Malt Mission 2009 #355

Bruichladdich 2001
The Resurrection Dram
46% abv
£35
$80 (USD)

Launched in November 2008, the Bruichladdich Resurrection Dram is sure to stand out on your whisky shelf. Do not stare directly at the bottle (or canister) for more than two seconds.

Called the "resurrection dram" because it is made up of the first spirit produced after re-opening under new ownership in 2001, this is a limited release of 24,000 bottles and is a slightly peatier version of typical Bruichladdich (10ppm).

The distillery notes say "In 2001 when BDC started distilling Bruichladdich at first the peated malt BDC could secure was 10ppm which BDC distilled for part of 2001 until it could procure the traditional specification of 3 to 5 ppm for Bruichladdich. This release has been selected 100% from the 10ppm distillation and therefore makes this quite a rare bottling , and may never be repeated as most of the 2001 vintage has been or is being used in the multi vintage bottlings (3D series , Infinity , Rocks , Waves and Peat)"

Good responses to this bottling from the always reliable Whisky Notes can be found HERE. Another report from the over-prolific Ralfy HERE. If you can watch more than 3 of his Whisky Review videos and not feel, well ralfy, then I will send you a bottle of whisky. Seriously! Although the muck up at Loch Fyne is absolutely classic, my fave is the one at Glen Gyle where poor Pete Currie has to patiently put up with this self-important whisky nerd with a tripod in his face. Watch for the eye-roll in Part 2, "So, so we'll just carry on..." Amazing.

At least the guy has links on his site... to himself. (*note- in the months following this post, Ralfy added external links. An extensive and valuable list, but I can't shake the feeling that he may have missed one...)

For more distillery info and for all Bruichladdich had on the Malt Mission, click HERE.

Tasted with AW and AF.

TASTING NOTES:

Fresh berries, strawberry cream tarts, honey on toast, cake mix. Lightly fudgy and sweet, with milk chocolate and a floral (violet-y) peat. More suggestion of fruits, perhaps tropical, or dried ginger and apricot with a chlorinated whiff of smoke.

Choco biscuit, wafers, fresh fruits like red grapes and plums, synthetic fruit like bubble gum(Juicy fruits) or shampoo. A gentle spice increases with a slight bitterness of unripe fruitskins.

SUMMARY:

Let is get some air before jumping in to your glass and you will be rewarded. It has to be said that first impressions were not great (baby sick, grape skins, wet dog) but after time we all were throwing out “this is like a lollipop”, “immensely fruity”, and "wonderful to nose”. A complex dram for such a young age (7 years). The fruitier, more typical (whatever that means with a distillery that has releases 40 bottlings per annum) Bruichladdich aromas were there, just buried under an old-school smoke, similar to Brora, that added a farmy element to be loved by some and loathed by others. Just like the stark bottling design.

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Malt Mission 2007 #183

Bruichladdich PC6 (Port Charlotte)
Cuairt Beatha
Islay Single Malt Whisky
61.6%
£58

This is the second release in this highly collectible Port Charlotte Evolution series from Bruichladdich, Port Charlotte or PC6, and is finsihed in Madeira casks. We had its younger sibling yesterday and this one is already on fricking eBay. The makers have even decided to release 6 different collectible tins! Clever? Yes. Annoying? To some. But it's equally shitty that consumers are buying cases and unloading them on auction sites. That is terribly lame. What ever happened to DRINKING the stuff?

And it's £60?!? That is half the price of the new and unanimously worshipped Lagavulin 21. What is happening in the world of whisky? Consumers are more educated and taking more active roles in their understanding and appreciation of whisky than possibly ever before: more books are available/websites/blogs/active fora, tourism to distilleries is up, there are more Whisky fairs, etc. than ever before, more expressions from more distilleries, more more more. This can only be a positive, no? No.

Do new drinkers of Scotch whisky find the seemingly endless string of releases confusing and even intimidating? Yes. Do regular drinkers of Scotch whisky find the seemingly endless string of new packaging and new releases from distilleries a bit much at times? Certainly. And do new AND regular drinkers of Scotch whisky feel a little alienated by price? Yes. Without a doubt. Is whisky a drink or a status symbol(ask Mr. Chavez)? These are not general hypotheses from a disgruntled whisky lover. These are observations of expressed opinions of customers from Sweden to Saskatoon, from the front line of the whisky industry.

Pricing is working in two ways as we approach 2008: what I would call premiumisaturation and juvenile kitsch. We have new premium products from Chivas (Longmorn 16, Chivas 25, Glenlivet 25), dozens of vintages from dozens of distilleries, and new posh packaging with matching new price points. The entry-level Longmorn is now £50. Does a whisky have to be £50 to be good? No no no. Warehouses are being rummaged for old vintages and new 25year-olds are being launched here and there. All this while we keep hearing about a shortage of aged stocks...

"So let's turn them onto young whisky!" says marketing Mel/Melissa.

We have the successes of Adbeg Very Young, Still Young, and Almost There. Are we going to see Teeny Weeny Ardbeg or Ardbeg Neil Young? We have painfully young small runs of Bruichladdich (Port Charlotte, Lochindaal, and more to come, no doubt), Springbank (Hazelburn) and Edradour (Ballechin) available for <£60 a bottle. Are we going to be buying new make 'single still' Strathisla or Buckets o' Bunnahabhain soon? And it goes on and on until consumers are bored with cute ideas and immaturity... and then where are we? Whisky Loch? Or maybe we'll all be drinking bourbon. Or rum. Sure, the justification I have heard for higher prices on these collectibles is to deter or at least control the profit an individual might make in the reselling of these items in auction, etc, yet they still sell cases to single buyers. Why should anyone make money save the distillery on their COLLECT ALL SIX TINS campaign? !!!!!!! ?

I am only attempting to express a growing concern among whisky consumers that the flamboyant packaging, marketing, and media-attracting actions of a minority of the whisky industry could undermine the craft of the majority, sacrificing all the successes of recent years and assisting in the devaluing of the whisky sector. No matter how honourable one's intentions, inadvertently creating a lack of trust in any one sector of an industry can seriously damage the integrity of the perception of the sector as a whole. It takes years to earn credibility and seconds to lose it. I seriously believe that some of this whisky excitement needs to be tamed before the only customers left in the wonderful world of whisky are stamp collectors and old men and the distillers decide they need to close more Broras, Port Ellens, and Glen Mhors... which, of course, would be back where we started.

Bah! Semi-incoherent rant over. Let's drink this... this... this instigator! Big thanks to the gent who bought a bottle and opened it on the spot for us all to try. His impressions appear in quotes.

TASTING NOTES:

Lots of new make charm: oats, soft perfumy notes, smoke. A touch of spice. Water makes things more coastal and a touch of iodine, seaweed, or even maijuana weed, appear.

Prunes, salt, smoke a fruit. "Dried fruit, not the the point of Christmas pudding, but tasty. I am a massive fan of young whiskies." Buttery, sugary, crepes, the crispy, nearly-burnt bits in the finish. Salt stays on my lips for a very long time.

SUMMARY:

Scary how misleading the abv% was. Sure, it needed water, but no one guessed it was as high as 61.6%. Very approachable, but you have to a) like your peat and b) like 'em young. With time, this could be a real cracking drop, it is just that for me it needs more time in oak to build complexity and lose some of the pear-drop new make character.

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Malt Mission 2007 #182

Bruichladdich PC5 (Port Charlotte)
Islay Single Malt Whisky
63.5%
£58*

The folks at Bruichladdich distillery call the Port Charlotte (PC) Evolution series "the re-awakening of the long-lost soul of an extinct distillery." The original Port Charlotte (Lochindaal) distillery and closed in 1929 in the wake of American prohibition and company changes in Scotland. You still can, and I have, sleep in part of the remnants of the distillery as it is occupied by a Youth Hostel. Or you can park your car in part of an old warehouse.

Ruraidh Macleod is the last man alive to have tasted the original Port Charlotte. "It was very, very peaty; but it was as smooth as velvet." Bottled at 63.5%, this stuff was filled to cask at 71%, the result of what Jim McEwan had called 'trickle-distillation', ie. running the stills slowly.

This is also the first spirit to be produced by the current owners who took over the distillery in 2000 and began production in 2001. Released almost exactly a year ago, the original run was over-subscribed by 400% and began yet another series of highly collectible bottlings. But how is the stuff in the bottle? Thanks for the sample, Colin.

For more distillery information and to see other drops of Bruichladdich had on the mission click HERE.

* - the quoted price is dated and if you were to find a bottle of this stuff for sale today I am sure it would have a price tag above that initial one. Crazy whisky collectors, screwing everything up for us whisky drinkers.

TASTING NOTES:

Dairy first impressions (appropriate as the remnants of the distillery were used as the Islay Creamery until 1990s) Clotted cream, salted butter, and brie. Yogurt based curry, even. Creme de cassis, lemonade(Sprite, 7up) honeydew and peat smoke throughout. With water it becomes even more lemony (synthetic), the smoke gets more industrial, petrolic, a warm running engine.

Hot (it is 63.5%, after all). Big smoky impact, very much like Lahroaig, but the array of flavours is quite different. Still dairy with buttered toast, lots of pepper, and then very drying like (properly) brewed tea. With water it is more mineral, earthy, and biscuity. Grape skins and smoke in the dry finish. Peat smoke lingers.

SUMMARY:

Pretty impressive actually, if young. And not for those repelled by peat. This is the kind of juvenile spirit that can get folks pretty excited for the future. Let's hope that future is more affordable than £60 a go. (Check out Sku's impressions... and if you have a look around, be prepared to get hungry)

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Malt Mission 2007 #171

Bruichladdich "Full Stength" 1989, 13yo
Islay Single Malt Whisky
57.1% abv
£40

Thirty drops until Malt Mission #200 and I looking at what is lined up on my shelf, I am excited taste my way to that landmark. Then I'll get Morgan Spurlock's team of doctors to check me out. Thanks for reading! We'll start the 30-dram countdown with a cask strength-themed week.

Bruichladdich is one of the twenty Scottish distilleries owned by one of the fifteen independent distilling companies. In the hands of its current owners, the distillery is on the cutting edge of innovation with a seemingly never-ending line of limited releases of varied expressions, wine finishes, filling strengths, different strains of barley and peat levels. The distillery is set in a lovely location on Loch Indaal on Islay and a favorite of whisky tourists.

In the most recent edition of her incredible book "The Scottish Whisky Distilleries", Misako Udo tells us that when Bruichladdich's Managing Director Mark Reynier received an email asking him to fix one of the web cams operating at the distillery, it came to the distiller's attention that the US Threat Reduction Agency had been monitoring them. The watchdog believed that the production of chemical weapons was one small step away from distilling whisky and the new owners' strange techniques and experiments caught their suspicion.

There has been a second edition of the Full Strength series. This is the first. All Bruichladdichs had on the mission can be read HERE.

TASTING NOTES:

Energetic and compact. Mustiness deep in the stacks at a library, immense honey and zest of lemons, some pepper and an array of tree fruits: apples, nectarines, plums.

Irish Cream ice cream, melted honey in weak tea, a buttery element, too. Warm effects, but kept lively with fresh fruit (lemon and melon) impressions as well. The finish brings a welcome simplification of flavours with oak and a touch of marzipan slowly fading.

SUMMARY:

The nose exposes the high abv%, but the taste is gentle and warming but quite a concentrated spirit; not too complex but clean and well constructed with many pleasant flavours to be enjoyed sip after sip.

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Malt Mission 2007 #81

OddBins Wine Fair
Business Design Centre, Islington
May 12-13, 2007
£20

Welcome to week 17, and what a week it was! Last week I broke the story of the (unfortunate) discontinuing of Jon, Mark and Robbo in most markets on the Scotch Blog, and just in time, too; official word emerged from the company only a few days later. Additionally, Dr. Whisky made the news in Episode 91 of Mark Gillespie's amazing Whisky Cast. Thanks again to Kevin and Mark, and if you don't read and listen to them yet, you really ought to.

Have mates in town and spent the day with them yesterday at the OddBins Wine and Spirits Fair. I attended this fair twice when I lived in Edinburgh and have always loved this event. For my money and time, it beats most of the other specialty wine and spirits shows for a few key reasons: Fewer pompous whisky or wine know-it-alls, even though there are many knowledgeable people, they just don't have the attitude. There is great variety on offer to taste from Armagnac to Zinfandel. In terms of whisky, at this event the independents get their due chance to make an impact on those new to whisky (Bruichladdich, Benromach, Compass Box). And finally, as any fair (WhiskyLive) is a marketing write-off for the exhibitors involved and thus shouldn't be used as a cash cow, the super value £20 tickets to the OddBins Wine&Spirits Fair all goes to charity. Terrific.

We attended a Bruichladdich Masterclass with Donald MacLellan and 'special guest' Gregg Glass(Compass Box). Given the throrough workout our palates received throughout the day, these notes are NOT intended to be final or even (necessarily) accurate. But we did learn a few interesting things about the distillery and about casks:

Bruichladich was bought for £6,500,000, 6million of which was just for the matured/maturing stock.
Casks aren't made to yield flavour, or rather, are not specifically designed with that in mind, rather, they are made to be sealed and hold their contents.
Additionally, today, around 95% of new fillings are going into bourbon casks, and the % of sherry casks is diminishing annually. Both of these facts demand discussion, but perhaps that is for another post.

Bruichladdich 12yo, Second Edition
Bright, light flavours. White wine, gorse, hops, honey. Bourbon-y
Peppery effect in the mouth, vanilla, roobios tea, red plums

Bruichladdich 13yo, Reciato Cask
Cherries, red grapes, oats, cocoa and peanuts.
Hard character, with an organic souring note off the top. Unripened fruit, bitter. Stereotype whisky to the uninitiated. Not for whisky newbies.

Bruichladdich 15yo, Second Edition (1st tasted in Malt Mission #29)
Peaches, prunes, sweet potato, red peppers. Hot in the nose, significant prickle.
Rich in the mouth, chewy, mustard seeds, chewing tobacco, peach pie. Again, pretty hot.

We also tried we samples of all(?) the different makes Bruichladdich produces. It was fascinating and, surprisingly, many were VERY drinkable and flavourful. PX4 had tons of flavour and could be consumed comfortably in tiny sucking sprays, if you know what I mean; like drinking hot tea.

More from (earlier in) the fair tomorrow.

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Malt Mission 2007 #29

Bruichladdich 15yo (first ed.)
Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky
46% abv
£35*
$99.95 (CAD)*
$84 (USD)*

Bruichladdich had a patchy history from its birth in 1881 until 2001 when Jim McEwan moved over from Bowmore becoming Production Director. Together with Mark Reynier, Duncan McGillivray and the team of Murray McDavid Ltd., the distllery has purchased a new lease on life and is doing quite well, thank you very much.

A great place to visit and an absolutely charming set of buildings to match the equally charming cast of characters. And character is everywhere here, from the bottling hall to the open-topped mash tun (complete with traditional raking system), to the earth floors in the warehouse, to the 'blacker still', the ancient wash still from 1881 that is still in use... much to breathe in, angels or not.

With three distinct styles being produced at the distillery(lightly peated Bruichladdich, heavily peated Octomore or Port Charlotte, and triple distilled Trestarig) and experiments in grains, quadruple distillation, and beyond, the future is bright for Bruichladdich. Good luck wrapping your head around all of the releases that they seem to be perpetually pooping out.

TASTING NOTES:

Light and appetising. Busy, too. Salt and vinegar peanuts, gummi sweets. Good malty middle, vanilla soaked baked goods. Has a very briny bite, lightly peaty. Stone wet by the sea.

Tastes light but makes an impression. Apples and peanut oil. More of that sweet maltiness. Dances in the mouth with waves of saltiness replaced with waves of peppery spiciness, then drying to oak and cocoa. Chocolate covered sushi. Eww... nevermind.

SUMMARY:

A very pleasant, outdoorsy, seabreezy malt.
Bought this after a great tour with Duncan around the distillery and warehouses. He kept our glasses full with many interesting things they are doing over there. A happy-drunk purchase I do not regret. In fact, I think I bought two, but cannot seem to recall what happened to the other one...

Some think they dabble too much but the distillery is adorable. And when you get out there, you see that everyone involved in the production are a bunch of really passionate hobbyists who SOMEONE trusts enough(financially) to do the kind of weird experiements they do. Good for them for taking chances, but consistency is valuable, too. This whisky used to be a very reliable bottling in the Bruichladdich range, but now with that gone, it can all be very hit and miss.

* Price when I bought it in UK. Now, if you can find it, it retails for £47. ALSO, the bottling at the LCBO may be first edition or second, I just dont know. The price quoted for the US is the Second Edition.

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