Tasting Notes: Chivas Regal 12

If you’ve been keeping up with the whisky blogosphere lately, you’ll have noticed that Pernod Ricard has been admirably putting their Chivas Regal 18 up against the much more expensive Johnnie Walker Blue. The overall feeling (at least from those who are passionate enough about whisky to write about it on the internet) is that Chivas won, especially when it comes to value.

The whole episode made me realize I had been meaning to formally write down my thoughts on Chivas Regal 12. My first real experience with Chivas Regal 12 was on an airplane from Tokyo, Japan to New York, NY. The seats were small, and my not-huge backside and legs seemed quite gigantically and erroneously large by Japanese coach standards. Add in the fact that I was forced to watch a terrible movie three times (as the movie controls were broken), and you get the idea that my wedged-in cramped self was not necessarily a happy camper.

Enter slightly older but very nice Japanese stewardess with the drink cart. I ask for whisky. She offers me Jim Beam. I realize I’m an idiot, and I ask for scotch. She offers me Dewars or Chivas — I opt for the Chivas. After the first glass (which interestingly gets poured out of a large bottle, and not a single serving miniature), my day (or night with the time difference), improved. After the second glass, new flavors came out of the blend, and the terrible movie seemed almost funny on the third time through. After the third glass, I realized that I was taking part in the miracle of flight and I should be thankful. And I was.

Age: 12 Years Old

Abv: 40%

Color: Light gold

Legs: Medium Slow, Medium Large. They stick to the glass and pause nicely before their fall.

Nose: Fruit, lemon, honey, freshly risen yeasty bread

Palette: sweet fruits, dried papaya. citrus that evenly splices orange and lemon. a bit of a rough wood.

Finish: tongue coating. still sweet, and ends in a bit of a bitter burn. the sweetness is once again a bit of the aspartame kind. But, it doesn’t seem to detract too much from the rest of the dram

Overall: This is an easy and tasty whisky to drink. I would give it an 83. Some weeks after I got back home from my trip, I turned WhiskyParty onto the Chivas Regal 12 through a blind tasting. He was also impressed. Chivas Regal 12 didn’t hold the aura for me as it apparently enjoys in Europe and Asia, but it does now. The whisky is not amazing. It’s not a drop you on the floor stunner. What it is, though, is really quite good. What it is, is something I’m happy to have in my liquor shelf next to the Ardbegs, Glenrothes, Taliskers, Balvenies, etc. And as we’ve mentioned on our blog before, we really like those ads.