After last week’s Islay theme, I wanted to do an Archives theme this week. As in, not necessarily Archives, but things from Whiskybase, since they also release stuff under that label. I guess a transition should be done by doing an Archives bottling, for the Whiskybase shop, from an Islay distillery. Ticks all the boxes, right?

This Bruichladdich was advertised last year as a love-it-or-hate-it whisky, and not for people who like middle of the road stuff. Said to be an old fashioned Bruichladdich, it could go either way, but with Archives/Whiskybase selecting the cask I knew it wasn’t going to be shit. Or at least I had high hopes, since they’ve not really let me down as far as I remember.

Interestingly it didn’t sell out quickly in the shop, and was made available online for a little while. Not a clue if it went quickly, but I do know I was in time to get myself a bottle. A part of it was shared with friends, and now I’m slowly going through the last quarter of it. Yesterday I finally sat down to write a proper review.

Sniff:
Floral and grassy, with a certain milkshake-y touch. Milk, weeds, violets, but not perfumy. Hints of chalk and licorice (schoolkrijtjes) and those candy hearts with text on them. However, not overly sweet.

Sip:
A fairly gentle arrival before the alcohol really kicks in. Lots of heat from a mountain of white pepper. Dry sawdust, candy hearts, icing sugar, violets and milkshakes. Apparently it’s that sherbet thing.

Swallow:
The finish becomes a bit more fruity, but also shows strange notes of iron and copper. Milkshake, blood orange sorbet, candy hearts, oak shavings.

Drops a point on the finish with that iron and copper note that I can’t really wrap my mind around. However, it definitely is one of the more interesting whiskies I’ve tried in a while. It’s a unique character that rubs against the perfumy notes of 1980s Bowmore, but doesn’t go into laundry detergent territory.

And therefore, I think this is a great pick. Highly enjoyable and it really ‘adds’ something to my collection. It’s the one whisky that gives me these tasting notes, and that makes it awesome.

89/100