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Bruichladdich: The Classic Laddie

Writer's picture: S&PS&P

Writing this one out of Edmonton. It's upsetting to check out a few liquor stores here that have such good selection while we're stuck with the same old same old in Ontario. Some of us at S&P are hoping to change that. I picked a good week, Edmonton was hanging in the -20C/-40C last week, but hovering around 0 this week. It's a city that's been stuck in the 80s for a long time and just now starting to liven up and rebuilding as per the beautiful 2000s style of all glass square building... Man what happened to architecture in the last century. We just stopped caring about how it looks and focused on cheapness and durability. I guess some of these modern building with odd geometrics and neon colors are sort of interesting?


Anyway, I could go on for a long time about architecture. But let's get to our bottle for the night: Bruichladdich Classic Laddie. NAS. 50% ABV. $75 in Ontario. Non-chill filtered, no coloring.


We sniff around.


Trevor starts us off with floral.


Apples pop out. Bitter smell too.


Simon says that although it's not supposed to be peated, he gets a smoky apple, with a gasoline note in the back.


Scott pulls herbal and citrus. Sean says lemon, little bit of sea air too. Kyle gets it.


Simon says vanilla pops. Trevor can vibe with Simon's smoky vanilla apples.


We cheers.


The oiliness sticks out right away to Sean.


It doesn't stick out to Simon, he gets a bitter herbal, with an overarching sweetness. The bitter herbal gives a medicinal feel to it.


Scott can't get passed the burn yet. Kyle doesn't mind it. Put this one in the flask for shoveling.


Trevor agrees, points out the vague sweetness and warmth is more on the finish. He finds it oily too.


Simon gets a bit of a dried hay thing. Grassiness. No one else gets there though.


We all agree on the bitter medicinal taste.


Trevor pulls vanilla. Simon says if he had to call the sweetness something he would say honey.


That 50% ABV comes through during the whole experience. It looks like oil too. Some of us think the oiliest yet.


There's some talk about Buckley comparisons.


Reviews: Scott's pick. He goes 61. It's not really his cup of scotch. The bitterness doesn't do it, it's too hot. Simon follows up. This one is a little funny to rate for him. It's got a lot of the stuff he loves in scotches: full flavors, decent ABV, but the flavors don't line up. The bitterness throws it off a bit. It's interesting though. He likes it, just not something he will reach out for often. Ends up on 68. Kyle matches that 68. The oiliness he likes, the warmth he likes. The flavors just don't line up. Sean goes 77. He enjoys it. He likes the medicine, he says it's well done and he puts it ahead of most scotches we've had so far. The mouthfeel is definitely a standout for him. Trevor rounds us up with a 62. It's interesting but he's with the general consensus. Averages out to 67.2.


Overall: We can appreciate the craft of this scotch (the higher ABV, the non-chill, non-color, great mouthfeel) but for most of us it just didn't nail it. That said for $75CAD here in Ontario it's an OK price and it actually rates decent on our value scale. Our average rating on S&P is 74, so this is a little below average, but if the tasting notes intreague you, by all means, this isn't a bad buy.


Cheers!

The S&P Crew

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