Bruichladdich just keeps experimenting and we delight in exploring their various offerings as and when we can catch hold!
More recently, I sampled:
- The Organic Scottish Barley 50% – Interesting and lives up to an ‘organic’ expectation!
- Octomore 5_169 59.5% – Serious OMG peat – wow!
- PC Scottish Barley 50% – Fresh, citrus, herbal with zing!
However it was actually several years ago that our original tasting group first picked up a Bruichladdich. Before I was consistent in taking notes, we tried the Laddie 10 year and another at a session I missed. One session I did join from August 2013 featured the rather unique NAS express ‘Bruichladdich Rocks.’ As usual, we sampled blind then revealed the whisky.
Bruichladdich Rocks (www.bruichladdich.com)
- Colour – Burnished gold
- Nose – Bold fresh nose with rubber and a hint of flowery sweetness
- Taste – Not a hint of peat… just delightful rich winey fruity spicy chewy yumminess
- Finish – Even better, the finish didn’t dash off instantly leaving instead a gentle warmth
We understand that the name comes from the ancient rocks through which the water apparently crashes. Some have also suggested the whisky is ‘designed’ to be sipped ‘on the rocks’.
Bruichladdich Rocks is a vatted malt, bringing together various vintages then finished for another nine months in a French Mourvèdre-Syrah wine cask. Certainly worth sampling and nice to try this distillery’s less accessible offering.
It is definitely a whisky I wouldn’t mind revisiting properly rather than merely through notes from our tasting archives! Alas, like many Bruichladdich experiments – what is here today is gone tomorrow and the likelihood of catching this again is rather low.
Just to make you even more envious of the opportunity we had to sample ‘Rocks’, here is what the folks over at Bruichladdich have to say:
- Character – Light, bright and full of joy! A fresh, vibrant spirit brimming with the unique flavours of the Hebrides.
- Nose – An exhilarating fresh and vibrant bouquet, opening with soft red grapes, redcurrant jelly, pomegranate and red apple all encased in an envelope of syrup, sweet malted barley and brown sugar vanilla.
- Palate – It jumps out of the glass anxious to please. The wine flavours wait patiently while the malt and oak display their charms. Then they emerge – red cherry, strawberry and spiciness. Really creamy yet retaining a coastal crispness.
- Finish – A malt on a mission! Snappy and sweet, zipping along on the crest of a wave migrating from Islay to France but always returning to the homeland.
- Mood – Gregarious. eager, enthusiastic, tireless. Designed as an aperitif malt, or as here on Islay, to be enjoyed instead of tea. Takes water well.
Here are what others have to say:
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