Origin: Isle of Islay (Scotland)
Type: Single Grain Scotch Whisky
Strength: 50%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-bourbon first fill and new
Chillfiltered: No
Added coloring: No
Owner: Bruichladdich (Rèmy Cointreau)
Average price: € 140.00
Official website: www.bruichladdich.com
Vote: 83/100
The rye produced in Scotland is certainly nothing new; although it remains an uncommon style of Scotch, there are those who have been making it for years, such as Arbikie with its Highland Rye.
But for Islay, the undisputed queen of peated whiskies, making a rye whisky is a first, and bringing it to the island could only be the most experimental distillery of all, which has been pursuing projects linked to the land and raw material for years.
Distilled in 2017 and bottled in March 2023 (five years declared) in 1,800 bottles that could only be purchased in their online shop (and which sold out immediately), it takes its name from one of the founding principles of sustainable agriculture, i.e. crop rotation in the fields, alternating different cereals to allow the soil to enrich and recharge itself with nutrients, thus reducing the use of fertilisers and additives to a minimum.
Unmalted rye at 55% and the remainder all malted barley, in a recipe that ‘adapts’ the dictates of the American rye to Scotland with an overabundance of malted barley, while in the ageing process it also makes use of new casks only toasted.
A single-grain then, as the ‘rye’ genre is not codified by the strict rules of the SWA.
Tasting notes
On the nose, ginger biscuits with a hint of nutmeg and cinnamon stand out, accompanied by orange and mandarin marmalade, liquorice root, pancakes with maple syrup, and peanut cuticles. The background aromas express a pastiness of salted caramel, wax crayons and marzipan. A full-bodied rye that is a little pandering.
In the mouth it expresses a gentle spiciness, of black pepper and ginger, on a fairly oily body in which liquorice, caramel, malt cream, nuts (walnuts, almonds), cereal biscuits, cocoa and a slight saline note can be found, especially along the length. Freshly cut wood in the background, with balsamic hints.
Not very long and dry finish of liquorice, spices, nuts, malted biscuits, cappuccino with chocolate, vegetable inflections and a saline streak.
This Bruichladdich is a bit like Balto: it’s not a rye, it’s not a single malt, all it knows is what it’s not. It hangs between the two categories without convincingly choosing one, which is probably conscious in the desire of being ‘something else’, but the idea of something unshaped and hybrid remains in the dram, without much conviction.