Following Craigellachie and Aultmore, Royal Brackla disitllery are the next distillery being introduced into the market as part of the Last Great Malts series from Bacardi. Royal Brackla is one of two distilleries with the “Royal” word in their name (following a Royal warrant of course) but unlike the other Royal distillery (Lochnagar), Royal Brackla is not a small distillery. With a yearly production of 4,000,000 liter of alcohol, it’s a serious cog in Bacardi portfolio for blenders.
Royal Brackla aims for fruitiness and lightness by having a long fermenting stage of 80 hours comparing to the usual 60-65 hours across the industry, and a slow distillation process combined with tall stills means lots of reflux action with the copper, clearing away the sulphury notes. But Bacardi didn’t stop here and for for the entire new line up of official bottlings, the delicate and light spirit is finished in first-fill Oloroso sherry casks.
Royal Brackla 12 (40%, £41.75/€55.99)
Nose: Light nose and it’s lightly perfumed. Dunno why but I immediately thought of a dancing floor at a spring garden party. Dried flowers, fruity with malt on the background, nuts and almonds, Semi dry. Despite spending most of the time in an ex-bourbon casks, the vanilla and honey are weak here. And then the sherry finish impact notes show up: cooked fruit with spices. cooked nutmeg, milk chocolate, hints of pepper. Despite being bottled at only 40%, it’s a pretty nice nose. Continue reading
Nose: Quite a bold and aggressive nose, chalky, fruity, vanilla and honey, pears, peaches, pear drops, dark and deep hue fruit juice, whiffs of pineapple. Concentrated red apples juice, soursweet candies. A very rich and fabulous nose. My money here is on a 1st fill cask. 
Nose: There’s no doubt it’s a Kilchoman. That ashy, sharp and crisp peat is so distinct… Sweet dried fruit in the background. dry wood smoke and nutmeg comes hand in hand and it’s working together quiet well. Slowly slowly it’s getting sweeter but still remains very smoky. 
Nose: It’s a soft nose and a bit muted at first. But slowly peat is rising up but it’s not so clean and crisp as I’m used to from BenRiach as it’s more dirty and leathery. Some fruit notes of apricots and cantaloupe melon. With water it’s softer and pack even more fruit sweetness but the distinct separate fruit edges get blurred. But even so there’s less apricots and more melon. 
Nose: This is quite a malty and soft nose. Full of sweet apricots and fresh (and a tad rich) perfume fruit orchard, zesty citrus peels, ginger and cacao, A lovely nose!
Nose: Heavy sherry nose with tons of dried fruits, a bit of smoke, sweet raisins and sultanas, prunes and cinnamon, thick and chewy, muted oak spices. After letting it sit in the glass for a couple of minutes there’s dark caramel and the it is spicier. Hey, there’s tobacco too now!
Nose: Yummy! Starts with a heavy PX influence but after a minute you realize it’s not your ordinary sherry bomb. It’s lighter on the red dark fruit front. Instead there are lots of fresh and sweet fruit, sultanas, soaked raisins and dates. There’s a good punch of sherry spices, cinnamon, cloves and some sweet brown sugar. 
Nose: First impression is sweetness and fruitiness with lots of tropical fruit notes. Fresh juicy pineapples, papaya and a touch of guava, Vanilla, subtle nuts, oak wood. All nicely balanced. After a few minutes in the glass: perfumed tropical juice, lemon zest and the nose becomes very sweet and like it a lot. 
Nose: Hmm this is one complex nose with everything is meshed together. It needs a few minutes to open up and deliver recognizable notes. First there’s slow, deep and gentle peat with deep dark fruit sweetness that reminds me of first fill bourbon cask impact with some vanilla, but slowly slowly subtle sherry notes shows up, getting stronger with time. There are berries, brown sugar and it stays subtle. 
Nose: First sniff screams YOUNG! But not all young whiskies are equal so let’s paddle on. Sweet peat and with barely any smoke, malty, lemon, citrus peels, fresh apricots, somehow it feels like a lightweight and fresh whisky, and fresh is the keyword here. 
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