Bruichladdich Laddie Ten
Discontinued 2013 Official Bottling | 46% ABV
Dear Whisky,
We need to talk.
The last 19 years have been a blast. We’ve had good times and we’ve had bad times, but alas of late, there’s just been too much of the latter.
Things started off great. I was often elated just to see you in the same room and joyous at the potential for our immediate future and everything we had in store together; new adventures, new places and new experiences lay in abundance. Yet, things have changed. We’re growing apart.
We’re rarely in the same room anymore. When we are, most of the time it’s coincidence, or the need to keep up appearances. What once was fun now feels like a chore. What once was endearing and mysterious now feels laborious. I think we’ve fallen out of love?
I barely recognise who you’ve become. How could you have changed so much in such a short space of time? How does £40 now get me so much less? These two £20 notes are still two £20 notes (“And Tuppence is Tuppence!” cries a whisky executive from the next room).
I often say in my working life that if everybody marks their emails as “urgent”, then by the very definition nothing becomes urgent, nullifying and levelling the playing field. It would seem this concept has been adopted by you and your ‘limited’ releases. How does one define something as limited when there are as many 0’s in the bottle outturn count than grains of sand on a Cornish beach? The only thing I find to be truly limited is my patience to procure more of you as a result.
Warehouses across Scotland now resemble that of the closing scenes in Raiders of the Lost Ark; stuffed top-to-tail with golden works of your art and antiquities of all ages and styles. Hoarded and coveted like some sort of dragon sitting atop your jewels and riches, not to be seen again for years. When they finally arrive, they’re suddenly easily lost; forgotten amongst a myriad of shiny bottles appearing in whisky shops at an almost hourly rate and unholy price.
Your so-called ‘core’ releases are being gradually diluted and snuffed out in a hostile takeover by a multitude of non-age statements adorning names, spanning languages from the ridiculous to the bizarre; “Can I interest you in a dram of Grandmaster (Blender) Flash Intenso M6 Roadworks Heritage McReserve sir? It was matured in well-worn oak casks crafted from the wood that previously formed the chest that contained the remnants of my sanity! Isn’t that delightful.… Let’s see; that’ll be £21.43 and the soul of your first born child. Thank you, if you just tap your card on the reader there Sir… Lovely”
That said, there remains a glimmer of hope for us. Still out there are drams who keep their claws in, still convincing me to turn back to you from the uneven and dim path of other spirits and wine with which I find myself of late. There are some bottlers and distillers keeping the amber lighthouse switched on and turning.
Yes I know, I know, you offer some level of excitement through auctions, but after the 7th page of bottles that can often look like they’ve been stored on the radiator in the Human Torch’s bedroom during last summer’s hosepipe ban, things get a little repetitive. I can even find some of your ‘Limited Releases’ here come to think of it. Below retail too, hmm. Funny old world.
Help me to help you. Surely there’s something that we can do to continue to make this thing work? How about a trip down memory lane? There’s nothing like a bit of rose-tinted nostalgia to distract us from our current problems now is there?
Review
Bruichladdich The Laddie Ten / The Classic Ten, circa 2013 bottling, 46% ABV
£35-40 ‘back in the day’, auction only these days.
Nose
Instant time machine. Chunky toffee backed up by funky and tangy butter. Cream cheese on crackers with lemon zest. Banana and warm cookie dough sprinkled with Maldon sea salt. A final flourish of toasted pecan mixed with a further hint of that almost butyric dairy goodness..
Palate
Akin to the nose the palate carries some initial toffee but we’re talking more brandy snap crispness over devouring an entire pack of Rolos. Fresh and at the same time enveloping and rich. Honey glazed baked pears, crystalised ginger and vanilla balanced with a peppery and toasty oak. All the way through there’s a well structured backbone of wonderfully rigid crisp and sweet cereals
The finish is initially dairy-focused once more with thick double cream, before switching to that spicy ginger from earlier, more maltiness, and a slight blue cheese bitterness. The length is simply epic for the age with a lovely sweet warmth holding the final crescendo together.
The Dregs
The whisky landscape has changed dramatically since this release, as has the world around us, and not all for the better.
This love-letter, essay, review, diary entry, counselling session, whatever you’d like to call it, has me acutely conscious of memory bias. It haunts any form of life let alone whisky. However, after revisiting this dram, after an absence of almost a decade, I am personally boarding the ferry to Islay in order to demand this beautiful and harmonious spirit be brought back to life. This is the stuff to rekindle whisky romance.
Looking at our score guide; this is what fits:
9/10: Exceptional. Remarkable. Let’s not focus on why this wasn’t a 10, let’s just enjoy that these exist and share them while we can.
This score celebrates a whisky that is truly worth seeking.
This is the Bruichladdich that kicked the door down to start its own epic journey. This is also the whisky that actually made me fall in love with whisky itself. All in all; this isn’t just whisky, this is vitamins for the soul.
So thank you, whisky. Turns out I still love you.
Score: 9/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. LMc