Signatory Silent Stills Brora 18 Year Old Whisky Review!

Starting 2024 off with a bang... An 18-year old Brora! This cask strength single cask rarity was distilled in early 1983, the year the distillery closed, and was bottled in late 2001 when yours truly was only finishing high school. Very, very special!

Brora is one of DCL/Diageo's trio of famous closed distilleries that have now been rebuilt, along with Islay's Port Ellen which is yet to reopen and Falkirk's Rosebank which has recently reopened under the ownership of Ian McLeod Distillers. Brora and Port Ellen both met their demise in 1983 when DCL (predecessor of Diageo) closed over fifteen of its distilleries due to a downturn in demand and an oversupply of stocks, while Rosebank lasted a decade longer and was closed due to the investment required to bring it inline with modern standards and regulations. All three of these highly-lauded whisky brands have attracted very expensive pricing as the remaining stocks continued to dwindle, with ages and apparent scarcity steadily increasing with every mention. Most releases are now beyond the reach of your average whisky enthusiast, having been propelled into the realm of the collector and the investor - for those in Australia, you're now looking at multiples of a thousand dollars for any official bottling. Diageo saw this happening a long time ago, and while they'd surprisingly sold the remnants of Lowland distillery Rosebank to Ian McLeod back in 2017, later that year they announced that Port Ellen and Brora would be rebuilt and reopened. Hopefully they catch the remainder of the whisky boom before the old stock runs out and the famous brand names start to fade away - then again in the age of the internet they probably never would have. While the other two distillery sites had to be built from scratch and Port Ellen is still under construction over five years later, Brora required the least work and the least investment with even the original stills remaining in place. Brora Distillery reopened in May 2021 following thirty-eight years of slumber, including three-years of rebuilding & refurbishment work. This included refurbishing the original stills and their worm tub condensers.

The distillery was originally built in 1819 under the name Clynelish, located in the village of Brora in the eastern Highlands, roughly 75-minutes drive north of Inverness. Then DCL opened a newer, larger Clynelish distillery in 1968 across the road from the original, which was then shut down for a year before reopening under the name Brora Distillery, after its namesake village. From 1969-1973 Brora produced heavily peated spirit for the owner's blends while Caol Ila was being rebuilt and Islay was going through a severe drought, and from (roughly) 1973-1983 Brora produced lightly peated and unpeated spirit, before meeting its end in the dark times of 1983. The spirit from this era varies in style and profile, but the best Broras that I've been lucky enough to try have a distinctive farmyard style and oily texture, while some have also been lightly smoky & industrial. While Diageo have taken as many steps as possible to recreate the original profile, including those worm tub condensers, it'll be fascinating to see how the new spirit turns out. Since the first casks will officially become whisky in mid-2024, we may not have to wait too long! It's obviously an extremely rare thing to find a young Brora that was distilled pre-closure, and after so long in bottle a comparison would be largely pointless, while more recent bottlings have all been 35-40 years of age so won't be comparable to the new spirit. But I'm sure comparisons will be made regardless, and I look forward to hearing about them!

The Brora that I'm reviewing today is quite a different story from the current aged stuff. This is an 18-year old Brora, and it was bottled over twenty-two years ago! A Scotch whisky with an 18-year old age statement is never anything to turn your nose up at, but that makes this particular Brora the youngest example that I've ever tasted by well over a decade. I'm sure it wasn't any cheaper as a result - the sample for this review came from a generous fellow whisky nerd who purchased and opened this bottle to celebrate his 40th birthday in January 2023. That means that this is a "birth year bottle" for the owner, having been distilled in the year he was born, but that's not all folks - it was distilled on his actual birthday, as in the exact date. Incredible! Aside from being one of the most legendary closed Scotch whisky distilleries of all-time that was bottled twenty-two years ago, and a single cask & cask strength example at that. This is a special thing, and it was extremely generous of him to share it! That's the default setting for this gent though, some of the rarest whiskies I've reviewed here have been courtesy of his generosity and his friendship. You know who you are; thank you and happy birthday! Yes, I've decided to go one step further by posting this review on this person's birthday - which also means I'm posting this review exactly forty-one years after it was distilled!

When this whisky was bottled in September 2001 - when yours truly was only about to graduate high school - there'd have been little hope of Brora ever re-opening, and while there was far more stock around than there is today, it was still finite. This is an independent bottling from Signatory Vintage, released under their 'Silent Stills' range of single malts from closed distilleries. This particular single cask release, a refill hogshead designated Cask #40, was distilled on 18/01/1983 and was bottled on 03/09/2001, with said cask yielding 294 bottles at a cask strength of 52.9% ABV. Naturally it is non-chill filtered and natural colour. As you can see below the presentation is very nice, and includes a miniature of the same whisky so you don't need to open the full bottle straight away - which is an excellent idea. Let's see how it goes!

Brora 18 Year Old, Signatory Vintage 'Silent Stills', 52.9%. Highlands, Scotland.

Distilled 18/1/83, matured in a refill hogshead cask #40, bottled 3/9/01. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 294 bottles. 

Colour: Pale gold. 

Nose: Very dusty, farmyard-y, oily, and malty. Dusty hay in a (clean) earth-floored barn, light olive oil. Candied lime peel, touch of dried orange rind, and the most mouth-watering rich malt biscuits you've ever smelled. Creamy milk chocolate, dried ginger chunks, hints of yellow stone fruit behind. 

Texture: Medium weight. Oily, malty, waxy. Quite clean & light in style here, but not light in flavour. Slight heat but nicely integrated and very pleasant. 

Taste: Quality light olive oil, milk bottle chewy lollies (confectionary), dusty hay & malt biscuits again but they're much lighter here. Sweet flaky pastry, more creamy milk chocolate & dried ginger chunks. Lime peel and orange rind again, but less candied and more bitter this time. 

Finish: Long length. Malty & gingery, more milk chocolate and that yellow stone fruit comes through from the nose, with peach & nectarine in particular, maybe a little apricot as well. Touch of barley sugar sweetness, waxy red apples, and almond meal (ground almonds). Natural lime cordial to finish. 

Score: 4 out of 5, but close to a 4.5. 

Notes: No, that's not an insanely high score, but it's still a very high score for this tight-arsed amateur reviewer! This is much cleaner and lighter in style than any Brora I've come across so far, particularly light on the oily funky characteristics that I love in this legendary distillery, and in comparison I prefer the "funkier" styles. But this is still absolutely delicious. If a great teenaged bourbon cask Hazelburn and a great teenaged Bruichladdich had a baby, this would be the delicious result. Surprisingly clean & light in style as I mentioned, but not in flavour or character by any means. That oily, malty, farmyard character is fantastic, although there's much less of it in this example but it's still there. It's important to remember how much the distillery's flavour profile changed in the last decade or so of production, the 1980s distillate seems to be lighter and cleaner in style with little-to-no peat, than I've found in Broras that were distilled earlier and/or aged for significantly longer. Heading more towards Clynelish in style over the final couple of years I suppose - which doesn't detract from the quality at all, or at least it definitely doesn't in this case. 

This may not be the most complex Brora that I've tried, but it's important to remember that it's 10-20 years younger than the contemporary releases that were either distilled earlier or aged much longer, or both. So direct comparisons are basically impossible and largely pointless. This younger & cleaner example is really quite delicious, and it's a very special piece of whisky history. I suppose we'll get to see what young Brora will be like in a few years time, but it won't be the same, that would be impossible. Thanks again to the generous owner for the sample, and happy birthday again!

Cheers!