Bruichladdich: The Regeneration Project (Scottish Islay Single Grain Whisky: 5 Years Old: 50% ABV)
Visual: Very clear banana gold color. Slow thick streaks come from the spirit.
Nose: Peppery. Pear drops. Lime touch. Banana soft sweets. Crumpets. Toffee. Water makes buttery to butterscotch. Crushed leaves, maybe some mint leaves.
Body: Waxy yet dry. Peppery. Rye crackers. Pear drops. Water makes buttery. Honeycomb. Apricot. Peppercorns and more pear drops.
Finish: Vanilla. Fatty butter. Peppery. Dried apricot. Water adds caramel and fudge. Peppercorns. Dryer.
Conclusion: This is very nice indeed. Initially on the nose it is peppery like a rye would be expected to be, but with a fresher citrus set of notes, coming across like citrus hard sweets. These notes burst through in a way that remind me of the younger years of a single malt.
When sipped it is again a mix of imagery, a dry and peppery character, yet has a slight way cling and soft sweetness against that. The becomes even more evident when water is added into the mix. It adds a more sweet and buttery character, a touch of light fruit and yet as it heads out into the finish returns into more evident peppercorn.
This is definitely not a USA straight Rye – while you can 100% see the rye influence there is so much of the sweeter malt side as well. It is very easy drinking with fresh bright notes and yet with the underlying rye punch.
A very easy to drink yet spicy dram, I hope this is an experiment they repeat often.
Background: There was a Bruichladdish tasting recently at Independent Spirit and seeing this was on it was the thing that made me know I had to go. A single grain it is called, but that is because there is no category in scotch whisky for a rye, as this has 55% rye and 45% malted barley in the mix. A rye whisky from Scotland, not many of them at all and all of those have been in recent years, and this is the first from Islay. The whole idea of using rye is to allow local farmers something they can grow in the years when they have to let their fields recover from growing malt in it, which is a great idea, and means I hope we will be seeing more like this in the future. This was distilled in 2017 and is one of 1.800 bottles that were made. It was aged in a mix of first fill bourbon casks and virgin oak. Anyway, I was excited to try this and it was the first on the tasting line up. Being at a tasting I could not take my time with the notes as normal but tried to get the best info I could down.
