| #377 Seagram Seven Crown 75th Anniversary Edition NAS Blended American | |||||||||||||||||||||
| This cost is what I found the likely shelf price for a 750ml bottle to be, based on an average of costs throughout the USA. Your price may differ significantly. This is not an advertisement of sale, this bottle is likely empty by now anyway Cost | $1500 |  | |||||||||||||||||||
| 43 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The whisky's score as weighed against the cost of a bottle. Adj. Score | 47 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ABV | 43% | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Awards |  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tasting # 409: Seagram 7 Crown 75th Anniversary Edition (09-DEC-2009) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Notes | This bottle brings me joy. Oh, I have thin hopes for the contents of this thing, but the fact that it even exists thrills me.  7 crown, one of the four horsemen of the blendpacalypse, has an anniversary edition! Normally this fever dream would set you back fifteen whole bucks, but I snagged it -on sale- and got change for a ten. Oh, you have no idea how fast I had this tucked under my arm. I was a fullback on a mission to a cash register touchdown. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1st Impression | This bottle is a design horror from the dark age of whisky. Scalloped parchment that looks like the label is peeling off. There are 7 crowns, but not the crown from the stock 7 bottle, although that's actually embossed into the glass on the back of the bottle. The ribbon is, I think, a stock Photoshop element. The fonts are a mishmash collection of bad choices and it has a plastic screw cap. Huzzah! | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Smell | Rye everywhere over a base of grapefruit and corn syrup. That rye has cranked up the worry volume even more than the label. There's a fruity underside that I'm trying to find, there's just so much flat rye here to muscle through. Figs? Reminds me of Fig Newtons and cheap vodka. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Taste | Ugh. It took 75 years to come up with this? By the whisky gods. So, at full go (such as it is) this is bitter and harsh stuff. It opens hard rye that bites and snarls through a build of charcoal, bitter rye, orange juice and hard wood. The top is... well, better than the horrors of the front, at least. The rye sweetness appears along with some merciful hints of applesauce and actual oak. The rye holds off the typical shift to bitter until late in the fade, where it becomes metallic and harsh. A few fruit notes make things manageable.
So, bring on the water. Water works a few minor miracles. The opening is actually tolerable with a lot of rye and softer fruit flavors: the oranges are much milder and there's even a bit of peach. The woody build calms a bit, holding out the bark and bite for the very top where the rye doesn't go anywhere as horribly, horribly tart. The fade and finish are a bit watery, but you can actually find a few flavors to enjoy. Sticky and flat at the end. It isn't a masterpiece by any stretch, and certainly I'd hope that after 75 long years it would be a better glass, but I can probably manage to struggle through another version of this. I can't quite say this ranks twice the standard version's score of 28 (although the full go might threaten to tie it), but it's closer to an actual beverage by a good 15 points. Low 40s. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tasting Score | 43 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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