Brora 2nd release 55.7% 1972

Professional reviews

Serge Valentin (93)

When I had this one the first time – it was blind -, I answered Dave Broom it was Talisker, and that was in front of fifty French aficionados. Laughable? Well, remember Brora and Talisker were sharing the same maltings back then ;-)… Okay, let’s have another go at it now. Colour: gold. Nose: wow! Taliskerish indeed… Coffee at first, and then some huge farmy notes, but not in a vulgar way this time, whereas many young farmy Islayers… Well, you see what I mean. Lots of tropical fruits (pineapple liqueur), dried pear, fig spirit, smoke and pepper. Hints of tiger balm, horse stable, wet dog. It gets grassy after a while (fresh celery, roots, hay). Goes on with some ‘coastal’ notes (lots of seaweed)… and always a superb balance… how elegant! Simply beautiful, better than I remembered.
Mouth: wow!!! How rich and bold, yet perfectly balanced and, again, elegant. Starts on some bold liquorice stick, roots (gentian), with hints of fructose and lots of smoke, rubber, tar… Sweeter than expected (dried fruits). Lots of cold herbal tea. Again, just superb. Some toffee, crystallised orange, ginger. It gets quite spicy after a while, with some nutmeg and clove. Strong honey (chestnut honey). How complex! The finish is long, on rooty notes, nectar and white pepper, and I can't stop loving it. Okay, another ‘unspittable’ Brora! It appears that the 87 points I gave this one when Dave made me taste it last time were influenced by my mishap. Now I feel it’s rather worth 93 points. Yep, no less. Now I have to taste the 3rd batch, bottled this year.

Gal Granov (95)

Angus MacRaild @whiskyfun:

Colour: gold. Nose: It’s easy to forget just how utterly different and special the early 1970s Broras are. Trying them is a scarce treat these days and I think it’s important to remember that when these 30 year olds came out there wasn’t really anything like them. The Rare Malt 72 and 75 Broras displayed their own character that was quite apart from these 30s in my book. You have this supremely pure farminess that sits in harmony with rather fatty green fruits and notes of rope, tractor parts, mechanical oils and that pervasive and every present waxiness that oozes throughout and ties everything together. The coastal aspect is there as well, vivid, incredibly fresh and invigorating. Lots of lemon peel, beach pebbles, sea greens and a whole shoreline of minerals. With water: where do you begin? Water really just brings an even greater cohesion to it. It’s not peat, wax and salt so much as everything as one superb whole that surpasses the sum of its parts. Although, I will just mention lime infused oils, kiln smoke and waxed canvas. Mouth: hell’s teeth! What a whisky! Oily, glistening, fat, unctuous peats, waxes, wood embers, silage, hay lofts, cured meats, cow stables, iodine, beach sand, crushed shells, preserved lemons... you could go on indefinitely finding so many tiny wee aromas and flavours. But probably best just call the anti-maltoporn police (were they even around in 2004 Serge?) The texture is creamy and all-consuming. Superbly peppery, lots of lean, salty bacon fat and some oily sheep wool. With water: unequivocally brilliant! Utterly superb, huge, fatty, gloriously complex and warming. The very epitome of ‘waxiness’ in malt whisky. Finish: endless. Wandering down all sorts of tertiary avenues of flavour. Sooty, oily, grassy, citrus, salt, cured meats, hessian, earth, herbal... Comments: Undoubtedly a masterpiece. A triumph of evocative distillate character, age and restrained cask influence. The only trouble with whiskies like this is that they dominate your attention so utterly. Not the sort of thing you can really just pour a dram of and chat away to someone over. Compelling is an understatement.