Whisky of the Month June 2020

Intro

Whisky of the Month is a little brain-fart I had recently to take a look back the previous months videos and pick one stand out whisky that I thoroughly recommend and why. Originally, I had intended to make some extra videos on the subject, but as I have just announced, I am reducing my video output for a short while so I can concentrate on family matters a little more.

Then my mind drew to this blog, a drastically under utilised section of this website, as the perfect place to create this additional content for anyone who wishes to see it.

Let’s get into it then and see which dram lit a fire up in here.

Whisky of the Month

In June, I managed to cover nine great whiskies spanning four great whisky-making countries. These included three independently bottled lovelies and some absolute classics. But my #1 whisky this month was the Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2010 (if you missed the video you can check it out here).

I picked this little beauty up, on a complete random, at the Birmingham Whisky Festival 2020 (just before the lockdown occurred) for a cool £50. It caught my eye as I’d recently bought another ‘Laddie’ in the Port Charlotte Heavily Peated 2008, so it seemed like an insta-buy to me.

I’m a relative ‘noob’ at Bruichladdie bottlings, but I have become greatly impressed with their transparency and resolve to sourcing local and specific ingredients. As this particular bottle is a limited release, all of the information a whisky nerd could require is found on the product page. Equally impressive, is the ability to look up batches of not-so-limited releases such as the Classic Laddie. In those cases, you simply punch in the code on your bottle and you find out exactly what made up the contents of your bottle. Whisky makers worldwide take note, this is how whisky should be.

Apart from the transparency, what makes this bottle so tasty?

Bottled at a glorious 50% abv, unpeated and matured in ex-bourbon and ex-french wine casks. The mixture of American and European oak adds extra flavour to it, but the wine influence gives it one notch more without being overpowering. On top of that, there’s no added colour and no chill filtration.

All this brings together a very fresh and clean nose with some added floral notes. There’s maltiness on the back end that I really like. The palate brings along some nice viscosity and peppery notes.

It’s not a masterclass on bold, punchy flavours. But it’s a great example of whisky done right