Wee indie Brackla


August 10, 2026

WF's Little Duos,

	today wee indie Brackla
Always a pleasure to taste two or three little Royal Bracklas, if only to keep the flame alive for them on this little website. The opportunities don't come along all that often...

Royal Brackla 11 yo 2014/2025 (57.2%, Watt Whisky, hogshead, 288 bottles)

Everything ought to run like clockwork here. Colour: white wine. Nose: one of those utterly natural malts, packed with earth, chalk, fresh barley, bread dough, baker's yeast and tiny wild apples, delightful to nose although rather less enticing to bite into. With water: lovely brioche scented with orange blossom. Who doesn't enjoy brioche with orange blossom, I ask you? Mouth (neat): little fruit sweets, lemon drops, honey pastilles, green tea and lime juice, almost like a ready-made daiquiri, only sharper, drier and altogether more chiselled. Properly razor-sharp. With water: it really comes into its own, with delicate touches of violet liqueur weaving through everything else we've already mentioned. Finish: fairly long, increasingly on grapefruit liqueur, with a pleasing return of chalk in the aftertaste. Comments: an excellent young malt, properly mature despite its age and gloriously natural, just the way we like them. Thoroughly uplifting stuff, many thanks to the Watt mafia.
SGP:551 - 87 points.

Let's head to the opposite end of the spectrum...

Cawdor Springs 10 yo 2015/2025 (56.6%, Fragrant Drops, matured in a fresh Margaux barrique, cask #319, 281 bottles)

Remember that Cawdor Springs is a trade name for Brackla, we've already tasted one here before. Also note that this isn't a mere Margaux finish, probably cabernet sauvignon-led as expected, but a full maturation. I must confess we were rather curious... Colour: full gold, not pink in the slightest, which is quite astonishing unless the cask had been thoroughly rinsed and steam-cleaned beforehand. As a reminder, there is no such thing as white Margaux. Well, they do make white wines in Margaux, but they do not (yet) enjoy the appellation. Anyway, let's move on, this isn't winefun. Nose: an extremely pronounced vinosity, with pink peppercorns, green capsicum, blackcurrant buds, then Swiss cheese and juniper. Quite astonishing. With water: Swiss fondue, naturally with plenty of kirsch. It's rare indeed to find quite so much cheese in the nose of a single malt. Also, a distinct gym socks side, wonderfully bacterial... Mouth (neat): much better on the palate, full of blood oranges, pink grapefruit and properly ripe strawberries with just the right amount of pepper. There's also a touch of grenadine. With water: even better! Pink grapefruit liqueur, almost like Sarti Rosa, practically ready for a spritz. Finish: fairly long, amiable and decidedly unusual. Comments: this is very odd and rather wayward, yet certainly not without interest, nor indeed quality.
SGP:651 - 78 points.

Check the index of all Brackla we've tasted