Soho Whisky Co's Act One

There's a new Indie bottler on the block - @SohoWhiskyCo and a mate of mine shared a bottle of their first release with me!

Let's see what Act One is like!

Soho Whisky Co was founded in 2023 by George Mitchie (of Soho Whisky Club), Hugo Sells and Jack Whitehall (the comedian) with the aim of releasing blended grains. "premium grain was a delicious and versatile product overlooked by the established cabal and so that's where we've started"

Their first release, called Act One, has a very funky label!

Bottler notes:

46.3%, Blended Grain Scotch Whisky, Natural Colour. Not chill filtered.

A marriage of three Scotch Whisky casks, this kinky throuple is a perfect blend. Two of the barrels, to use a technical term, are the absolute tits, year-wise we’re talking too old for Leonardo di Caprio. They come from a now-demolished distillery in Glasgow. Balancing age with youth, the other is from a distillery in the Scottish Highlands which, as far as we are aware, is still standing.

The result is a whisky with more floral elegance than the winner of the Chelsea Flower Show and a finish that is as silky and smooth as a Michael Bublé vocal. Bringing grain whisky it’s sexy back, this blend has the richness of crumbling pastry with notes of buttercream and vanilla pods. It’s like liquid shortbread. All finished with floral orchard honey and zesty citrus to give you a little slap round the face.

Best enjoyed neat or add a dash of water, administered via pipette, if you’re a full-blown whisky bore. You can even chuck in an ice cube or two. No judgment here.

My thoughts:

Appearance: Pale gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, take an age to bead up before falling as slow thin legs.

Nose: huge vanilla notes to start with buttered popcorn and vanilla fudge. A little time and air offers poached pears, rum and raisin ice cream and a little lemon.

Palate: sweet creamy arrival, like the nose there's loads of vanilla, a little toffee, some lemon and now a gentle bite of spice. There's a hint of rum and raisin, and maybe coconut ice cream with some marshmallow notes on the tongue, a little drying. A few more sips offer apple crumble, a little pineapple and some dry cinnamon spice.

Finish: lingering vanilla, coconut and cinnamon..

Overall: I loved this dram from the first pour, I've always liked grains and this one just ticks all of the boxes. There are only eight grain distilleries in operation in Scotland and whilst we don't know where the three casks are from we can probably hedge a bet at Port Dundas for the closed Glasgow Distillery and either Loch Lomond or Invergordon for the 'still standing' Highland distillery - let's go with the latter - there is more of that available to Indie bottlers. If you want a straightforward easy sipping grain you'd be hard pushed to beat this!

Jack Whitehall helping to pick samples for this blend.