Review: Loch Lomond 12 Years Old

It has taken us too long to really dig into the Loch Lomond portfolio, but after our first taste of their entry-level, non age-stated Original single malt in 2023, we’re finally back with some thoughts on the next rung in the Loch Lomond ladder. The distillery’s portfolio actually offers a trio of 12-year-old expressions: the unpeated Inchmurrin, the heavily peated Inchmoan, and this bottle, 12 Years Old, dubbed “Perfectly Balanced” on the label. As that subtitle rather bluntly insists, this expression is something of a sweet spot between the other two and, according to Loch Lomond, the ideal representation of the Highland distillery’s signature style. Let’s check it out.

Loch Lomond 12 Years Old Review

The aroma is impressively full and rich for a single malt of somewhat modest age and abv, delivering big, warm notes of fresh baked bread, raw honey, and porridge with a healthy spoonful of brown sugar. As it opens, cooked peaches and apple chips add a fruity layer to the malt. A delicate lacing of fireplace smoke, a touch damp and gently sweet, elevates things further.

The palate is equally impressive and complex, beginning with big, sweet notes of Demerara syrup, vanilla buttercream, and barley sugar that quickly develop into bolder fruit notes – ripe peaches and salted melon – before giving way to a midpalate loaded with sticky toffee and humming with freshly grated spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove foremost among them. Things are syrupy and sweet, almost veering too saccharine, but then, as advertised, they find exceptional balance on a creamy and buttery finish of bread pudding, crème brulee, peach pound cake, and a touch of pipe tobacco.

Loch Lomond is one of only four distilleries in Scotland with its own cooperage, and it ages this single malt in three types of American oak: first-fill bourbon, refill, and re-charred casks. Such an exhaustive approach to wood management has delivered a whisky true to its tagline that is easily one of the best values in Scotch today.

92 proof.

A / $60 [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]

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