Origin: Isle of Islay (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 58.9%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Wine
Chillfiltered: No
Added colouring: No
Owner: The Whisky Cellar
Average price: € 160.00
Official website: whiskycellar.co.uk
Vote: 86/100
I have already talked about Keith Bonnington and his long career that led him to become an independent bottler in the tasting of one of the Pintail bottlings, while today I get to try one of the most recent bottles produced for his main brand, The Whisky Cellar.
Established in late 2020 (thus in the midst of the pandemic), the Private Cellar Selection line doesn’t have many bottlings so far, divided at the moment into four series, and it’s from the last one that comes this peated version of Bruichladdich, the Rhinns, produced once a year with a ppm value around 30.
325 bottles from a single cask of former French wine (Jurançon Vin Doux), cask strength, with distillate from September 2011.
Tasting notes
Lots of barbecued meat sizzling on the grill, ribs and bacon flood the nose with Worcester sauce, with a few slices of orange and pineapple decorating this un-vegan pout-pourri. Barbecue is not the only thing you get, other fruits (peach, apricot, plum, baked apple), herbs (thyme, rosemary), spices (nutmeg, cloves), pickled green olives also emerge. At length, a veil of sugary vinosity. No alcohol felt.
The palate offers rather accentuated citrus fruits, between chinotto and blood orange, on which are grafted lively spices (black pepper, cinchona, cloves, star anise). Smoked herring, liquorice, dark chocolate, burnt wood and sour cherries intertwine in a viscous and warming compound.
Quite long finish of dull embers, liquorice, cooked fruit, citrus, spices and salt.
Not exactly a ‘gentle’ dram, the evocations are very bright and intense and perhaps for this reason a little too defined and sharp, without conceding space for nuance and elegance. Direct and muscular.