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Highland Harvest Blended Organic Scotch

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wayneb

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Feb 7, 2007
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Evergreen, CO (west of and above the Denver smog!)
In two words... don't bother. I was talked into trying a bottle of this instead of grabbing the Glenmorangie that I was after at the local liquor store (Applejack in Lakewood, CO), by a rep from the distributor (they're headquartered in Boulder, CO -- right up the road). Cheapskate that I am, I couldn't resist the $2 off coupon that the rep was handing out.

What a mistake! He said that this "Organic" scotch holds its own against many single malts. Maybe -- if those are the ones on the bottom shelf, selling for $20/bottle or less. There is absolutely no complexity whatever in this whisky... I could get more interesting flavors from a bottle of Chivas Regal than from this swill -- and the price is closer to that of a single malt than to any of the other blends on the market. Disappointed, at least I have a good mixer scotch for the cabinet again.... :p
 
Ah ha ! Blinded by the numbers eh Wayne ?

Two things jump to mind, just with the title. "Blended" equates to "cheap and nasty" IMO, and the use of the "O" word (organic) has a very strict legal definition (almost as strict as "Scotch", which is a PDO under EU legislation).

Hence, to my mind, blended organic sounds like marketing bollocks to me.......
 
fatbloke said:
Ah ha ! Blinded by the numbers eh Wayne ?

Two things jump to mind, just with the title. "Blended" equates to "cheap and nasty" IMO, and the use of the "O" word (organic) has a very strict legal definition (almost as strict as "Scotch", which is a PDO under EU legislation).

Hence, to my mind, blended organic sounds like marketing bollocks to me.......
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If you go to distilleries in Scotland, their blended Scotch can be quite good. :cool:

I'd be extremely cautious about US distilleries -- and, yeah, if they're tossing in the word "Organic" on the label, the cynic in me comes out big time.
 
fivecats said:
If you go to distilleries in Scotland, their blended Scotch can be quite good. :cool:

I'd be extremely cautious about US distilleries -- and, yeah, if they're tossing in the word "Organic" on the label, the cynic in me comes out big time.
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Well I've yet to taste a blended scotch that's good. Don't forget, I'm alluding to proper "blended" i.e. malt and grain spirit, rather than blended malt or single malty. They're usually good and always different....

I'm quite partial to Laphoraig....
 
fatbloke said:
It seems my taste preference usually out does the contents of my wallet...
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Yup. Hence my continuing quest for something as yet undiscovered, at a tolerable price point. Frankly it used to be easier (with wines, anyway) back before California was "discovered." Of course that hearkens back to my earliest wine drinking days, in the early to mid '70s.
 
I'm just old enough that the last time the drinking age was 18 in this country, I took advantage of it! ;)

My uncle owned a restaurant back in the day, and we were actually exposed to fine wines (French, as well as those upstarts from California) early on. I also happened to be on the forensics team (speech, not crime investigation) as a freshman and sophomore in college and for a "persuasive speaking" event at a speech tournament in my sophomore year (I was 19-20 back then) I hit on the novel idea of trying to persuade my judges to choose California wines over French. BTW - I did have a ringer in the mix. Both wines (the French and the Californian) were approximately the same price per bottle ($15 - pretty expensive for back then). The French wine was a Pouilly Fuissé (I can't remember from which estate now), but the California was a bottle of Chardonnay from this little known (outside of the state) winery called Chateau Montelena. ;D Conducting a blind pour taste test, there really was no comparison. Needless to say, even with the relatively inexperienced wine tasting palates amongst Americans of the time, I managed to place first in category at that speech tournament. Not bad for a couple of years before the "Judgment of Paris!" :cool:

Several years later (ca 1981 or so), I was driving aimlessly around Napa (stopping in at every winery that I could find - hence the "aimlessly"), and in response to a simple wooden sign that said "winery" I drove up this gravel road to find an old stone chateau that looked familiar to me. Turns out that it was the Montelena estate, and I stopped in to chat with the guy running the tasting room. I told him my little anecdote about the speech tournament, and he then shared his story about how their wines had done well at a tasting in France a few years earlier.

Decades later I saw Bottle Shock, and the ultimate significance of what I'd done really hit me.
 
wayneb said:
Yup. Hence my continuing quest for something as yet undiscovered, at a tolerable price point. Frankly it used to be easier (with wines, anyway) back before California was "discovered." Of course that hearkens back to my earliest wine drinking days, in the early to mid '70s.
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That's one of the advantages of living in Oz... Really good wines aren't that expensive :)

You US guys have us beat on good cheap beer however. Although, the market for craft stuff here is slowly growing.
 
Well, I'm no expert, but when it comes to wines, I'm still happy with a heavy, tannic Bordeaux or burgundy. Even the ones from Aus, NZ, US, that are well rated/regarded aren't to my taste generally. I'll try anything red (don't enjoy whites), and there's been a couple of the Aus ones, 2 by Penfolds and I've still got a couple of bottles of Black Stump. But as I say, generally the "new world" wines are too light/fruity for me.....

As for the scotch, I quite like McCallan as well. But the extortionate taxation here, limits what I get too try.
 
machalel said:
You US guys have us beat on good cheap beer however.
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Sometimes with emphasis on the "cheap" ;D... in Ontario, even the cheap beer isn't, I think they've now made it illegal in Ontario to charge less than a buck a beer even when you buy it by the case (cheapest case being $28 if memory serves. but most of them are more like $35), if I buy it in singles I'm usually paying $2-3 per.

And I don't drink a lot of Scotch (that was my dad's thing) so I'd have to check the liquor store next time I'm in there to compare with what you folks can get for what price. I love how eveyone says, "Oh, just fill your airlocks with cheap vodka!" ... here, I can't even get a mickey for less than twelve bucks, and that IS the less expensive stuff. Oh well, at least I don't have to pay what Fatbloke does for gasoline/petrol!! It's only $1.25/litre here now...
 
wayneb said:
I hit on the novel idea of trying to persuade my judges to choose California wines over French...the California was a bottle of Chardonnay from this little known (outside of the state) winery called Chateau Montelena...Decades later I saw Bottle Shock, and the ultimate significance of what I'd done really hit me.
Click to expand...

Neat story and one of my favorite movies!
 
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