We review of Aldi's Highland Black 8 year old whisky, see what we thought of "the world's best whisky". I didn’t get the press release, so don’t know exactly what they said. That’s called The Master of Masters, and they’ll reveal it to the world at the Masters awards lunch later this year. Menu Search Delivery Account £ (gbp) Basket Your basket is currently empty. The medals aren’t awarded like in the Olympics – there’s not a maximum of one of each in each category. Supermarket drams are on the to do list and this Aldidram has been on the list for a while as it has been given a number of high profile awards. The whisky, with its hints of heather, strawberry leaf and lemon oil, sells in the U.K. for 12.99 pounds, which is roughly $17.32. That is ‘master’, hence the name of the competition – The Scotch Whisky Masters. Watch our review of Aldi's Highland Black 8 year old whisky now, to hear our thoughts on this bargain dram, as well as a travel saga the likes of which … ABV: 40% Review #36 – Port Charlotte MRC:01 59.2%. This Highland Select Malt Scotch Whisky surpasses richness, complexity and flavour. We had a nose and taste and have to admit the HIGHLAND BLACK 8 YEAR OLD SCOTCH BLENDED 40% ALC / VOL at only £12.49 for a 70cl bottle is a very fine blend and worth a try. Highland Black Blended Scotch Whisky is created using a range of the highest quality Speyside and Highland malt whiskies blended expertly together with grain whisky from the Lowlands of Scotland. Taste: Soft, light, pear, green apple, some toffee and then some toasted oak. Today it’s time to have a look at Aldi’s Irish whiskey instead. The world’s press, in typically lazy fashion, quickly copied and pasted chunks of the press release into articles declaring that Aldi’s whi… I score Glenfiddich 12 in the mid 50's. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Highland Black 8 Year Old Special Reserve Blended Scotch Whisky. I'd actuallly give this a 68, mainly due to the price and after it's been open a while, and the raw grain has settled down, it's a drinking whiskey, and seriously how many other whiskeys at this pricepoint can you say you can drink straight?...actually I'm going to bump it to a 70! I know, because I have half a bottle sitting in the liquor cabinet–a rarity in the sense that nothing ever lasts longer than three days in there. Review – Highland Earl Blended Whisky. Black Tot 50th Anniversary – remembering naval rum, Billy A. is drinking a Beyond Modus III 2016 by The Wild Beer Co, Billy A. is drinking a 2019 Franka Feroz by KOMPAAN Dutch Craft Beer Company at Untappd at Home, Billy A. is drinking a Today - Blend Three by Mills Brewing at Untappd at Home, Billy A. is drinking a Gaslight the Electorate by Weird Beard Brew Co. at Untappd at Home, Billy A. is drinking a Stupid Sexy Suffolk Blend III by Little Earth Project at Untappd at Home. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy. A review of Highland Black 8 Year Old Special Reserve by @markjedi1 who rated this whisky 74/100. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Worryingly drinkable... Red wine vinegar nose, with a stacks of fruit. I’m a judge for the World Whiskies Awards so I’ve been keeping an eye on this. A. Both are on a similar level for me. Well, I was almost there. and join one of thousands of communities. Finish: Short length. Aldi Irish Reserve Single Malt 26 Years Old. Aldi, in typically efficient fashion, quickly issued a press release announcing this award. Most blenders are fairly coy about what is contained within their recipes. The Highland Black 8 Year Old Scotch Whisky … ALDI supports the responsible service of alcohol. Rich and chocolatey, with a nice burnt edge and a touch of barley wine fruitiness. Aldi’s Highland Black, the 8-year old blend which has once again been lauded as the GOAT by every digital outlet from here to the Hebrides, is a genuinely crap whisky. It is cheap, it is young, but it is blended. What a surprise , Oh, and here’s an inevitable blog post about judging, using the WWAs as the example: The name stays the same, but each year the contents will differ, as will the age and even the country of origin of the whisky. In fact, the supermarket may need to introduce a trophy cabinet to its special buys range, given that this little haul takes the number of spirit awards won to 17 in 2019 alone. Finish: Short length. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Read the tasting notes and find other Highland Black whiskey reviews Read @markjedi1's review of Highland Black 8 Year Old Special Reserve and other community whisky reviews on Whisky Connosr I don't take price into account I'm afraid, just what's in the glass. Among those results was a gold medal for Aldi’s £13-a-bottle blended whisky, Highland Black 8 Year Old. This costs £12. You wait ages for a review of an Aldi whisky, and then two come along at once. Gold is rank two of three – 80-90pts. Read More. Local liquor store (Twin Liquors, Austin TX) was wrapping up a scotch sale, so Merry Christmas to me!! After all, if I was to say this is a great blend featuring Dalmore and Tomintoul, you’d possibly snap it up. It is … The £13.49 Highland Black Scotch Whiskey, meanwhile, ended up with a silver medal. The Aldi Highland Black 8 Year Old Scotch Whisky was one of three gold medallists in the category of blends aged up to 12 years, alongside Scots Gold 12 Year Old and Chivas Regal 12 Year Old. Nose: Very light, fruit, pear, slight floral. The results of the Scotch Whisky Masters 2018, https://blog.thewhiskyexchange.com/2017/02/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-whisky-judge/, Is Lidl Queen Margot 8 Years Old the Best Whisky in the World – Spirited Matters, Recent posts by Billy from around the internet, Karuizawa Distillers and Komoro Distillery – a new chapter in Nagano whisky making. The beverage was judged at the Spirits Business Scotch Whisky Masters, where judges awarded two gold medals to the Aldi brand — one for its Highland Black Scotch Whisky, and another for its … Aldi, in typically efficient fashion, quickly issued a press release announcing this award. Very good, I am here after the recent Lidl ‘award’ and just wanted to do some digging/research for myself on how the whole awarding works. On the nose, the Highland Black needs time and air, but then develops beautiful fruity aromas, which combine well with the sweet toffee flavors. Body: Light. Aldi Highland Black 8 Years Old Review Thanks once again to my friend Andy (@Andysinc41) for this sample which he was really excited about especially for the £12.99 price tag. The claim that this whisky is blended from the “finest” grain and malt spirits might be somewhat of a stretch for the imagination, but like many of the Aldi range it boasts two silver medals to its name. Highland Black 8 year old Blended Whisky (Aldi). The Highland Black 8 Year Old scotch whisky (or indeed, blended scotch whisky) is yet another mystery bottling from Aldi. Aldi’s Highland Black Scotch Whisky and Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky won gold medals in their particular categories, beating premium well-known global whiskey brands such as Chivas Brothers’ Ballantine’s 12 Year-Old Blended Whisky and the Glen Scotia 18 Year Old. Graham Nicolson, group buying director, Aldi Scotland said: ‘It’s fantastic to have won both Supermarket of the Year and Own Brand Supermarket of the Year at such a prestigious event. Highland Black 8 Scotch Whisky. Fame at last…. use the following search parameters to narrow your results: Please write a review on Scotchit and Submit below. Aldi's Highland Black Scotch Whisky, which goes for $17.39 a bottle, and Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky, priced at $23.42 per bottle, took home gold medals in … The blend is created using a range of the finest Speyside and Highland Malt whiskies blended expertly together with the Grain whisky from Girvan in the Lowlands of Scotland. A £12.99 whisky from Aldi has scooped the top prize in a blind taste test, alongside a bottle of the spirit worth six times the price. Rendered by PID 10584 on r2-app-0a1729025cd524578 at 2020-12-13 13:08:07.965967+00:00 running 85e58d4 country code: US. Toasted oak and pear. The Aldi’s Highland Black won gold alongside two other whiskies in the ‘Blends up to 12 years old’, including Chivas Regal 12. More fruit on the palate, but with a creamy yoghurt backbone. Surprisingly dry on the palate, but still thick with dried fruit, cocoa and coffee. Highland Black is an award winning Blend having secured Gold Medals at both the IWSC and ISC industry awards over recent years. Betteridge’s Law of Headlines states that if an article is titled with a question, the answer to that question is ‘no’. There might be a blog post appearing soon, but in short: the press have misinterpreted Lidl’s press release, from what I’ve seen of it. And finally, gold isn’t the top award that can be given in a category. Yes, my name appeared in Germany’s third largest newspaper. EDIT: Also my scoring tends to be about 10 points lower than most people's. In the age-statement blends category, Aldi's Highland Black 8-year-old Scotch was one of three products to earn a gold medal, USA Today noted. Dew of ben Nevis is rather good..considerably better than the overly sweet highland black in my opinion.. Highland Black 8 Year Old Special Reserve Blended Scotch Whisky. Among those results was a gold medal for Aldi’s £13-a-bottle blended whisky, Highland Black 8 Year Old. Spoiler alert: that’s the case here. Not bad for what it is. That’s part of what makes this story so delightfully baffling: Aldi makes a scotch blend that costs $17.37, and it just won a gold medal at an international spirits competition. It launched in the early-2000s and has been winning industry awards ever since, often (mistakenly) cited as the ‘best whisky in the world’ in international press. Aldi’s Highland Black 8 Year Old is one of three blended Scotch whiskies aged 12 years or under which received a score of between 80 and 90  points in the Scotch Whisky Masters, netting them the second-tier award: gold medal. However, The Independent published a quote from Aldi’s managing director of buying, Julie Ashfield, that might be to blame: This is the second year that our Highland Black Scotch Whisky has been voted best in the world and we are thrilled it has performed so well again! But that’s not quite so soundbiteable as ‘voted best in the world’. The Highland Black Eight-Year-Old Scotch Whiskey beat some rivals valued three times more in price, with judges claiming it was a “rich … https://blog.thewhiskyexchange.com/2017/02/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-whisky-judge/. Get an ad-free experience with special benefits, and directly support Reddit. Now, please stop posting links to ‘Is Aldi Highland Black is the best whisky in the world?’ articles on Facebook. It gives Glenfiddich 12 a run for its money. Secondly, The Spirits Business haven’t announced their equivalent of ‘The Best Whisky in the World’. The Aldi award winner at last. However, the Aldi whiskey with a retail price of just EUR 15 has an unbeatable price-performance ratio and thus an immense advantage over the competition. Fourthly, there were three gold medals awarded in the category: Highland Black 8yo, Chivas Regal 12yo and Scots Gold 12yo. Highland Black 8 year old Blended Whisky (Aldi) Colour: E150a. Highland and Speyside malt are used, together with Lowland grain whisky. I would have thought that there's lots of Speyside malt in this. Aldi’s Highland Black Scotch Whisky wasn’t even the only-Aldi brand scotch to achieve such a distinction at the Spirits Business competition. No one said that. Aldi’s own-label Scotch whisky brands include the Highland Black and Highland Earl blends, Glen Orrin blended malt, Glen Marnoch, a single malt with expressions from Islay, the Highlands and Speyside at a variety of ages, and an unbranded single grain Scotch whisky. It gives Glenfiddich 12 a run for its money. Not even Jim Murray. The review can be positive or negative but must be written by you. ... World Whisky; November 15, 2017. After tasting the above 4 drams we ventured to taste some of the non premium drinks on display at the press launch – an 8YO blended whisky caught our eye. Aldi’s own-label Scotch whisky brands include the Highland Black and Highland Earl blended whisky and the Glen Marnoch 12-Year-Old Highland single malt. Nose: Very light, fruit, pear, slight floral. However, the question has been asked frequently over the past few days and I thought I’d better address it. After a bit of time the grain comes out a tiny bit into the finish but there's no harsh alcohol/lemon note that normally gives it away. ... 41127 Reviews Rated excellent by our customers Worldwide delivery Ben Bracken 16 Year Old and Lagavulin 16 Year Old – are they siblings? Thirdly, Highland Black won its medal in the Blended whisky up to 12 years old category, judged against other whiskies in the category, not all whiskies. Toasted oak and pear. [–]ernestreviewsa dram must have a code 3 points4 points5 points 4 years ago (0 children), Good to see a supermarket malt reviewed here, would like to see more of this, [–]UnclimbabilityLedaig is my Szechuan sauce[S] 0 points1 point2 points 4 years ago (0 children), [–]THJahar 0 points1 point2 points 4 years ago (1 child). Highland Black Eight Year Old hit the shelves as an own label whisky by budget supermarket chain Aldi. I, in all my confidence and bluster, take a few sniffs and a taste, stroke my beard thoughtfully and declare that it's a cheap 5 year old Speyside single malt! The results of the Scotch Whisky Masters 2018 have recently been announced. Aldi as they only source this product, will be limited by what they can disclose due to agreements. Blackstone is the name given to the Christmas special edition bottling of whisk(e)y released each year by the Aldi (Süd) chain of supermarkets.. Firstly, all of the whiskies in the competition were judged blind – I didn’t know what medal Highland Black received until the results came out. Meaning today’s review is the Highland Black 8-year-old! The world’s press, in typically lazy fashion, quickly copied and pasted chunks of the press release into articles declaring that Aldi’s whisky was ‘voted best in the world’. Each medal is an indicator of the score that whisky was given. I am, however, not ‘Manager von Whisky Exchange’ as Die Welt reported. Masterfully crafted using a select blend of 4 year old cask matured malt scotch whiskies. It's still sour as, but with balsamic strawberries, sweet cherries and sharp berries, followed by soft woody spice and hints of bitterness. Taste: Soft, light, pear, green apple, some toffee and then some toasted oak. Blind Review #20: Lossit Blended Malt (TRB S1E62), Christmas Countdown 2020 #12: Arran 18 Year, smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast. A touch of spice, and then a minerally, cherry finish, with their stones. The Whisky Boys have to also recommend Aldi’s Highland Black 8 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky 40% Alc/vol and is priced at only £12.49 for a 70cl bottle. I am not only a judge for the Scotch Whisky Masters, I was the chair of the panel which gave Highland Black 8 Year Old the gold medal. Review #76: Highland Black 8 (Aldi) (m.imgur.com), submitted 4 years ago by UnclimbabilityLedaig is my Szechuan sauce, [–]UnclimbabilityLedaig is my Szechuan sauce[S] 3 points4 points5 points 4 years ago (2 children), So yesterday my Father-in-law-to-be hands me a glencairn of whisky and says "So what do you think of this then?". Thick, rich and oxidised in an appropriate fashion. The results of the Scotch Whisky Masters 2018 have recently been announced. © 2020 reddit inc. All rights reserved. The nose is screamingly sour, but the palate is soft with a pillowy carb and well-balanced fruit, oak and tartness. REDDIT and the ALIEN Logo are registered trademarks of reddit inc. π Rendered by PID 10584 on r2-app-0a1729025cd524578 at 2020-12-13 13:08:07.965967+00:00 running 85e58d4 country code: US. Stacks of fruit – lemon, lime, nectarine... Tart but not too much. This costs £12. Not bad for what it is. 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