The Dimple Pinch.

John Haig & Co. is responsible for our cheekiest choice yet: The Dimple Pinch. With its trademark bottle and *cute* name, this is one scotch that seems like it would be quite the treat, or at least a hit at parties. But this blend of "only the very best 15 year old malt and grain whiskies" simply failed to deliver. Maybe it was us expecting more from a 15 year old (reasonably mature for a Scotch) or maybe it was the cute factor, but our enthusiastic plunge into this 750 milliliters was disappointing.

The bottle's description hails its contents as being "a warm, inviting smooth whisky with hints of fruit and spices with a rich, SOFT finish on the palate." Soft? Hardly. Our first little nipper of this paler-than-usual scotch was a bit of a kick in the teeth. Not only, but the nose was decidedly wimpy, a stark contrast to the ram sweat we enjoyed the previous two nights, the pinkies down manliness of Sheep Dip. The honeyed, somewhat almond subtle sweet of The Glenlivet far outdoes the purported richness of The Dimple Pitch. I guess, in one sense, the label was right: "hints of fruit and spices." The complexity which we have come to anticipate in the varied world of scotch whiskies was merely hinted at, suggested. The finish? A smidgen too harsh. To its credit, though, I feel great this morning, though my breakfast beverage did have a slightly woody taste...

The Pinches' lore is pretty fascinating, though. In 1655, Robert Haig (distillery founder) was summoned before a court of law to defend his operation of a distillery on the Sabbath! God forbid. It also boasts a 1987 Gold Medal from the International Wine and Spirits competition. The bottle, which seems to be a focal point of the whisky for its fans, was the first bottle to be patented in the U.S. in 1958.

Being one of the oldest documented still operating whisky distilleries in the world definitely ups the cool factor on this bad boy, and maybe everything out there is just a jumbled imitation, but I, for one, can easily put this one on the dusty back shelves of my whisky sampling memory. 

                                                              Dimple Pinched.