QTR 1 2024
Hello and welcome to our first outrun of 2024!
Many happy returns and we trust you enjoyed 2023. The first outrun of the year brought us many headaches…mostly good in attempting to decide what to release. In line with our goals we released an older dram, a ‘sherried’ dram and the lower cost dram.
The first distillery to carry a royal warrant, Brackla is known for its classic Highland spiciness and mildly smoky soft fruit character. This has been mellowed here somewhat by maturing fully for over 15 years in a refill barrel adding vanilla sweetness, tropical fruits and some citrus notes.
Our latest ‘Myosotis’ bottling – the Latin name for the ’Forget-Me-Not’ flower, is the perfect name for this bottling with such a low yield. We rescued the nearly forgotten last drops to create a special edition of only 48 bottles. Fully matured in a refill hogshead allowing the mature nature of this spirit to shine.
Tasting revealed – lemon cheesecake, candied pear, salted butter, waxy orange peel, toasted pancakes, fresh cut hay, brown sugar, warm oak spice, stem ginger, vanilla toffee and white pepper.
Tasting revealed – cinnamon rolls, raisin cake, cardamom, charred oak, salted popcorn, Indian spices, ripe banana, peppered oatcakes, smoky coffee, toasted croissant, peanut brittle.
Another distillery where most of its output is intended for blends, this rare spirit has been given the chance to shine here being fully matured for more than 15 years in a single refill oloroso butt which still had lots of cask influence to offer the spirit. By far the most classically ’sherried’ whisky in the Q1 outrun as this is full of the expected dried fruit, chocolate and spice associated with this style of maturation.
Located at the foot of the famous mountain with the same name in the heart of Speyside, the vast majority of this spirit is destined for blends. We offered this cask a 3 year finish in one of our famous bodega oloroso casks sourced from Hidalgo cooperage in Spain. This has offered the spirit a softer side of ex-sherry with more of a toffee and caramel character rather than just the expected Christmas cake and dried fruit notes.
Tasting revealed – wet beach stones, Turkish delight and BBQ’d lemon, smouldering peat, blackcurrant liquorice, salted caramel, lapsang soughing tea, dried pineapple and toasted coconut.
We like to think that we have brough a varied amount of flavours to this outrun but it will be up to you to decide!
Thank you,
Gregor