Speyside Single Cask Single Malt Whisky
£64.95 70cl (only available from Master of Malt)
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| Yes I know the photos are getting very repetitive, what do you want me to do? |
Braes of Glenlivet is another 'new' distillery for me and I needed to visit my copy of Malt Whisky Yearbook to find out more. It's now known as the Braeval distillery to avoid confusion with the nearby Glenlivet Distillery.
Another very young distillery which was founded in 1973 by the Chivas and Glenlivet Group. Lying in the prime pastures of the Livet Glen, at the heart of Speyside It changed it's name to Braeval in 1994
Braeval is also Scotland's highest distillery sitting at an altitude of 1665ft (and around a 100ft higher than Dalwhinnie), built on a mountain ridge, and shares its water source, the Pitilie Burn, with the highland based Aberfeldy. The distillery was mothballed in 2002 but started producing again in 2008.
No official bottlings have ever been released, with the whole of it's production going to blended Scotch whisky abut there have been two independent bottlings from Aberko Ltd, in their Deerstalker range releasing a 10 and 15 year old single malt.
This 21 Year Old from Master of Malts new single cask range was distilled on the 23rd August 1991 and matured for twenty one years in a single ex-Bourbon cask. It was bottled on 28th November 2012 yielding just 251 bottles at 47.4% abv.
Tasting Note by The Chaps at Master of Malt
Nose: Butter cream, fresh kiwi fruits and clover honey form a sweet and enticing aroma that draws you in.
Palate: The palate is reminiscent of cinnamon infused honey with the faint floral flavour of violets. Beyond this there are notes of lemon meringue pie and vanilla pods.
Finish: Insanely long and buttery with some clove and white pepper for spice.
Overall: This Braeval is incredibly creamy and honeyed. However, within this sweet flavour profile are subtle floral and spice notes which create a complex and intriguing dram. Lovely.
This light and delicate Speysider was the final dram of a Sunday afternoons dramming entertainment, and perhaps in hindsight should have started my session. The nose is everything those chaps and Master of Malt state, and even my wife, who rarely drinks anything vaguely alcoholic appreciated the light floral nose on this one. The clover honey and kiwi fruits are at the forefront but wait and let the whisky breathe for a while and you'll be rewarded with a sweet fragrant summer meadow of flowers, there's also some tropical fruit with pineapple and passion fruit.
It's wonderfully creamy and floral on the palate too, bags of honey and butter cream and a light peppery spice which lasts long into the finish. There's a light lemon cream note too, lovely! The finish is long and sweet with more vanilla butter cream and the light peppery spice.
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