Yacht Club

Description

Yacht Club is essentially a blended scotch whisky made up of about 40% malt whisky and 60% grain whisky.  Not the worst ratio in the world as there are many much bigger brands out there that use much less malt whisky with more grain.  Where Yacht Club reaches out beyond the norm is by ensuring that the grain elements are at least 5 years old while the malt whisky portion is just a fraction over the legal requirement of 3 years.

There’s no whistles and bells here.  It is what it is.  It’s a decent value scotch whisky.  There are some decent drinkable bottles out there where, without the massive marketing and advertising budgets to fund, more attention can be given to the quality of the spirts used to make the product.  This is definitely one of them.

It’s bottled and packaged in France (blended scotch whisky CAN be exported from Scotland and bottled in other countries – only single malt has to be bottled in Scotland) and it’s exported to most of Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Russia.  It typically sells for a few pennies shy of €12 euros a bottle, and we have it about 15% cheaper than that.  It comes with a box, so it’s a pocket-friendly gift for the people you don’t want to spend too much on.

Tasting Notes

We could list off a wonderful story about the nose and the palate and the finish but that would be all pretentious and churlish.  The facts are at this price, most of you would mix it anyway.  It is drinkable with ice.  Not quite as dry as a typical big brand scotch.  Some fruity notes in there.  What matters is that it’s smooth, doesn’t rip your throat off and it doesn’t give you a vile hangover the next day (unlike most cheap booze that ends up in China).

Whisky Jesus crucified a bottle of this over two days (drink responsibly people…..a bottle in a day would be stupid!) and he was still in the office both days after, bright and early, before 8am, lecturing us about our sinful ways when he found out we’d spanked a bottle of prosecco.