Now we’ve previously had an offshoot from the Bruichladdich in the form of Port Charlotte – which was *heavily* peated. Here though with the good old classic it’s actually un-peated relying wholly on barley for it’s flavor.
The result is something that tastes fairly decent, but all of the context around it – sucks ass. Honestly this bottle is literally sitting on the shelf just shouting at you with it’s color and type – it’s the white guy with dreads playing bongos on the subway sort of annoying.
What they Say: “Bottle Front: It is our mission to pursue The Ultimate Pedigree, Provenance and Traceability of our Raw Materials – chief of which is our Barley – and to push The Boundaries of the Concept of Terroir in Artisanal Single Malt Whisky.
Distilled, matured and bottled, un-chill filtered and colouring-free at Bruichladdich distillery, Isle of Islay, Scotland”
Box: (Fuck you, not typing all that)
Taste: 6.0 – It starts off nice an sweet with a bit of oak and for brief moments you think it will be like how it smells.
Aftertaste: 4.0 – Then it pops off like a damn firecracker of salt, barley, smoke, and pain. You sort of almost want to applaud the effort beyond hating the effect.
Burn/Smooth: 3.0 – The backend of that kicks like the mule it’s fucken attached too.
Aroma: 6.5 – Nearly a bit sweet like a Drambuie. It’s overall not a big amount of flavor, but what’s there is nice and light.
Honesty: 0.0 – They mention terroir and provenance like 7 times. Then they vomit up a novel. Add all that to the in your face bullshit labeling and look with the blue and at the end of the day – fuck off. That’s our opinion. A whole hearted, no you get zero points, get bent and fuck off.
Mixability: 5.0
W/ Rocks: 5.0 – It sort of melds the taste/aftertaste into a more cohesive experience. It’s better. The smoke and aftertaste being hampered is enough to make this enjoyable, but not by much.
Value: 3.0 – Overall this is not worth that price point. It’s not the worst scotch, but don’t let it’s color and marketing to make it ‘pop’ fool you.
Google Shop Average: $57
Website: http://www.bruichladdich.com/
Reviewer Scores:
BuffaloJern: 3.0
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Metric Score: 27.5/70 |+| Metric Average: 3.93 |+| Reviewer Average: 3.0
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Final Thoughts: Does scoring it that low seem a bit personal – well that’s what the reviewer score is for. Because this thing needed to just kick ass with all that power in the aftertaste and carry it over to the rocks and expand on it flavor wise without the nasty kick it has. It failed to do that so it makes every other flaw shine in high-definition and we don’t like what we see.
