Review: Dewar’s The Champions Edition 19 Years Old (2025)

We’re five years into Dewar’s Champions Edition releases, and for year five this 19 year old is being uniquely finished in Calvados apple brandy casks — “a nod to Pennsylvania’s historic apple brandy tradition.” (Relevant because the 125th U.S. Open was held at Oakmont Country Club in Pittsburgh.) That’s the upshot, so let’s dive in.

Dewar’s The Champions Edition 19 Years Old (2025) Review

Calvados can be a dominating influence, and while the nose here is definitely apple-centric, it’s not apple-overwhelming. Layers of caramel, toasted grains, vanilla, and baking spice are all Dewar’s-appropriate, the cereal notes increasingly heavy with time in glass. Atop it all are layers of dried apple chips and Apple Jacks cereal, engaging but understated.

The palate doesn’t push the apple agenda much, and the whisky takes on a somewhat grittier, chewier quality than expected. Almonds, toasted coconut, and layers of vanilla-infused breakfast cereal are all par for the course, while the fruit evident on the palate is a bit indistinct. Here the palate comes across as more apple-adjacent, driven more by apple hardwood than apple fruit, leading to a toasty, barrel-centric finish. If there’s anything particularly fruity here, it’s a chewy bit of red apple fruit that lingers on the back for a while.

All told, it’s a perfectly acceptable whisky that will offend no one, but I just don’t feel like the Calvados barrel has had the impact that Dewar’s probably wanted. Then again, maybe it did.

86 proof.

B+ / $80 [BUY IT NOW FROM RESERVEBAR] [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]

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