STILL WATERS RUN DEEP

           Tasting of a series of three one off bottlings from Bruichladdich;  Blacker Still / Redder Still / Golder Still

  

 

Well in this case the opaque colored glass vessels might hint at the liquid contained inside, but the greater depth of this product is what’s hidden inside.  The radically different favors of each bottle share little in common with one another other than they all were born of the Bruichladdich stills.

BLACKER STILL

20 YEARS OLD   1986-2006   50.7% ABV.   Limited To 2840 Bottles, Matured in Sherry casks.

NOSE:  Burnt caramel, raisins and ham.  Light smoke

TASTE:  Both tart and sweet.  Spice, chocolate.  Chewy for sure

FINISH:  Intense at first then fades quickly.  Medium to long

COLOUR:  Deep mahogany

ASSESSMENT:  I’m a sucker for scary Sherry, but this Sherry is more aggressive than a Christian Bale Rant. Not the Black Bowmore as someone suggested to me, but is still very good.

 

REDDER STILL

  

22 YEARS OLD   1984-2007    50.4% ABV.  Limited to 4080 Bottles, Matured in first fill bourbon casks and finished in Chateau Lafleur Pomerol Bordeaux casks.

NOSE:  Refreshing fragrant, marshmallow and creamy honey

TASTE:  Vibrant oranges.  Mulled wine.  Tad chalky

FINISH:  Long and gets more intense and warming at the end

COLOUR:  Copper amber

ASSESSMENT:  This has more wine than what was heard from Paris Hilton in jail.  Almost needed to break out the cheese for this dram.  Was a favorite of one of my neighbors who doesn’t normally like whisky.  All in all this whisky is a great example of wine finishing.

GOLDER STILL

23 YEARS OLD   1984-2008   51.0% ABV.  Limited to 4866 Bottles, matured in unusual rare squat bourbon hogsheads casks allowing more contact between whisky and wood.

NOSE:  Rich malt.  Apples and raisins.  Whiff of smoke

TASTE:  Oaky at first giving way to gentle cream.  Soft fruits

FINISH:  Medium plus a little more

COLOUR:  Straw gold

ASSESSMENT:   This works as well as Tom Hanks in the movie ‘Joe Versus The Volcano’, defies description.  One for the book of “easier to ask for forgiveness”.

I still think the common denominator with the three releases is that Bruichladdich is still trying, and is still leading the industry with new still and old still made whisky products.  So as long they are still producing, they can still count on me to be still buying their product.  Still I ponder in the still of the night what Bruichladdich meant when they named these three releases something still other than they were made from a still by a still-person or maybe they meant that they were excited to still be in business with all the big money players still out there.

– Maltmonster