Singleton 12 Year Old
This may well be the strangest bottle of whisky I’ve come across so far on my journey. The Singleton brand is owned by Diageo and is actually made up of whiskies from three different distilleries: Glen Ord, Glendullan and Dufftown - confusing already! We’re tasting the Dufftown version here which is extremely widely available in the UK but confusingly, Diageo’s own website (Malts.com) says it only exists at 43% - I can’t find it available at anything other than 40%. Not a straightforward start - let’s take a look at the whisky though.
Bottle
This bottle design is definitely unique, but not in a flattering way. The flat shape feels out of place among the pantheon of whisky bottle designs. The blue-tinted glass, meant to complement the turquoise label, ends up giving the whisky an unnatural and unappealing hue (as can be seen from the images below). The label itself, in turquoise, clashes with the golden whisky inside, creating an overall look that just doesn't work. I recently tried the Glenlivet 12 which has a slightly more green label but suffers in the same way. I can’t find much that redeems the look of this bottle.
Colour
The colour of this whisky is artificially enhanced, so the deep sherry or muscat hue doesn’t tell us much about the whisky.
Nose - Polished wood and toasted hazelnuts dominate the nose of this whisky. But there is a softer hint of melted butter on toast suggesting a sweeter flavour is to come.
Palate - The first sip gives a hint of citrus fruit before the nutty flavours leap to the fore. The floral notes continue and bounce between orange and freshly cut grass. It has a very thin body in the mouth and not a very complex flavour.
Finish - A medium-length finish with some of the zesty fruit flavour lingering and giving a little zing at the end.
Overall
The recommended retail price of this whisky is £37 at that price I don’t think anybody should be buying it. It is not necessarily a bad whisky and as an everyday sipper it can be quite an easy whisky but it definitely isn’t worth £37. I managed to pick up my bottle for £28 and I think if you can find a bottle for less than £30 then why not give it a go; just don’t expect too much! I would put this in the same bracket as the Auchentoshan American Oak - not complex, very cheap (sometimes) and meets the basic criteria of a Speyside whisky! If you have just shy of £40 to spend on a bottle of whisky I would be looking at something like the Glen Elgin 12 or Glenkinchie 12 for something a little more interesting.
Available from Master of Malt for around £37