Whisky Rev-U 2 Bruichladdich Rocks

Hi Malt Mates. I hope you are all fine. It’s been quite a while since I last posted a whisky review so I thought now would be the right time to publish my second Rev-U. The malt that I’m going to present is the Bruichladdich Rocks.

Bruichladdich is a malt distillery on the Isle of Islay. It was founded in 1881 and was shut down twice: From 1929-1937 and from 1994-2000. In the year 2000 the distillery was bought for 7’500’000 £ by a Group of Investors led by Mark Reynier who successfully brought in Jim McEwan as head distiller. McEwan is a legend in the whisky industry and has previously worked as master distiller at the Bowmore distillery. In 2012 Bruichladdich was sold to Rémy Cointreau for 58’000’000 £. Generally speaking I really like what Bruichladdich is doing. It is a progressive distillery that focuses on using local resources, and giving the consumer a little bit extra. All their whiskies are natural colour and unchillfiltered.

The name “Rocks” is inspired by the fact that the water which is used by the distillery has filtered up through “the oldest rocks in the whisky world – the curious 1.8 billion-year-old geology of the Rhinns of Islay”

The whisky has no age statement and is bottled at 46% ABV. It has been matured in bourbon casks and finished in Grenache wine casks.

This has been one of the first bottles of whisky that I possessed. I got it as a gift for my 19^th birthday by my high school buddies. As I am writing this article I am enjoying the very last sips of this malt so thanks a lot to Rafi, Largey, Päsce, Vali and Simone if you are reading this J

On the nose it starts off very vibrant and refreshing. It has an alcoholic note which reminds me of the sensation you get when you eat a Fisherman’s Friend lozenge and then take a breath. It also has notes of Lemon zest, hay and I also get the scent of sea spray. With a drop of water it opens up and also releases sweeter aromas of caramel.

On the palate it’s rather dry and only has a little sweetness to it. I get lemon drops, some ginger and some bitter oak notes. After the second sip and with a few drops of water it gets a little bit sweeter on the palate as well but the oak bitterness intensifies too.

The finish is rather short and crisp with oak and cocoa.

This is a very special whisky. It’s not your typical beginners whisky. It isn’t mild and mellow and doesn’t have tons of sweetness to it. It’s rather dry and has some bitter notes which I suspect come from the European oak wine barrels that were used to finish the maturation. It is a bit challenging especially when I first tried it because back then I didn’t have a lot of experience. But as the bottle went down it really grew on me partly because I got more and more experienced and partly because I think that oxidation in the bottle has helped it. (My twitter mate Jarrod is currently making an experiment on this topic, check it out here). I am really sad that this one is gone and I will maybe never get to taste it again because it has been discontinued.