We started the work, it seems bad to leave it hanging: after Bruichladdich in ex-bourbon cask, selected by the Milano Whisky Festival through Whiskybroker, today we taste the older brother, an 11-year-old ex-sherry, bottled at the reduced ABV of 46%. Since there are no images of these bottles on the web (on the contrary, we feel like suggesting Andrea and Giuseppe to fill the whiskybase database with their bottling, now so many and prestigious, so that the information on their bottles will remain available even after some time: catalogs are a good replacement for the memory lost!), we ‘steal’ the photo of the label from our friend Giorgio from uischi.it.
N: very open and expressive. The sherry cask is evident, because it gave those typical notes of leather, licorice, carob, chocolate and herbs (it reminds us of certain bitters)… Slightly sulphurous, but in a positive way: overripe orange. Mixed cooked fruit (plums and apples). In spite of the descriptors, however, it smells very fresh, perky, with fresh fruit veins (strawberry?) and a nice malt (rusks?). Here and there we seem to smell something buttery and toasted (roasted peanuts: a suggestion that perhaps also gives account of a certain salinity of the island, typical of Bruichladdich).
P: the first, crazy image that strikes us is bacon glazed with maple syrup! Once this reverie is over, we come to our senses and recognize a lot of licorice, leather again, juicy blood orange; at the same time, a sticky sweetness, very fat, like brown sugar, toffee and still cooked fruit (peaches and apricots almost rotten, overripe). A thread of smoke here is undeniable.
F: a malty and sulphurous flick (matches), on a carpet of brown sugar.
Definitely good, without real defects. It shows subtly sulfurous notes on the nose that give depth and complexity (you know we like ‘dirty’ noses) to a profile that instead, on the palate, has a heavy, heavy sweetness, although the peaty minerality of the distillate can’t be silenced. While we were tasting it, we thought of a Springbank, perhaps a bit cleaner than usual; this already seems a compliment, and probably between the two bottlings of MWF 2015 we would focus on this, which convinces us just a little more. 86/100: find us a 10 yo so complex and… we will taste it. Bravo, as always, Andrea and Giuseppe!
Recommended soundtrack: Smoke city – Underwater Love.
