I'm just doing things that make sense for probably someone else, but definitely for me. Imagine if you really loved gambling or you really loved playing the lottery or something like that. You don't get a job in the lottery, because you can't play anymore, because you're not eligible for the winnings, and neither are any of your family members. Right. It's kind of like the drug dealer version of never get into your own stash. Like, don't get hooked on your own products. So if you're an enthusiast for any kind of thing, it puts you in a precarious position for obvious reasons. Yeah. All right. But it's funny. Yeah, it's pretty good. Man, we should see more subtropical. Hey, you guys make that happen, where the Strathylus shows up on more plates. Yeah, I had to order it online. It's a good thing there. And the chivvish regal, OK. I don't know why my expectations were lower than what this was able to deliver. Right. Here's to fighting, stealing, and drinking. If you fight me, I fight for a friend. If you steal, may you steal your lover's heart. And if you drink, may you drink with us.