Braeval 8 Year SMWS 113.22 “Cream of the crop”
Whisky : Braeval 8 Year SMWS 113.22 “Cream of the crop”
Country/Region : Speyside
ABV : 63%
Cask : First Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel
Age : 8 Years (Distilled 22 Oct. 2010)
Nose : Opens with sweet grassy sugar cane and unripened green tropical fruits— pineapples, bananas, and mangos. The nose has an almost starchy note cooked maize and lime or maybe plantains. As the aroma develops, a minty wintergreen comes through and takes the drivers seat. It is either the experience of smelling a bundle of mint among cases of tropical fruit at a farmer’s market or chewing sticks of minty wintergreen and tropical fruit gum at the same time.
Palate : Lovely combination of licorice, fruit, and spice comes through on a medium oily body. Mulled apple cider provides a sparkling fruitiness along with cloves, star anise, orange peel, and ginger. Licorice notes come through as star anise and grassy shiso leaf which also give the dram a sinus clearing herbal-medicine note. The fruity notes have a tart edge like my half-assed homemade fresh cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving.
Finish : Lingering sweetness of a caramel banana split along with slightly bitter toasted herbs.
Score : 6
Mental Image : Kale Fruit Smoothie— too healthy to really taste good, but strangely addictive.
Something Better : Port Charlotte 8Y Ex-Rum; Dramfool (starchy banana & tropical fruit, more farm funk)
Something Similar : Carsebridge 44 Year; Hunter Laing (similar starch and spice, sweeter, less body)
Something Worse : Suntory Royal (similar starch/spice profile, more cream, less complex/body)
Notes : A fascinating blend of fruit, starch, vegetable, and winter green mint. I am not sure if I liked this or not. It had an excellent body, a beautiful oily quality, it was juicy though not overly sweet— but something just did not come together for me. It could be a subtle soap lurking on the profile, or perhaps the combination of herbal mint and tropical fruits did not really work. I cannot quite put my finger on why this dram did not resonate with me, aside from simply concluding that it lacked any of the rich malty or earthy notes I love. Though the truth is I would be happy to accept a dram of this if someone were pouring, but I think Arran, Clyenlish, or Amrut all do similar things in ways that I find more pleasing.
Braeval is not a distillery you often encounter. Once known as the Braes of Glenlivet, the distillery changed its name in 1994 to avoid brand confusion with its well known neighbor. Truthfully, it hardly seems necessary considering the malt production at the distillery is virtually all used to support the Chivas blended scotch expressions and very little is ever bottled by independent bottlers, much less by current Chivas owner Pernod Ricard. The distillery was briefly mothballed between 2001 and 2008, so this dram was distilled a couple years after the stills were fired up to start laying down stock again.
I enjoyed this dram and if it is emblematic of Braeval’s quality then I hope Chivas/Pernod Ricard consider bottling it more often as a single malt.
