Bruichladdich Laddie Eight Whisky Review!

Well this is quite a rare thing, a young travel exclusive whisky with an age statement! No surprise really that it comes from Bruichladdich, those progressive Hebridean distillers. And no surprise really that it's delicious!

Even in the current & ongoing climate of NAS (non-age statement) hate among a large portion of the whisky community, it still takes considerable "stones" to bring a young whisky to market with a single-digit age statement. A large portion of that large portion of the community will also snub young whiskies, as will the perhaps less-educated and perhaps some of the "old guard" who still believe that older whiskies are the only ones that are worthy of your attention, and your money. All of the above are wrong, of course, and that sort of attitude is part of the reason that non-age statement whiskies exist. Ignorance is bliss for some, I suppose. There are plenty of fantastic young whiskies around, and let's not forget that age and maturity are two very different things. Quality ingredients, careful slow production and very careful cask management mean that young whiskies can punch far above their weight. One only needs to take a quick look at the vast majority of Kilchoman bottlings, or perhaps Lagavulin's 8-year old or Laphroaig's Quarter Cask, for proof of that. But those are all heavily-peated whiskies, which can help hide any spirit-y youthfulness, whereas this Bruichladdich is un-peated, so there's no smoke to hide behind, it's all out in the open.

Unfortunately The Laddie Eight is another "travel exclusive" bottling that is only sold in duty free stores, where you'll usually find plenty of non-age statement whiskies from many brands, often with very little to differentiate them from their regular retail cousins, other than a fancy box or marketing spiel. This Bruichladdich was initially released in 2015-2016 at the same time as the excellent Cognac cask-matured Port Charlotte CC01, which is also eight years old and travel exclusive. Port Charlotte is the heavily peated whisky produced by Bruichladdich, along with the super-heavily-peated Octomore, while the whisky released under the distillery name is un-peated. There have of course been older bottlings under the Laddie label in the past, including a couple of releases of 10-year old, a 16-year old (my personal favourite of the bunch) and a 22-year old, all in the trademark light blue & white packaging that certainly helped put Bruichladdich on the map.

Unusually for Bruichladdich there's not a huge amount of information out there on the Laddie Eight, other than it being matured in both American oak and European oak casks. That could mean pretty much anything, but I'd assume that it's mostly ex-bourbon casks with a few ex-sherry casks thrown in for good measure. Like most Bruichladdich core bottlings these days it was bottled at 50% ABV, and of course there's no chill filtration or added colouring shenanigans here, which is always great to see. It's quite reasonably priced as well, particularly at that high bottling strength, coming in at around $100 AUD from duty free stores in a 700ml bottle, or around $35 AUD for a handy 200ml bottle, which is the one I went for (spoiler alert: should have brought a 700ml). One might expect a young, un-peated whisky at 50% ABV to be a little hot, but something tells me we needn't worry about that in this case.

Bruichladdich The Laddie Eight, 8 years old, 50%. Islay, Scotland.
Matured in American oak & European oak casks, travel exclusive. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Pale gold.

Nose: Sweet, bright & fresh. Floral honey and sweet mint, and some green fruit - unripe papaya, stewed green apples and a hint of honeydew melon. Loads of lovely sweet, honeyed malted barley, almost porridge-like. Some yeasty dough and a very slight hint of lemon oil. And there's a lovely icing sugar (powdered sugar) sweetness throughout with a little baking spice underneath.

Texture: Fantastic. Medium weight, oily & warming, and no heat at all.

Taste: Even more barley-forward here, a dusty, gristy malted barley with a little vanilla, more floral honey and more warm baking spices, and a few sweet peppercorns. A little minty and sugar-sweet again, but much less than the nose suggested. Some sweet lemon juice, papaya again and more buttery bread dough.

Finish: Medium length, becoming quite light, but very tasty. The green apple and melon come back but with a sweet syrup now, more sweetened lemon juice and grassy malted barley. A little sea salt & light oak to round it out.

Score: 3.5 out of 5.

Notes: Very, very tasty. A fantastic example of how enjoyable a young unpeated whisky can be when it's carefully made and well matured. There's no immediately obvious cask influence either, it's not loaded with vanilla or dominated by honey, it's all very well balanced with the spirit itself having plenty of time in the spotlight. The nose is brilliant, but there are no disappointing aspects to this dram. A lovely summer's day whisky I'd say, and there's almost no sign at all of the alcohol despite the young age and 50% ABV.

So yes, I definitely should have bought a full-size bottle, and I'll be keeping that in mind next time a relative travels overseas. Oh, the pain of 'travel retail'. A delicious young Bruichladdich with plenty of character that easily belies its young age, and also its strength. Rich, sweet and bright. If only it was easier to get ones hands on a bottle without leaving the country...

Cheers!