Bruichladdich Masterclass - Tasting Notes

Tasting notes from a lovely Masterclass, look here for the event review

Islay Barley 2006
Black Art 4
The Laddie Twenty Two
The Festival bottling 2013
Port Charlotte 2001 from Jim's personal cask

Islay Barley 2006 (6 years old)

Nose

Sweet, flowers, soft fruits, honey, raisin, sweet apple, a bit of chocolate and liqeurish

Palate

Fresh and sweet. Fresh like an oceaan breeze. Sweet tones of the apple, mandarin, raisin, honey, nectarine, fudge. Some lemon and soft fruits are on top.

Finish

Delicate and soft. Honey, and a bit of walnuts/fudge in the end. Very friendly.

Score

7,5 out of 10. Very nice and friendly dram, some mellow and sweet tones. Nice to have in the collection for sure. 

Black Art 4 

Nose

Abricots, cherry, mint, chocolate, caramel popcorn, warm, spices, oak, vanilla, custard, fudge, lime, marmalade, speculaas spices (dutch biscuit filled with warm wintery spices). Filled with heavy warm notes, and with fresh notes, just beautiful!

Palate

Creamy, orange, slightly woody, lemon, speculaas spices, vanilla, chocolate, plums, mango, soft sweet fruit. It just keeps coming...

Finish

Warm, again a bit wood, but just a bit. Sweet tones of liqeurish, fruits, and spices. It just keeps going... A long, long finish.

Score

Tasted this one at the Masterclass at Bruichladdich (Feis Ile 2013), it is not released yet.
Due to tasting this at the Masterclass there was not enough time to just sit, relax and do a full tasting notes on this beauty. Bought a edition 03.1 in the shop, due to this not being available yet. Have to come back to this one in a later time for sure :-) Scored a 9 out of 10.

The Laddie Twenty Two

Nose

Soft, honey, little bit of nuts, yellow abricots, citrus, vanilla, slightly salty, chocolate, soft sweet fruits

Palate

Chocolate, fudge, brown sugar, vanilla, mellow but with a strong and warm kick to it.
Flavours like mango and a bit pineapple, and some other tropical soft fruits. Combination with the custard and cream biscuits make this a beautiful one.

Finish

Slightly dry in the beginning, but then vanilla, sweet, liqeurish, and many many sweet fruit tones. It just keeps on going. Fresh in the back, but also darker red berry kind of flavours in the front. Beautiful!

Score

This beauty was distilled in 1990, and is 22 years old, matured on Bourbon. I give this one a 8 out of 10, just beautiful! The golden yellow color and the beautiful nose... And then the warm palate on this one... mhmm... Have to get myself a bottle of that one for an other tasting for sure. Just have to take some more time for this one, then we had at the Masterclass... We shall meet again I think :-)

The Festival bottling 2013

Nose

Flowers, clovers, roses, honey, light maritime notes, orange, citrus, soft sweet fruits, vanilla

Palate

Soft, sweet, peaches, abricots, honey, vanilla, toffee, liquerish, cinnamon, clove, cashew/peanut, Sûkerbôle (A Frisian sugary bread). Also some other nice fruit tones, very nice!

Finish

The finish was sweet, soft and filled with fruit and honey tones. A nice good quality length finish.



Score

Jim told us that this bottling for Feis Ile 2013 was made out of whisky's with a total age of 100 years old. This is again a beautiful expression of his making... I gave it a 8 out of 10.

Port Charlotte 2001 from Jim's personal cask

Nose

Peat, smoke, oak, bacon, salty, dark fruits, cherry, cassis, honey, cranberry's

Palate

Dark fruits like the ones in the nose. Besides those the warm smoke and honey flavours, what gives it a soft, sweet and beautiful round palate. OMG!

Finish

Soft, honey, red berry's... And it stays...

Score

This one is from his family cask, and is not for sale. This is at 61,2% and is just wow!
A 9 out of 10! Completely matured in a Mouton Rothschild wine cask, and distilled in 2001.


At home some more expressions from Bruichladdich still to review. Have had the pleasure to taste some more all ready, and still loving it. Just wonderful, more to come here, so stay tuned! :-)


Tasting scores explained a bit. It all depends on the moment, ambiance etc, but to have a guideline for my own preferences. This differs for each person. See my wish list in the menu above to see what I prefer the most at the moment. A low score will not meen I will maybe give it a second chance on a later time, but for now it is not for me...

1-5   Mhmm... Not liking this one...
5-6   Don't have to wake me up for this, not bad, but not my preference
6-7   I like, but they just miss something, to make me wanna buy a whole bottle
7-8   Well, you can start waking me up for these, more depth, these I would love to add to my collection
8-9   These are to be enjoyed slowly. These I absolutely would love to have a bottle, but sadly not always in my price range. 
9-10 Well, what can I say, just wow...... No words to describe it. Wake me up now!!