Royal Salute Eternal Reserve – Drops

Mine is ten.  Ah, but mine is fifteen.  Poor you, mine here is twenty-one.  Wow, only twenty-one? Mine is infinite.  It might seem like kids bickering, but in fact, we’re talking about one of the latest releases from Royal Salute – a super premium brand of blended Scotch whisky – Royal Salute Eternal Reserve. Its age, despite suggestively being titled “eternal”, is actually 21 years old.  However, it uses increasingly matured whiskies in its blend.

The idea behind Royal Salute Eternal Reserve is actually quite simple.  In Royal Salute’s own words, “The very first creation of Royal Salute The Eternal Reserve began with the preparation of 88 casks of incredibly rare and precious whiskies, all aged in their casks for over 21 years.

These whiskies were carefully selected using two criteria: firstly, that each whisky possessed an exceptionally long finish that could be further extended through blending and marrying process and secondly, that the whiskies chosen could be beautifully harmonised in each new batch, while keeping the original signature style forever.

Once selected, the precious whiskies were blended together and then further married in 88 casks in the Royal Salute Vault for a period of six months. This original blend is then blended with other 88 casks worth of precious whisky of exceptionally aged whiskies to complete the first batch.

Before bottling this first batch, our expert blending team holds some of the blend back, returning it to the original 88 casks, so they can form the basis of the next batch. These 88 casks are always safeguarded in the Royal Salute Vault in Strathisla distillery. Each time a new batch is blended, the same process – circulation of 88 casks – is repeated; the whiskies of the 88 casks from the previous batch are added to the new blend of the next batch.”

It really exists!

If you exclude certain adjectives and hyperboles, such as exceptionally, exceptional, wonderfully and precious, you will see that the method is very similar to that of solera, widely used by some sherries.  Part of the blend from a previous batch is mixed with the next batch.  The idea is that a small fraction of the original lot is always present in future batches, due to successive blending.

In practice, this technique brings a certain consistency to whisky, avoiding sensitive differences between one batch and another.  Additionally, there is an emotional appeal.  Imagine that in two decades a small number of the whiskies in the existing blend will have rested by that time in the eighty-eight casks.  This means that part of it will consist of whiskies of over forty years old.

Royal Salute Eternal Reserve is a very light and slightly oily whisky, rather fruity with honey, caramel and vanilla.  The alcohol is perfectly integrated and hardly aggressive.  If you like light and fruity whiskies or completely in love with Royal Salute, you should try Royal Salute Eternal Reserve. You’ll be eternally in love.

ROYAL SALUTE ETERNAL RESERVE

Type: Blended Whisky – 21 years old  (it’s not eternal after all)

Brand: Royal Salute

Region: N/A

ABV: 40%

Tasting Notes:

Aroma: Fruity, with vanilla and caramel.

Flavour: Like its 21-year-old brother, it is a sweet whisky, with notes of honey, dried and fresh fruit.  It has a medium finish, with a taste of vanilla and liquorice. The alcohol is extremely subtle. It’s pretty good!

Price: around US$ 180 (one hundred and eighty) dollars.

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