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| Hi, this is one of our (almost) daily tastings. Santé! |
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February 28, 2024 |
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WF's Little Duos, today Braeval again
(In the series 'the first shall be last') |
We really want to make it to 100 different Braeval / Braes of Glenlivet before this little website explodes like a Space X rocket. Right, we're at 65. After all, we've had enough Ardbeg (500+), Macallan (350+), Bowmore (600+) or Highland Park (600), have we not. |
(Dorothy Carse - geograph.org) |
Braeval has been expanded two times, which goes to prove that the output is of good class – and needed. However, Pernod had mothballed it between 2002 and 2006. Oh and we know that Braeval takes good sherry like a champ, but we'll first have an ex-bourbon. Kind of… |
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Braeval 8 yo 2014/2023 (56.8%, Murray McDavid, Benchmark, bourbon cask finish, cask #9900254, 286 bottles) 
A bourbon cask finish, that's funny, I suppose it was first fill bourbon. Colour: straw. Nose: it reminds of those mezcal-flavoured agave sweets that you can find in Mexico, they sometimes come with worms inside. Also very grassy, yeasty, gristy, with bags of green apples and, well, an extremely moderate bourbonness. Not much vanilla. Somewhat in the style of those crazy young Glendullans or Glen Speys that they were having at Cadenhead around the mid-1990s (a.k.a. dragster fuels). With water: some very noticeable saponification, plus fern and tomato bush. More yeast, while the soapiness fades away. Mouth (neat): very grassy and bitter lemon skin. Really extreme, I doubt the plan was to make us drink this neat. With water: now we're talking. Lime, fruit peel, lemon drops, matcha tea, and just some grass and green peppercorns. Raw but not unpleasant. Finish: long, ultra-grassy. Eating lemon peel – with the bitter white stuff, the name keeps escaping me. Right, google tells us it's 'albedo', not sure I'll remember that forever. Comments: rather insanely raw but it takes us back to 1995. Quite an elixir – as long as we do not need to listen to TLC.
SGP:371 - 80 points. |
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Braeval 15 yo 2009/2024 (59.3%, Lady of the Glen, refill butt, cask #6764, 182 bottles) 
I believe it is the first single cask bottled in 2024 that we're trying, let's celebrate and thank Hannah Whisky Merchants! And hope any bottle shock is gone. Colour: amber. Nose: say a blend of walnut liqueur, kirschwasser and raspberry eau-de-vie, plus touches of spritz and madeleines. An enormous bag of madeleines. With water: very nice marzipan, more raw kirschwasser yet, whiffs of dried rose petals, Turkish delights, IPA… Mouth (neat): very good tighter sherry, no 's******', some ginger and pepper, more kirschwasser, Seville oranges, sweet pepper (Timut-style)… With water: it gets really spicy. Ginger cookies, mustard, turmeric, fresh-cracked pepper, cinchona… Finish: it does have a tonic-water aspect – or oak-aged martini. Cinnamon and many other spices in the aftertaste. Comments: like this a lot, this really isn't a lazy whisky. Big boy.
SGP:661 - 85 points. |
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