Nice Sipper's Review of The Sassenach Blended Scotch Whisky

Are celebrity brands worth exploring or are they purely money grabs?

This next review for The Sassenach is going to be two firsts for Nice Sipper…the first review for a blended Scotch whisky and the first  for a celebrity spirit.   

Celebrities endorsing products is not a new concept, but celebrities launching their own brands, especially in the alcohol category, is a pretty recent phenomenon.  Why sell your name for a fee when you can own the brand itself?  The first big celebrity brand that I remember dates back to the aughts with Sean “Diddy” Combs’s Ciroc vodka.  Then George Clooney sold his Casamigos tequila for a cool billion and all hell broke loose.  Now you have actors, athletes and musicians all either launching their own brands or partnering with existing brands for new releases including Duane “The Rock” Johnson (Teremana tequila), Ryan Reynolds (Aviation gin), Peyton Manning (Sweetens Cove Tennessee Whiskey), Nick Offerman (Lagavulin), Matthew McConnaughey (Longbranch bourbon, part of Wild Turkey’s portfolio), Metallica (BLACKENED), Bob Dylan (Heaven’s Door), Bryan Cranston & Aaron Paul (Dos Hombres Mezcal) and the list goes on and on.  I think it is safe to say that while a lot of these are pure money grabs, some of them are legit enterprises and produce some good products.