Whisky Advent Day 1: Haig Club

It's the first day of December and there are only 24 more sleeps till Christmas. The first whisky out of my Whisky Advent Calendar is the newly released Haig Club, this is a whisky that I have wanted to try for a while and has already been covered by our very own Adam, however, as I promised I must soldier on with my endeavour. Haig Club is a grain whisky that comes in a aftershave bottle, is mass produced by Diageo, marketed by David Beckham and in the ad is indirectly recommended as best served over ice... what can go wrong.

There is a fair amount of spirit on the nose along with an (in my opinion) cleaning product type lemon note not all too dissimilar to Cif, but if you are being generous might be more in the line of a prominent gin like lemon peel element. Along with the lemon there's a smattering of vanilla and some almond. It is somewhat difficult to get to grips with the nose with this whisky as the spirit seems quite volatile and as such you can't get you nose too close.

On the palate Haig Club is fairly inoffensive, it is quite sweet with toffee and apple notes, some more vanilla and gin like botanicals. For me the taste doesn't linger too long past a peppery spirit quality and is lacking in depth or complexity.

I have been quite disparaging about this whisky, but this is largely due to me being the wrong consumer for the product. This whisky is aimed at the more casual and brand focused market and I'm sure it will do well, it makes a decent mixing whisky, however, for me the price is more than double what it should be for that purpose.

Whilst I am not a fan in any sense of this product I am glad I have tasted it, it is one that interested me (mainly to see how bad it was) and it really made for a good start for my Advent adventure... the only way to go is up!


Whilst this isn't the worst whisky in the world I would advise against buying this as a gift this Christmas, especially with so many deals at this time of year you can find far superior quality for £25-£30 at almost any supermarket if you pick up a single malt and save yourself £15.

If you would like to pick up a bottle of Haig Club to try for yourself it can be bought at Master of Malt for £44.99 and is also available at Asda