12/06/2024
Whiskey of the Year # 2 and #4 !!
Bruichladdich 18 year old
The flagship of Bruichladdich’s Luxury Redefined range is packaged in a molded fiber cocoon. Distilled in 2004, this whisky includes the distillery’s first use of Islay-grown barley. It was matured on Islay, mostly in bourbon barrels but also in a combination of sauternes and port casks. Aromas of honey, vanilla, and creamed coconut are wrapped around floral flourishes, with peach, melon, guava, and ground ginger. Complex layers of gooseberry, melon, and banana mingle with butterscotch, barley sugar, honeycomb, vanilla, and cinnamon, running into a satisfying finish of ginger and oak spice with a hint of coastal saltiness. —Jonny McCormick
Bardstown Bourbon Co. Collaborative Series Amrut
Take two straight rye whiskeys from Indiana, one an 8 year old 95% rye, the other a 9 year old 51% rye, and finish them for 18 months in Amrut Indian single malt casks. Blend this with three Kentucky straight bourbons aged 10–14 years, and you have a vibrant blend of American whiskeys with aromas of roasted corn, nutmeg, allspice, and toasted oak, with chocolate chip, root beer, leather, and black cherry bubble gum. Sugared almonds, red berries, baking spices, ground pepper, and cinnamon segue into fruit tea, Red Vines, and herbal notes, with a mouth-filling finish of milk chocolate, malt, and oak char. —Jonny McCormick
Bardstown Bourbon Company Bruichladdich Whisky Advocate magazine
