Origin: Lowlands (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 51.6%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Sherry Oloroso
Chillfiltered: No
Added colouring: No
Owner: Brave New Spirits
Average price: € 85.00
Official website: www.bravenewspirits.com
You can’t say that independent bottler Brave New Spirits is afraid to be daring with its labels, and the days when Douglas Laing challenged industry with the Big Peat cartoon and met with resistance from colleagues who thought a comic book was unsuitable to represent Scotch, seem a long time ago.
The Whisky Heroes range presents single cask or smal batch whiskies matured exclusively in ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry casks, and has recently been joined by the RumRogues range, which, as you may have guessed, offers single cask rums.
This first tasting bottle showcases Annandale, a Lowlands distillery founded in 1836, which had a hiatus of almost a century before reopening in 2014 with the current owners. It produces peated and unpeated whiskies under the names Man O’ Sword (in honour of Robert Bruce) and Man O’ Words (in honour of Robert Burns), as well as several special editions, some from casks selected by Jim Swan at the time.
This bottling, whose name can be seen as a tribute to Robert Bruce, comes from a batch of 622 bottles made from a single cask of former first-fill Oloroso sherry and was released in early 2024.
Tasting Notes
Rather fleshy and dirty on the nose, the peated notes are translated into crispy bacon, ribs and mushrooms, sprinkled with plenty of thyme. A little closed at first in the peated part alone, it opens up over time with incursions of fruit (ripe plums, sour cherries, cooked apples, dried figs, carob), candied orange, dried apricots, sweet liquorice and almonds, with a background of rotten wood. Milk chocolate. At times reminiscent of a Ledaig on tranquillisers.
Medium-bodied on the palate, with black pepper and paprika complementing the peaty meatiness with vegetal touches and pungent herbs. Liquorice in abundance, along with plum jam, cocoa, cherries in spirit (with some alcoholic heat), cinchona, nuts and leather. There are salty touches along the length where the musty sensations return.
Quite long finish with chilli, used ashtray, prunes, liquorice, cocoa.
A whisky with the handbrake on, always about to explode but never does, choosing the road of pleasantness without peaks or excellence. The combination of sherry and peat works, it is well constructed, but doesn’t thrill.
Vote: 83/100