Brora 22 Years Old 1972 Rare Malts Selection 61.1% 1972

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Serge Valentin (96)

The malt that still reigns supreme on my ‘bottled recently’ list – although with another ABV, but it’ll rejoin the ‘old bottles list’ later on this year, where it will have to fight some old stunners by Springbank and Bowmore… Anyway, let’s have a go at it now. Colour: pale gold. Nose: ha, this one is even more austere than the Port Ellen! Sharp like a blade, on pure peat smoke and beer, with some notes of sour apples. Lots of seaweed and iodine developing after a moment, together with some cold ashes, balsamic vinegar, and perhaps some whiffs of wet dog. Absolutely stunning, exactly my taste! And it’s so clean… So let’s sum up for the moment: 1st the Brora, 2nd the Ardbeg, 3rd the Port Ellen. But they’re all stunning! Mouth: oh yes! Again, quite a lot of sweetness right at the start – the alcohol again – but then there’s a beautiful peat blast with lots of salt (which I didn’t get in both the Ardbeg and the Port Ellen). It then gets saltier and saltier, with some hints of oak, loads of peppery notes, some lemon again, and quite some spices like clove and chilli. Some hints of mustard, green tea, wasabi… It’s more complex than both the Ardbeg and the Port Ellen, in fact. Even if, again, it's very austere. The finish is extremely long, on salt and un-sugared strong tea. Well, perhaps like the Port Ellen, this one is an acquired taste. It’s not immediately appealing like the Ardbeg, and certainly more ‘difficult’. But what a grand whisky! I’ll give it 96 points.