[Scotch Review] Brora 35 Year Old

For part of this week's reviews I'm going back to some tasting notes I wrote a while ago when I was at a tasting hosted by the LCBO that showed off some interesting Diageo Special Release bottles that was led by Diageo's Canadian brand ambassador.

Brora is famously known as the original Clynelish Distillery before Diageo had a second distillery, originally named Clynelish 2 ironically enough, built in 1968 which took on the name. The original distillery was built in 1819 and became renowned for its lightly peated Highland style of spirit which has made it renowned by whisky lovers the world over. Sadly Brora was closed down in 1983 so as the one Brora I tried was distilled in 1978 that means there are only 5 years of Brora barrels left to be bottled so I am glad I got into scotch now as Brora bottles will be completely gone in a few years time.

However, plans to rebuild Brora have been cleared and Diageo is planning to have Brora's refurbishments complete and spirit flowing again by 2020! In the meantime, I have some older spirit to try so let's see how this does! It's bottled at 48.6% and you can still get a bottle in Toronto for a cool $2200!

Unfortunately I have classes to pay for so I'm happy with the dram, so let's see if it matches the price.

• Color: Golden
• Nose: Sweet apple, oak, grass, very lowland-highland like but also hard to peel through this I wish I could've tried more! The barely is very prominent here.
• Taste: Sweet white sugar, treefruits, apple, tiny bit of woodsmoke, grapes, some citrus, vanilla and caramel
• Finish: Long with nutty and fruity notes

This is a thing of beauty. Fantastic fusion of different regional styles to make something utterly unique and mesmerizing. Its close to being everything I want in a whisky and I'm sad that this style might be lost forever. If there's one distillery I'd like to see revived its Brora. But for now I'll say if you can try this whisky do so because it might be the last chance you get to try some 70s and 80s Brora.

92 pts

 

For more info on the re-furbishment of Brora Distillery check out this great article by Richard Woodward here: https://scotchwhisky.com/magazine/latest-news/21099/brora-revival-granted-planning-permission/

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