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Chivas Regal Extra was a 2015 addition to the core range. The blend includes extra sherry-cask-matured whisky, resulting in a sweet and fruity blend.
Chivas Regal Extra Review:
How To Drink It?
Although this was one of the more sherry forward blends that also contained a lot of peat (it’s a triple-distilled speysider!) I find that it also works very well with a cube.
Tasting Notes:
Chivas Regal Extra is very sweet with notes of raisins and apricots. This has been a really good find and I am happy I decided to try out their core lineup. It’s balanced and just very enjoyable to drink. (valium)
Nose: Sweet, fruity, raisins, plums, fresh walnuts, honey, apricots, apple, pear and butterscotch;
Palate: Creamy, fruity, watermelons and ripe peaches, mildly spicy, more peat and more oak;
Finish: Very long finish with sweet and fruity notes; Apart from a bit of sherry dryness in the finish, I really enjoyed the taste of this one. I’ve found it to be a real pleasure to drink and would recommend at least trying it. And for the price, the bottle won’t break the bank either.
Currently, the Extra percentage is only available in the bottle, not in a cask strength (or a special edition) or in the Chivas Regal 18 year old.
Cocktails
Chivas Regal Extra is not the most complex whisky in the world but rather one of the easiest blends to mix with. Hence, the suggestion is to mix a drink with a lot of sweeter or fruity flavours to really bring the flavour out of the Extra. I made the following two as a starter and they were so good I had to take a picture:
Cut a thin slice of a fresh lime (no Wedgwood). Squeeze some lime juice onto the slice, add a dash of sugar and muddle a little. Add ice, Chivas Regal Extra and mix. Top up with club soda and garnish with the lime wedge.
You can start out with a basic Old Fashioned or Caipiroska (see above) and then adjust, play around with different bitters and garnishes and have fun.
I am very satisfied with the content and the value of this blend. Especially if you consider that a bottle of Chivas Regal Extra is around 200-250 dollars (or even 200-300 dollars or more in some cases), this is an absolute bargain. I can definitely recommend it to anyone who is new to whisky, but also to an experienced dram connoisseur, for example an occasional peat lover. If you only have a limited budget, this one is a very good starting point.
Chivas Regal 18 Year Old is the highest expression in the Chivas Regal blend. It is double matured in sherry and bourbon barrels. Several editions have been released, most often to coincide with the World Cups. This includes the widely known “For the Love of the Game” edition (after the Kevin Costner movie) which was a 20 year old blended Scotch. The picture here shows the 1986 version of the Chivas Regal 18.
On the nose the rum sherry combination is head-scratchingly strong even without a huge amount of water. But what’s so special about it is that the combination is absolutely lovely. I say lovely because of the sheer balance of flavours from sweet (sherry) to nutty (malt) and peppery (rum). The whole is further topped off with some hints of oak (dryness) and the general impression is of something that has seen a lot of ageing, but also quite a few good times. I give the full weight of my recommendation to this whisky.
