\nCompass Box Great King St Artist’s Blend: 8.60 \u00b1 0.41 on 15 reviews ($$)
\nFamous Grouse Gold Reserve: 8.61 \u00b1 0.35 on 6 reviews ($$)
\nJameson Select Reserve (Black Barrel): 8.33 \u00b1 0.42 on 14 reviews ($$)
\nJohnnie Walker Black Label: 8.36 \u00b1 0.51 on 19 reviews ($$)
\nJohnnie Walker Double Black: 8.51 \u00b1 0.33 on 13 reviews ($$)
\nT\u00e9 Bheag: 8.54 \u00b1 0.32 on 12 reviews ($$)<\/strong><\/p>\n
Te Bheag is actually one of the cheapest whiskies in the “$$” category, making it one of the best value buys. It is significantly cheaper than Johnnie Walker Black or Compass Box Great King St Artist’s Blend – two of the other top scoring mid-range blends. Famous Grouse Gold Reserve is the only blend that scores higher, for about the same price.<\/p>\n
Here is what I find in the glass:<\/p>\n
Nose<\/strong>: Sharp aromas, with definite peaty\/smokey notes and some sherry influence. A medicinal iodine effect is present, as well as a distinctive glue aroma (the latter is not particularly appealing, personally). The sherry influence is unmistakable, although relatively light with just a bit of raisin and chocolate. There is also a dusty and dry aspect – which, when combined with the glue, gives the impression of old book bindings.\u00a0 Smells sort of like Johnny Walker Black finished in a sherry cask for a period of time. Distinctive aroma for a blend, you could easily mistake this for a Scottish Island malt whisky.<\/p>\n Palate:<\/strong> Very Highland Park-like in its initial approach, with a peaty\/smokey note tamed by sherried sweetness (plus some salty caramel here). A little tongue tingle, with a bit of leather (in a good way) and some mixed nuts. This initial profile could almost be described as succulent, promising something juicy to come (which never really arrives, though). A bit of bitterness soon creeps in (similar to HP 12yo<\/a>), and there is a dry astringency effect that builds over time.<\/p>\n Finish<\/strong>: Medium length. Fortunately, the bitterness disappears quickly, and there is a lingering sweetness that carries you through to the end. There is no real resurgence of any of the original flavours though, and the peat\/smoke disappears fairly quickly (unlike most peated single malts, where they linger longer). There’s nothing offensive here, but ultimately, like most blends, this one does fizzle out a little bit for me.<\/p>\n T\u00e9 Bheag: 8.54 \u00b1 0.32 on 12 reviews ($$)<\/strong> Something to consider if you are a fan of the lightly peated and sherried style, but are on more of a budget.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, I think the overall Meta-Critic score here is reasonable. There is definitely more going on in this blended whisky than in the more expensive Johnnie Walker Black label. But there are also a few rougher edges here that some drinkers of simpler blends may not be used to.\u00a0 I do think it is fair to say that Te Bheag is closer to an entry level single malt than a typical blend.<\/p>\n Nathan the Scotch Noob<\/a> and Jason of In Search of Elegance<\/a> both rank this whisky similarly (and match my own view). Dominic of the Whisky Advocate<\/a> is even more positive, and Ralfy<\/a> gives it probably the most enthusiastic review I’ve seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" T\u00e9 Bheag Nan Eiliean Gaelic Whisky is a distinctive blended whisky – and not just for its hard to pronounce name (“CHEY-vek”). T\u00e9 Bheag uses a relatively high proportion of malt whisky (40%) – with some peated malt at that. Produced by the Pr\u00e0ban na Linne company on the Isle of Skye, it is not going too much out on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[33,53,80,141,29],"class_list":["post-1737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whiskies","tag-blended","tag-highland-park","tag-peated","tag-scottish","tag-sherry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1737"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4571,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1737\/revisions\/4571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Te.Bheag\"](\"http:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Te.Bheag_.jpg\")
T\u00e9 Bheag is a great value for what it is – a decent Scotch blend at an excellent price. It has noticeable traces of peated barley and sherry cask finishing – an uncommon combination in an inexpensive blend. Despite the Isle of Skye origin, I could see this as the poor man’s Highland Park. \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Indeed, while it is challenging to equate blend scores with single malts, I am also struck by how well Te Bheag matches the more-expensive entry level HPs, as shown below:<\/p>\n
\nHighland Park Dark Origins: 8.49 \u00b1 0.52 on 15 reviews ($$$$)
\nHighland Park 10yo: 8.53 \u00b1 0.29 on 11 reviews ($$$)
\nHighland Park 12yo (2014 onward): 8.39 \u00b1 0.40 on 10 reviews ($$$)
\nHighland Park 12yo (all reviews): 8.68 \u00b1 0.23 on 19 reviews ($$$)<\/p>\n