Waterford - Ballykilcavan - Ed. 1.1 - 2016-2020 - 50%
Photo taken at Roche Bobois Stuttgart
Welcome to the latest coup by Mark Reynier, who successfully resurrected Bruichladdich together with Jim McEwan before he left the company in 2012 after the Remy Contreau takeover. In 2014 he bought a former Guinness brewery in Waterford and turned it into a whisky distillery. Waterford now stands a case example of modernity by using the most futuristic (water) bottle design we've ever seen in whisky, celebrating irish terroir by displaying full transparency concerning the origin of goods on the back label and by practising bio-dynamic farming. Since we only want to absorb the best into our body, especially the latter finds our fullest approval.
Nose
Gentle and fresh whiffs of sour apples, apticots, quinces, sticky vanilla pods and almond paste are flattering our nose. After a few minutes it's enriched by fine, floral soaps and fresh bread dough.
Believe it or not, but we have to draw a parallel from this wee dram to the Classic Laddie. The similarities cannot be denied.
With water: One lonely, sour raspberry just passed by.
Palate
Super sweet and gentle entrance, with a light body and silky texture. The bright fruits from the nose are all on the spot. It also brings us back to those vibrant north italy evenings with an austere and bittersweet impression of fine Grappa della Toscana.
With water: No development. Au contraire, it loses power. The original strength is just right.
Finish
Medium long, leaving behind a slight sourness of raspberries and a bright sweetness of Akazia honey.
Rating
Reynier's team knows how to separate the hearts from the heads and the tails. For a four year old whisky it is perfectly balanced. Of course there is still a lot of work to do and a few more years in the cask required, yet this is one of the better young single malts we've recently had (beside Milk& Honey from Israel). The heretical question is, do we need an irish derivative of the Classic Laddie on the market? To be fair, let's wait for the next farms to be released.
