Grenache Hondarrabi Zuri Red Blend Single Malt Scotch Scotland Lowland 750ml

The Grenache grape holds the honor of being the most widely planted wine grape varietal on earth. It has a long and impressive history, and has been the backbone of the some of the planet’s most respected and famed wine regions, blended with Syrah in regions such as Chateauneuf du Pape, and in certain other Loire and Languedoc regions where it reigns supreme as a single varietal wine grape. In other key areas, such as Spain’s La Rioja (where it is known as Garnacha Tinta), it is blended with Tempranillo to make that country’s signature red wine, and is widely used as a blending grape in other old and new world countries, due to its unique character and jammy, fruit forward character.


For a long time, the Grenache grape was somewhat looked down upon as an ignoble varietal, incapable of producing wines of any particular interest. However, times are very much changing - in the right hands, Grenache grapes result in astonishingly intense and complex wines, full of fascinating features, and capable of achieving plenty of expression. For a while now, Grenache has been a major player in Australian wines. While not yet quite as extensively planted down under as Shiraz is, the Barossa Valley is bringing out some of the finest examples of this grape’s wines in recent years.

As you move south through Scotland, towards the English border where wars have been fought over territory and sovereignty for hundreds of years, you begin to notice some dramatic differences not only in lifestyle, attitude and landscape, but also in the production of scotch whisky. The Lowland region of Scotland is the second most industrious whisky region, due to the enormous number of distilleries which can be found here. In the past, the Lowlands were synonymous with high quality, single malt whiskies, but while a couple of excellent single malt producers still remain in the area, today the majority of whiskies of this region are very different.

The Lowland region is now primarily associated with blended whiskies, and grain whiskies which appeal to a wide international audience. While in the past, the Lowlands were thought of as a poor-quality whisky region, with a negative reputation in the 18th and 19th centuries, today, quality is back up to where it should be thanks to stringent new laws and regulations overseeing the production of the distinctive drinks which are distilled here.

Of the surviving single malt distilleries in the Lowlands, quality is exceptionally high. This is a region with a lot to prove, and it has significant competition with its northern neighbour in the Highlands. As such, Lowland single malt whisky is ferociously traditional, and uses every trick in the book to achieve exceptionally smoothness, typified by grassy, creamy whisky which is packed full of complex flavors of toffee and honeysuckle.