Bruichladdich 22 1990 Micro-Provenance Château Latour

Thanks to /u/kinohead for pouring me a dram of this

So I’m at this tasting. And I showed up late, what with working normal hours and curling or whatever my excuse was. Nonetheless, when I asked “what should I be drinking”, the list was… huge. Reckless abandon seems to be the name of this tasting.

Thus a bottled used for a split was put in front of me (after the initial Mosstowie, which was the talk of the tasting), and I was having Bruichladdich 22 1990 Micro-Provenance Château Latour.

Take some of that Bruichladdich that had sat in the warehouse in a questionable ex-Bourbon cask, and then saved by a wine cask from a winery I should have heard of but I’m a neanderthal when it comes to wine. And by that I mean I have a big brain and I’m covered in hair. Also, I don’t know of wineries.

So we have another evolution of the cask, Micro-Provenance whisky. But while I love, love the sheer amount of information, given with each of these, how does it taste? Let’s find out, shall we?

Price: N/A at the LCBO

Region: Islay

Distilled: April 13th 1990 at 63.5% abv

Bottled: June 18th 2012

Stated Age: 22-years-old

Original Cask: Ex-bourbon

Additional Cask used: Château Latour

Cask No. 027

Warehouse No. 12

Position D03

Floor Type: Earthen

Stowage Type: Traditional

Bottle No. 150 of 283

Abv: 52.4%

Colour: 7.5YR 2/4

Nose: Strawberry, mint-chocolate chip ice cream, yuzu, molasses, banana

Nice strong flavours. Some chocolate, some mint, some citrus and molasses/tropical. It’s this light, light flavour combination.

I think it’s working here. If I had to guess, I’d say that the ex-bourbon cask was very light, and the eventual use of the red wine cask took that subtle malt and added some nice elements around it in the form of fruit and minty aspects.

Taste: Cocoa, brine, anise/red licorice, banana bread, ginger, lemon

Continues on with the cocoa, not leaving behind any of the Bruichladdich brine or that slight hint of anise (that I’m guessing is from the ex-red wine cask here).

Lovely funk here too. This is really, really growing on me. Slowly builds up and eventually, you realize how interesting it is.

Finish: Green oak, green banana, sulfur, gravel, raw ginger

What the fuck? Seriously, what the fucking fuck? This finish just hate fucks your throat with raw, angry aspects.

Conclusion: Finish is too raw/rough/green. Seriously you have an amazing, light, interesting dram all the way through that is clicking the right stuff and the finish? Take anything subtle and refined about the rest and break it down to the components and then throw them at your face.

I love the taste and nose on this one. I think they made a great whisky. I just really didn’t like the finish. Way, way too raw and rough, disjoint, and really too bad.

82/100

Scotch review #1068, Islay review #289, Whisky review #1664