Brora 30 Sherry Single Barrel Chieftain’s K&L Exclusive

Very big thanks to /u/Marcovici for this sought after dram.

Speaking of which, fucking hell I wish we had K&L Wine Merchants in Ontario. They seem to get some cool shit. And they are wine merchants, so my wife would always be like “Hey, order whisky to go with my wine” and shit. Then we’d have crazy sex.

Well, a guy can dram… uh, I mean dream.

Anyway, he sent me Brora 30 Sherry Single Barrel Chieftain’s K&L Exclusive, which should need no explanation, yet I’ll blabber on about it anyway.

Well.. there’s not really much I haven’t said before. Brora is no more, yet stocks are popping up every so often, usually at prices that make me want to cry.

How did “Chieftain’s” get their hands on it? Well it’s not that big of a surprise. See, Ian Macleod Distillers, who own Glengoyne and Tamdhu among many others, also do private bottling. The own Dun Bheagan, or rather Dun Bheagan is one of their many independent malts. And the top of the line ones? Well the ones fit for a king, or rather in Celtic fashion, a King Motherfucker… I mean Chieftain.

And then K&L uses their abilities of “money” and “capitalism” and “having a fucking good store” to argue for an exclusive. A single barrel of a most wanted distillery, in this case.

So let’s see if it was worth it, and how this tastes, shall we?

Price: N/A at the LCBO

Region: Highland

Cask: 1523

Abv: 54.6%

Distilled: 12/81

Bottled: 12/11

Colour: 5YR 5/8

Nose: Chestnut, cherry, ginger, cloves, cocoa, lemon, brown butter, grapes, spearmint, smoke

Holy crap, this is quite the dram. Lots going on here. Sherry influence, yet still has the smoke, spearmint, and big flavours.

No donuts this time, which is new. I usually only get those from Brora’s. Perhaps this will be different due to the Single Barrel, or the extra age.

Taste: Smoke, cherry pie, the biology test where I found out I liked black licorice candy, grass, nutty, Sprite, mint

Yeah, I know you weren’t there. Or maybe you were. I can’t really remember.

What I’m saying is the anise was so strong, it was like the first time I had anise and loved it. Yet somehow it also brings on that fear I had, because trust me, biology is not my strong point… AND the fucking test was in French too.

Amazing mouthfeel on this one. Reminds me of an old Amarone red wine in how it pops flavours in my mouth (insert your own bj joke here).

Finish: Currant, rich toffee, rum cake, more currant, orange, pineapple, ginger, lemongrass, strawberry, some more currant, nutmeg, smoked salmon

Did I mention there was currant? Because god damn dram, you got currant going on!

Big flavours at the end. The smoke mixed with the dark fruits leaves you with a complex dram. Sure the currant repeats itself a little too much, but I’m not angry at that at all.

Conclusion: This truly is a tasty dram. It has smoke, yet not too much to be a peat bomb. The sherry isn’t a sherry bomb. It’s the anti-terrorist drink: No bombs at all. More so it’s these rich flavours that linger for a long time, and are really well developed.

I wish I had more of this, however I’m happy to have had it. Personally I think it’s an amazing dram, well worth picking up, or at least trying. I’ve had more complex drams, true, yet this was really well balanced, and probably one of the best I’ve had this year. Truly tasty.

89/100

Scotch review #397, Highland review #77, Whisky Network review #607