The sixth malt of Feis Sac-ile (Italian Feis Isle-like event) was the Bruichladdich “Laddie Five-o”; theoretically it should have been unknown to the most, but it was enough to get close to the nose to understand the distillery of origin… This bottling is a tribute to the 50 years of “whisky creation” of the good Jim McEwan, legendary character that, for example, you can see here in one of his performances in Senago a couple of years ago. We didn’t deepen the “five-o” topic, just for laziness: but if you’ve seen The Wire (and if you haven’t seen it you should! it’s the most beautiful series in the history of the series!) you know that with the cry “five-o” you signaled to the other drug dealers the arrival of the police. Why are we writing this? I don’t know. The color is amber.
N: with a nice personality, from the beginning, it shows a very solid wood construction. Vanilla, plum cake, even a little coconut? Great actor, as always with Laddie, is the malt, intense and tasty; but also butter, cream, raisins. A slight iodine trace, a mineral one too? Elegant, with notes of orange peel, more custard. We have no information on this, but it is certainly a vatting of portions of different casks, bourbon and sherry, probably a little first fill and a little not. Good.
P: what a body! More intense sherry; chocolate and red fruit, but also partially buttery and tropical (coconut). Good, warm and elegant; creamy in the mouth, with a nice caramelized fruit, vanilla, toffee, pear. Strong notes of malt and a nice balance given perhaps by the wood, which rebalances with slightly bitter notes on the finish. Really well constructed, even if it closes with a vaguely ‘soapy’ suggestion.
F: can a whisky be delicate and intense at the same time? Coconut, malt, it returns something salty that we had lost on the palate.
Well, very good. The style is exactly the same as the Laddie Ten we tasted some time ago, certainly this one is a bit more ‘normal’ (in the sense that some delicious smoky and marine notes of the Ten are not here or are very hidden) and more pandering, more sweet. But it’s a nice sweetness, and we’ll reward it with 87/100.
Suggested soundtrack: Blind Boys From Alabama – Way down in the hole, theme from the first season of The Wire.
