Review 220: 2 under the radar distilleries

Where last week I put the focus of my attention towards my most hoarded distillery, it’s safe to say there are still quite a few distilleries that are, if not completely in my blind spot, then at least not exactly all over my radar, either. I’ve done a few similar posts in the past, touching upon overlooked or ignored distilleries, pondering about what causes us to ‘neglect’ certain distilleries, while celebrating others. To avoid repeating myself, I‘ll just encourage you to click the link above. Considering myself ‘whisky curious’, I will actively try and find as many different (scotch) whiskies/distilleries that pique my interest, provided they are available and affordable to me. So while this pretty much rules out the Macallans and Dalmores of the whisky realm, there’s others I wouldn’t mind getting to know a bit better. The likes of Auchroisk, Allt-a-Bhaine, Inchgower, or Balmenach. Add to that list Royal Brackla and Glen Ord, if you will, because these are the two I’ll be tackling today.

Royal Brackla  15 yo (2006-2022) Cadenhead’s Authentic Collection. 57% ABV, bourbon hogshead matured, 186 bottles.

In fairness, I wouldn’t go as far as stating Royal Brackla is being enormously overlooked, but you can’t deny the fact that, despites Roddy’s best efforts,  it doesn’t tend to appear a lot in ‘top 10’ lists when asking people about their favourite distilleries. I mean, they have a core range – which many of us chose to ignore in the past due to its lacklustre presentation but which they rebranded a few years ago, ditching chill filtration and avoiding the dreaded caramel colouring while bumping up the ABV, allowing us a far more natural taste. While I still need to tick that rebranded 12 year off my ‘to try list’ (only tried it at a tasting 2 years or so ago and I thought it to be quite decent), there have been a few indie Brackla’s that made it into the liquor cabinet at Malty Towers. One of these I’ve even reviewed when doing a blogpost about ‘shopping for anoraks’. Hence why I would suggest giving Brackla its due attention, q.e.d. by the following:

Nose

Creamy and lactic, gentle citrus as well. A subtle vegetal/greenhouse note (think in the direction of  geraniums) and possibly some rhubarb in there too. More subtle, sweet-sour-bitter green and white fruit notes (lychees, pitaja) and with a few drops of water a pleasant combo of oranges and vanilla emerges. Nothing bold or loud, but really’ clean’ and ‘pure’ and quite lovely overall.

Palate

Creamy arrival, yet somewhat peppery too due to the respectable ABV. Water helps to open things up, allowing me to fully  taste and appreciate  those flora/grassy/vegetal notes. Pleasant mixture of sweet and sour notes but with a distinct touch of salinity as well. Grainy and malty. Again nothing loud or anything, but quite busy nonetheless, in a calm, subtle sort of way.

Finish

Medium long with a focus on that salty note.

Glen Ord 10 yo (2012-2023). Ralfy bottling to mark the 1000 reviews milestone by The Good Spirits Company. 57.1% ABV, 1st fill bourbon, 206 bottles and app. £75 on retail (now only secondary).

Whereas Brackla already was on my radar, I’m ashamed to admit that Glen Ord is almost a complete unknown to me. Despite it being an enormous boozeplant (14 stills!) with a capacity of no less than 11 million LPA, I’ve pretty much ignored this distillery in my journey so far – this despite some folk I trust being quite fond of what they tasted from this giant.  This Diageo workhorse doesn’t just cater to quite a few of its blends and to Diageo’s ‘the Singleton’ brand of single malts, it also malts a significant amount of barley (45,000 tons per year, which amounts to some 20 million LPA of new make) used mainly for Talisker. The mere fact that Ralfy deemed it worthy of putting his face on the label, suggests there’s more than meets the eye…

Nose

Citrus, coconut and milk chocolate, making for a lovely mixture of sweet and sour notes. Give it some time to open up further, and there’s tropical fruit notes of mango and kiwi joining in on the fun.

Palate

Ooh! Absolutely lovely! Fruity and minty – spicy with citrus and kiwi again, and what makes it sing is an absolutely delicious effervescence. Despite this being a high ABV whisky, it’s actually very quaffable and palatable neat. I even regretted adding some water, as it made things a bit feisty. A medium yet full texture that ‘s neither dry or overly viscous is exemplary of the utterly beautiful balance in this one.

Finish

Long, with gentle spice notes.

Final thoughts

Two simply excellent whiskies! (Many thanks to Frank and Nic for sharing these!). Two bourbon cask matured beauties each shining in their own way. The Brackla is such an honest, clean and ‘pure’ malt, stripped off any excessive baggage or unnecessary ‘frivolities’, I feel it approaches, possibly even represents, the quintessence of what Scotch whisky can be. The Glen Ord is so playful and fruity, full of fizzy fun, it’s truly something fantastic, and proof yet again that it doesn’t necessarily takes 15 years or longer to deliver fantastic quality whisky! While of course it would be very hard (and very foolish) to draw any big conclusions from just these two sample impressions, it does strengthen me in my resolution to broaden the horizon as far as possible and explore more of these, to me, unfamiliar distilleries. Discovering new whiskies and distilleries enables me (us?) the ability to fall in love over and over again. And when you do fall in love with a bottling from a distillery, any distillery at that, it sort of resembles being absolutely captivated  by a good book: you want to absorb it to the fullest, devour it and  finish it, while at the same time you don’t want it to end. That sort of captures the essence of what this lifelong journey of exploring and discovering means to me. Right now, it seems I might have a bit of a crush on Glen Ord!