Origin: Highlands (Scotland)
Type: Single Cask Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 51.7%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Pedro Ximénez first fill
Chillfiltered: No
Additional coloring: No
Owner: Valinch & Mallet Ltd.
Average price: € 68.00
Official website: www.valinchandmallet.com
Vote: 88/100
After a long time, the “dynamic duo” (not to say award-winning) Ermoli&Romano return to these pages, and they do so with the first of the new bottlings recently launched on the market.
Thanks to the kindness of Fabio Ermoli, I’ll be able to talk about all four editions, and I will do so at short notice so that those who are inspired by my impressions can have a chance to buy them before they sell out.
Part of The Young Masters Edition and distilled in 2016, this whisky has been bottled cask strength limited to 268 bottles as it is a single cask, which by the way has contained PX sherry for 40 years, so very loaded!
Tasting notes
Amber in the glass.
The aroma is intoxicating, warm, smooth and enveloping sherry, with dark chocolate, cinnamon, blood orange and lots of liquorice. Butterscotch. It’s not as shameless as it may seem, there’s a quietly dry and spicy vein, of nuts and cloves, which enriches the sweet soul, keeping it alive and original.
It flows like silk in the mouth, liqueur-like and warm (but the alcohol content is dangerously low, it’s too easy to drink!), with the most marked bitter note (rhubarb) pushing forward liquorice and walnuts together with fondant (the high percentage one). More orange, a touch of spice and a metallic, dry note that grows with time to the point that, together with the very present chocolate, it almost seems as if you are with a nailed Magnum.
Medium-long finish, which marries bitterness and metal with orange and chocolate and strokes of eraser.
An atypical Sherried, especially considering that it comes from a Pedro Ximénez, with an original and certainly disorienting evolution. It is easy to drink despite its alcohol content, should be approached with an open mind and is certainly not ‘for everyone’, but I personally appreciate its perhaps off-key notes that give it body and personality.
Reviews of Royal Brackla whisky in the blog:
A&G Rare Cask Selection Royal Brackla 11yo
Dream Whisky Primavera