Today is the Star Wars day! For this reason we’ll taste a whisky closely linked to Chewbecca: in fact, it has nothing to do with him. Surprising, isn’t it? We sample the Classic Laddie – Scottish Barley by Bruichladdich, a NAS from a vat of Laddie casks (the basic unpeated malt) selected by Jim McEwan: a whisky distilled from Scottish barley, matured in American oak casks on the Loch Indaal side, bottled at 50%. The claim is “we believe barley matters”, and we love it.
N: from the first sniff it seems sweet but sharp, not people-pleasing at all. Firstly, an oily and mineral profile stands out. To find mineral and iodine notes (wet rocks, cliffs) in a proudly “unpeated” whisky is rather surprising. Then, the fruity and creamy side gradually increases: corn flakes, wildflower honey, almond paste and banana ice cream; peaches and barley water. A hint of “ironing room” and starch.
P: if there were some salty corn flakes (maybe it exists, but we don’t have time to google it) it would taste as the Laddie Scottish Barley. It perfectly repeats the double character we found in the nose: a “mineral cereal” mellowed by honey and yellow fruit and wrapped by salty sea water. The sweetness takes a step back with its yellow fruit pastry notes (in the nose it reminds us the banana); a mineral and iodine tide grows.
F: clean, elegant and enhanced by an intriguing minerality; again seaside and banana, not too sweet.
Wonderful and easy drinking, really pleasant. Our friends that bought all the bottles they found after a weekend spent drinking it are the best demonstration of it. As almost every Laddie we tried, it shows a gorgeous roundness based on the cereal character of the spirit; with an edgy side, marine, mineral and rocky that we fall in love with. 86/100, and it’s probably too little.
Recommended soundtrack: Moondog – Enough about human rights.
