Bruichladdich 25 1990 Signatory Cask Strength Collection

Thanks to whoever poured me this, I can’t remember.

When trying out Bruichladdich, you have to remember it’s roots. Heck, you gotta remember your roots when reviewing too.

So tit for tat: Bruichladdich went through a silent period after pumping out tons of whisky with questionable quality of casks. Once they re-opened, they went about re-casking various barrels in order to revitalize what they could while the workers were getting busy filling proper quality casks.

I grew up in a very WASP family in a very WASP area of Montreal. Thus I know good quality food, however, my understanding of some culture’s food has gaps in it.

So I’m kinda like one of those whiskies, living in a metropolitan area, enjoying more multicultural food and drink when I can.

Thus we have Bruichladdich 25 1990 Signatory Cask Strength Collection, a whisky that was made prior to the mothballing in 1995 and seemingly either was one of the ones originally rested in a refill butt or revitalized with a refill butt, of which I can’t find out which.

So let’s see how it tastes, shall we?

Price: N/A at the LCBO

Region: Islay

Distilled: September 26th, 1990

Bottled: November 2nd, 2015

Cask Type: Refill Butt

Cask 0141

Bottle: 536/619

Abv: 58%

Colour: 7.5Y 9/8

Nose: Cassia buds, cereal, brown sugar, pear, cream, pineapple

Lighter nose, especially given the abv. Some simple flavours here: Spice, brown sugar, cereal.

Water brings out the pear. At least has some cream and pineapple. That’s saving this, but you really, really have to wait and add water to bring it out.

Taste: Rich caramel, lime, pineapple, cinnamon, molasses, pepper

Ah, there’s the age. Rich caramel, more tropical than stone fruit, and a rich molasses/spice going on. Everything seems more vibrant now. The sherry influence is evident at this point. Water brings out some heat/earth even.

Finish: Lemon pudding, caramel, ginger, cereal/burnt toast

We finish with… citrus, cream, and caramel. At first, you may think it’s going to continue on with the great strides the taste made, and then it… doesn’t.

Just falls apart. Water brings out a char/cereal note that’s not fun.

Conclusion: So much promise from the taste, nothing to support it, and a rough finish. Really this should, by all account, be great. It probably never saw a new cask or was so far gone that a new cask couldn’t help it out.

The taste really was quite nice. Lots of rich strong notes. Beyond that? Well if you’re looking to try a 25-year-old whisky and aren’t that picky, or want something just to say it, then this will be the one you grab. It reminds us of all the hard work that Bruichladdich had to put in, and for that my hat is off. If I wore one. Didn’t grow up in a hat culture.

77/100

Scotch review #1051, Islay review #285, Whisky Network review #1637