North Star Spica 29 Year Old Whisky Review!

A 29-year old blended Scotch whisky, bottled at cask strength, and selling for an very reasonable price. This whisky is outside my personal malty comfort zone, so this should be interesting!

I haven't reviewed many blended whiskies before, and it's been around five years since the last one. For a re-cap, whisky made from anything other than 100% malted barley is a grain whisky, not a malt whisky, and if you blend a grain whisky with a malt whisky you have a blended whisky (not to be confused with a blended / vatted malt whisky). In all honesty I don't usually buy them, purely because they tend to be on the boring side, and are often lacking in the character department. They can also be rough, harsh, or remarkably unremarkable. Note that I'm not talking about blended / vatted malts here, but rather blended whiskies, most of which are made for mixing anyway, but of course there are exceptions. The long-discontinued Bailie Nicol Jarvie blend comes to mind there, and the previous iteration of Black Bottle (the round green bottle version) was enjoyable, but that's about it in my experience. There are too many factors involved to pin the blame on any particular aspect of blended whisky, but I would generally point to chill filtration, added colouring, low bottling strength (usually the minimum of 40% ABV), little-to-no identifiable cask influence or distillery character - which is intentional, of course -  and far too much cheap and/or immature grain whisky being in the mix for my liking. Don't get me wrong, some single grain whiskies can be excellent, when well-aged in quality casks, but for obvious reasons that level of grain whisky isn't usually seen in blended whiskies. 

This particular blended whisky has the potential to be another exception. It's non-chill filtered, naturally coloured, and bottled at cask strength. It's matured in a combination of American and European oak casks, with an overt & significant sherry cask influence. Oh and it's also spent at least twenty-nine years in those casks. Now in general single malt terms, this was extremely cheap - it cost me $160 AUD. In general blended whisky terms, that's expensive, but not for a 29-year old age-stated blend at cask strength. Having a quick look at the blended whisky competition at this price level, the Johnnie Walker King George V, at 25-years of age and 43% ABV, is priced at $529 AUD. The 25-year old Chivas Regal, at the minimum bottling strength of 40% ABV, is priced at $430 AUD. And when you step up to a single malt, you're looking at anywhere from $700 for the likes of Talisker or Glenfarclas, to $1,900 for the likes of Highland Park. All of which begs the question, why is this 29-year old cask strength blend so cheap? At first I was a little concerned, with images of those anonymous European supermarket blended whiskies coming to mind. I had sampled a few North Star bottlings in the past, and some had been far better than others, but they do have a good reputation, so my curiosity won out in the end. I'll be the first to state that age statements aren't everything, and that age and maturity are two different things, and that broadly speaking I actually tend to prefer younger whisky to older whisky. But I can't deny that the 29-year old age statement is what piqued my curiosity here and ended up getting this blended whisky over the line for me. I may not have bought it otherwise. In fact I generally don't buy independent bottlings myself unless I've tried the exact bottling personally, or at least have heard positive feedback from very trusted sources. So this purchase was a bit of a gamble, but at this price point it was worth the punt. 

North Star spirits is a relatively young Glasgow-based independent bottler, founded in 2016 and owned & operated by Iain Croucher - who was previously in the employ of independent bottler A.D. Rattray. Every whisky released by North Star is bottled at cask strength, non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. Aside from their bottlings of single cask & small batch single malts, the company also releases two well-aged blended malts, named Vega and Sirius, and one well-aged blended Scotch whisky, named Spica. Yes, they're all named after stars, and the word "Spica" is derived from the Latin term for "ear of wheat", which is a nod to this being a blend (containing grain whisky). There have been two bottlings of Spica to date, the first a 20-year old, and subsequently this 29-year old, with both consisting of only 1,000 bottles each. There's no mention of what distilleries or even what whisky regions were involved here, and there's no mention of the proportion of grain vs. malt whisky in the blend, although the grain component is certainly evident. Spica 29-year old is bottled at a cask strength of 45.5% ABV, is matured in both American and European oak, and is non-chill filtered and natural colour. Let's see if my gamble has paid off...

North Star Spica Blended Scotch Whisky, 29-year old, 45.5%. Scotland. 

Distilled 1989, matured in American & European oak, bottled 2019. Cask strength, non-chill filtered, natural colour. 1,000 bottles. 

Colour: Dark amber. 

Nose: Rich & medium-sweet, with quite a nose prickle for a 29-year old anything. Needs some extra breathing time! The grain is obvious too, with an acetone solvent-y note and toasted coconut. Becomes more savoury and mellow with that extra breathing time, with sweet earthy mushrooms, rose water-flavoured Turkish delight, and a good serving of dark, musty old sherry. Caramel fudge and some old leather, plus a few red apples for good measure. 

Texture: Medium weight, quite savoury, still a bit of heat to it but much less than on the nose. 

Taste: More sweet earthy mushrooms, slightly leathery again, more old musty sherry and red apple. Then the grain comes through with that peppery heat and toasted coconut. Recedes into caramel fudge again, a few almonds and some orange. 

Finish: Short-medium length. Some vanilla coming through, with that caramel fudge again, still quite peppery and a little solvent-y though. More orange, some sweet lemon and a few almonds. The sherry comes back to finish, along with some dank old oak. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5, but only after that extra breathing time. 

Notes: An interesting experience here, and a bit of a lesson in giving a dram more breathing time to see what happens. Likewise this whisky has relaxed and improved massively since I first opened the bottle. I'll generally open a bottle, have a dram or two and then wait at least two weeks before reviewing, and to its benefit this one has had more than three. This is a surprisingly savoury whisky, and without that solvent-y grain getting in the way it would be a real sherry bomb. But we can't expect that at this price level! It does feel like the malt and the grain never completely get along, it's almost like they're taking it in turns, with only one having the spotlight at any one time. So you're not going to mistake it for a good 30-year old malt whisky - although you'd already know that from the price - but there's a good amount of character and a good weight to the whole package that works nicely.

There's a good subtle level of wood influence, not too heavy and it only really shows up in force on the finish. Which I suppose could've been helped by having that grain spirit in there, keeping things a little lighter and fresher. It's not going to convert me away from younger single malts, but at this price point and at this age, I don't really have any grounds for complaint. In fact it offers a very good value experience, particularly considering it's naturally coloured, non-chill filtered and bottled at cask strength. Certainly worth a try, just make sure you give it plenty of breathing time!

Cheers!