After two empty-handed trips to the ABC store looking for new single malts, I decided to suck it up and just buy something. I had been burned by my last purchase, Bowmore 12, and was starting to think twice about dropping $60 on another blind taste test. While meandering around the scotch aisle, a customer walked around me, plucked a squatty white box off the top shelf, and left without so much as glancing at any other scotches. Within a few minutes, it happened again. Different guy, same beeline to the same squatty white box.
I knew what they were purchasing, even from a distance. Nothing else on the scotch aisle looks anything like it (that will be a theme in this post). I had seen it many times, but never before considered buying it. It is bona fide scotch (many will disagree), and not blended whisky either. My issue had always been that it was not a single malt scotch, but rather the only readily available brand of its rarely seen cousin, single grain scotch whisky.
Apart from the tastefully fonted afore-mentioned 'squatty white box', the rectangular cobalt blue bottle is its iconic branding statement. The elegant deep blue hue is meant to harken back to a tradition of using blue glass for tasting so as not to let color skew perception of flavor. Shaped like an enormous cologne bottle, its sheer heft and sharp corners would make a formidable implement of self-defense. The words 'Haig Club' and 'Single Grain Scotch Whisky' with its Ralph Lauren-esque HC logo are embossed in raised letters in the glass itself rather than an affixed label sticker. Even the cork is cool. This is an absolute showpiece for those who like displaying their liquor.
The masculine Savile Row style quotient is a deliberate effort. Haig Club is owned in part by one of Earth's most prominent poster children of metrosexuality, David Beckham. Television uberproducer and pop culture entrepreneur Simon Fuller is also involved. Hyper-stylized ad campaigns were released from hyper-stylized British film director Guy Ritchie. All that's missing is a long-haired Andre Agassi proclaiming into a Canon Rebel lens, "Image is everything." Haig Club is cooler than you.
Fair warning, cool kids - it was the Fonz that literally 'jumped the shark'. Does the whisky hold up to its carefully cultivated image? Is single grain the next big thing or a gimmicky publicity stunt? Is there an actual 'Haig Club' with secret handshakes and velvet rope bouncers?
Let's start with figuring out just what's in the stuff. Single grain scotch is not as cut and dry as single malt. According to the 2009 Scotch Whisky Regulations #2.2-2.4 as decreed by Parliament:
- (2.2) The two basic types of scotch whisky, from which all blends are made, are Single Malt Scotch Whisky and Single Grain Scotch Whisky. In practice there is no change in the way Single Malt Scotch Whisky and Single Grain Scotch Whisky must be produced."
- (2.3) Single Malt Scotch Whisky means a scotch whisky produced from only water and malted barley at a single distillery by batch distillation in pot stills.
- (2.4) Single Grain Scotch Whisky means a scotch whisky distilled at a single distillery but which, in addition to water and malted barley, may also be produced from whole grains of malted or unmalted cereals...
How a 'single grain' scotch whisky is comprised of multiple grains is an obvious conundrum. In accordance with these guidelines, a whisky made from 100% corn, rye, wheat, sorghum, or oats would not qualify as single grain scotch due to the exclusion of malted barley. Paradoxically then, a single grain scotch must contain multiple grains (otherwise it's a single malt and we wouldn't be having this discussion). It goes on to say that despite this allowance of other cereals in a single grain scotch, a single malt mixed with a single grain from the same distillery is, by definition, blended whisky. Huh? My heads hurts. Moving on...
Haig Club is produced at the Cameronbridge Distillery, the oldest and largest grain distillery is Scotland. Located across the Firth of Forth and down river from Edinburgh, Cameronbridge would fall under the Highland designation under different circumstances. Purchased by Diageo, the grain spirits produced at Cameronbridge make their way into blended brands such as Johnnie Walker, J&B, and Haig (naturally), as well as contributing to decidedly non-scotch spirits such as Pimm's, Smirnoff, Tanqueray, and Gordon's Gin.
The second deviation from the single malt model is their use of continuous distillation in column stills, not distinct "batch distillation in pot stills". They reportedly age Haig Club in 'rejuvenated' first fill oak casks (which often leaves notes of banana for some reason) and ex-bourbon casks, but without an age-statement, there's just no telling for how long.
It is immediately apparent upon pouring your first dram of Haig Club that something is very different. The color is a marigold hue, seeming to glow when light hits it. Crystal clear, so much so I have to assume it's been chill-filtered within an inch of its life. Stranger still is the nose. Grassy and impossibly floral with a background disinfectant aroma, so it smells a bit like a Glade Plug-In. The nose is the biggest reminder you are not drinking a single malt.
Haig Club fares somewhat better on the palate. Sticky sweet toffee, oaky vanilla. The touch of citrus and floral notes remind me vaguely of Glenmorangie 10. There's a thread of spice weaving through that I can't quite put my finger on, whatever they put in Thai food. The buttered toast malt/grain flavor is medium-bodied at best, not really its strong suit.
Somewhat thin in texture, but warming and clean mouth feel. I sometimes get a banana note (see, I told you) towards the finish, sometimes a hint of ginger spice (ironic, considering Beckham's wife). No smoke, no salt, but I wouldn't necessarily call it light either. Overall sweet, smooth, and non-threatening to scotch newbies. Although, that may sound too close to an outright endorsement...
Those of us who regularly enjoy and appreciate single malt scotch whisky will not be impressed. The comment section on Master of Malt is the most vile I've ever seen. Like it or not folks, it is scotch whisky according to the officially agreed upon criteria. Many of its detractors are simply rabidly anti-David Beckham. I have absolutely nothing against him personally, and always thought him an amazing footballer, but he does always seem to end up on the wrong side of rivalries from my allegiances (England v. Scotland, LA Galaxy v. DC United, Real Madrid v. Barca, Man U v. everyone else in the EPL). At this point, I would hope I could compartmentalize my soccer fandom from my taste in whisky.
In attempting to judge its merits against my experience with single malts, I just found it to be towards the one-dimensional, boring end of the spectrum. I was not repulsed by it, nor was I thrilled with it. In fairness, the website is filled with cocktail suggestions on how to mix Haig Club, whereas I'm judging it neat. The novelty of the fancy blue bottle has worn off, now it just seems pretentious. This is a clear example of 'style over substance' when you put it through the Pepsi Challenge, but it was worth the experience to get to know an entirely different interpretation of scotch whisky.
Overall Grade: 79/100, C+
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