Kings of Grain 14 Years Old 1988 (Jack Wiebers Whisky World)

Kings of Grain 14 Years Old 1988 (Jack Wiebers Whisky World) is a blended grain Scotch from Jack Wiebers Whisky World, marrying grain whiskies from more than one distillery. Blended grain is a rare category, built to show the soft, sweet, creamy side of grain rather than the punch of malt. Light Lowland grain such as Port Dundas underpinned the great blending houses.

Grain is distilled continuously in column stills rather than batch pot stills, giving a light, clean spirit that matures quickly and sweetly. A Port cask shaped it, the fortified red wine leaving plum, cherry and red berry. Patience is everything with grain, the finest examples resting for decades. Marrying several grain whiskies lets the maker build a rounder, more layered profile than one cask could give.

Undiluted at 55.3%, it is intense. The Port cask brings plum, cherry and red berry, while lignin breakdown lends vanilla and a coconut note from the lactones, with a toffee, dessert like sweetness, over a clean, fruity grain base. It is round and creamy on the palate, sweet without cloying. A long, dessert sweet finish lingers. A polished, sweet style of Scotch that wears its grain character with pride.