I missed St Patrick's Day! Ah! well.
Bruichladdich 30yo 1988/2019 (48.9%, Cadenhead Single Cask, Bourbon Hogshead, 174b): nose: strangely enough, it starts off like a Connoisseurs Choice from the early 1990s, with dust and brine. It opens up, but carries on with the brine -- in fact, it turns almost kippery, now! Baked potatoes and fishing nets, ink-gorged blotting paper, iodine and fresh rosemary. A little later, timid fruit comes up (baked apples), alongside a gentle, medicinal touch. This is unexpected! Later yet, soaked old staves and soaked corks overwhelm the whole, before burning incense and gunpowder storm the scene, never to disappear. Mouth: the enigma persists, with gunpowder, dried rosemary, crushed bay leaves, that same medicinal touch, seawater -- oh! it is very salty, this one. Tobacco, ash, warm sand, dried shellfish, guaicol and smoked paprika. Again, this is an unexpected profile for a Bruichladdich. Finish: ash at first, a fleeting kick of apricot compote, then salty, sea-like things aplenty. Dry fishing nets, tinned sardines, burning cinnamon sticks, antiseptic, gauze, smoked mussels, and, yes, a minute drop of caramelised yellow fruit. The finish dries the mouth and coats it in ash and gunpowder. Very good, this. Not your typical Bruichladdich, though. 8/10 (
Thanks for the sample, SW)
Teeling 1st Exceptional Swiss Cask 27yo b.2017 (41.6%, Teeling for Switzerland, Rum Cask, C#658, 68b): nose: a big, fat slap of exotic fruits in the face. In no particular order, we have mango, jackfruit, dragon fruit, Chinese gooseberry, persimmon, and also mint, a branch of hawthorn, in the distance, razor blades (that would be a metallic edge, then), Dundee cake, apricot turnover, squashed yellow peach and rose-petal jelly. The second nosing brings out toasted wood too -- toasted rosewood, to be precise. Mouth: super silky, peach-nectar thick, it is mellow and fruity, with the fruits from the nose all perfectly integrated. On top is that metallic edge again, akin to licking a razor blade (the side of it, obviously), a minty freshness, gooseberry jelly, perhaps oregano?... No. I will call it lemon mint. That mouthfeel really is something. Finish: this is close to perfection, with another cavalcade of exotic fruits, augmented with menthol and milk chocolate. Only that metallic edge prevents the top score: it becomes a little bitter and less pleasant, in the finish. Once past that, the whole mouth remains coated in a wonderful exotic-fruit paste. Killer, despite its minor flaw. 9/10 (
Thanks for the sample, PG)
Bruichladdich 30yo 1988/2019 (48.9%, Cadenhead Single Cask, Bourbon Hogshead, 174b): nose: strangely enough, it starts off like a Connoisseurs Choice from the early 1990s, with dust and brine. It opens up, but carries on with the brine -- in fact, it turns almost kippery, now! Baked potatoes and fishing nets, ink-gorged blotting paper, iodine and fresh rosemary. A little later, timid fruit comes up (baked apples), alongside a gentle, medicinal touch. This is unexpected! Later yet, soaked old staves and soaked corks overwhelm the whole, before burning incense and gunpowder storm the scene, never to disappear. Mouth: the enigma persists, with gunpowder, dried rosemary, crushed bay leaves, that same medicinal touch, seawater -- oh! it is very salty, this one. Tobacco, ash, warm sand, dried shellfish, guaicol and smoked paprika. Again, this is an unexpected profile for a Bruichladdich. Finish: ash at first, a fleeting kick of apricot compote, then salty, sea-like things aplenty. Dry fishing nets, tinned sardines, burning cinnamon sticks, antiseptic, gauze, smoked mussels, and, yes, a minute drop of caramelised yellow fruit. The finish dries the mouth and coats it in ash and gunpowder. Very good, this. Not your typical Bruichladdich, though. 8/10 (Thanks for the sample, SW)
Teeling 1st Exceptional Swiss Cask 27yo b.2017 (41.6%, Teeling for Switzerland, Rum Cask, C#658, 68b): nose: a big, fat slap of exotic fruits in the face. In no particular order, we have mango, jackfruit, dragon fruit, Chinese gooseberry, persimmon, and also mint, a branch of hawthorn, in the distance, razor blades (that would be a metallic edge, then), Dundee cake, apricot turnover, squashed yellow peach and rose-petal jelly. The second nosing brings out toasted wood too -- toasted rosewood, to be precise. Mouth: super silky, peach-nectar thick, it is mellow and fruity, with the fruits from the nose all perfectly integrated. On top is that metallic edge again, akin to licking a razor blade (the side of it, obviously), a minty freshness, gooseberry jelly, perhaps oregano?... No. I will call it lemon mint. That mouthfeel really is something. Finish: this is close to perfection, with another cavalcade of exotic fruits, augmented with menthol and milk chocolate. Only that metallic edge prevents the top score: it becomes a little bitter and less pleasant, in the finish. Once past that, the whole mouth remains coated in a wonderful exotic-fruit paste. Killer, despite its minor flaw. 9/10 (Thanks for the sample, PG)
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