Bruichladdich Scottish Barley - The Classic Laddie

Bruichladdich Scottish Barley - The Classic Laddie sets itself apart from other scotches with its unique package colouring. Aquamarine blue is not your normal bottle colour. But one shouldn't let packaging influence your decision. The blue draws you in, but you should investigate it before biting.

However, Bruichladdich Scottish Barley has a lot going for it. It's un-chill filtered (A definite bonus) and it doesn't have any colour added (maybe less of a taste bonus, but then again, it shows that they don't need to fuck around with the stupid shit to get the job done). Do we need caramel colour in scotch? No. On a negative side, it doesn't provide an age statement, but as it ends up, its a damn fine scotch as is, so that's not too much of a drawback.

It's fairly expensive ($71.99 in Nova Scotia) but it has 50% alcohol so at least it's scotch at a good strength for your money.

You can tell Bruichladdich Scottish Barley is well crafted. Despite its high alcohol content it doesn't have much of an alcohol burn smell, but some water does bring out a lot more scents and flavours. There's a good amount of Scottish mist that appears too (this is a good thing. Look it up). The first impression of the nose is of oak and salty air with a little bit of seaweed lingering in the background. Then there's a little bit of toffee and deep rich fruit smell like jam and finally the nice pleasant aroma of vanilla.

The palate brings out more oak and a tiny bit of of warm spice (this could very well be due to the alcohol), but it's smooth. Really nice and smooth.

Just as your enjoying how smooth it is, flavours of chocolate ice-cream and caramel roll in and build during the finish. This follows with warm gingery tones, more caramel and a lovely general sweetness with that lingering spiciness. Sweet and spice perfectly blended! Beautiful. Another impressive part of this scotch is that the oak seems to layer itself, so on the second sip there's more of it and all the flavours change with each taste. The complexity continues and is wonderful to explore.

Overall a truly admirable scotch, but if we had to complain about something it would be that although we really like the bottle and its unconventional look it really should have a clear strip or something down the side because you can't be sure how much is left. Actually how much of it IS left? We're not sure and this is bound to be a very disappointing moment when we get to the end of the bottle. Sooner or later we're in for this unpleasant surprise.

Highly recommended and we'll not only be buying more of this scotch but exploring other Bruichladdich scotches as well. We're sold!