It’s a bit of an issue, right? When an Extra Rare bottling that currently goes from anywhere between € 160 to over € 1000 still only score between 81 and 82 points on average.

Massive brands like this, that don’t generally do too many special releases (but according to other scored whiskies, sure can do something truly special) go into this fancy range with different packaging and the explicitly stating the distillate is from the now closed LaSalle distillery, without really taking a good look at who they’re marketing this too… It’s a thing for fanatics like me. Although, maybe I’m still not the targeted demography and I’m just completely missing the point.

So, apart from it being from ‘the other’ distillery for Crown Royal, I don’t think it’s overly special. Let’s see what tasting it brings.

Sniff:
Glue, oak, and a whiff of rye spices. There’s quite a bit of sweetness like vanilla and pastry cream. Some baked apple too.

Sip:
The palate tingles a little bit with hints of freshly cracked black pepper and sawdust. Quite dry, rye spices, grist. In the background there’s some sweetness, but far less than expected.

Swallow:
The finish is similar to the palate, slightly sweeter but less focused on the spices.

A decent crown royal, and I found it a bit better than the really old one I tried for last week’s review. Still, I’ve not been swayed into buying anything from this brand in the future. Especially not at prices like this one goes for.

82/100