Brora 1st release 30 Years Old 52.4% 1972

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Serge Valentin (92)

A Special Release from before the Special Releases, the first Brora in this series and the first OB if you take neither any 'Old' Clynelish, nor the Rare Malts into account. Oh well we used to classify the Rare Malts as 'official independent bottlings' anyway, which sounds extremely silly in 2021. We've never let anything stop us. I also remember well the first time I tried this one blind, in front of a few hundred people. 'It's Talisker!' did I exclaim without thinking. After almost 20 years, I keep feeling shame… Colour: gold. Nose: I wasn't remembering all this coriander, cardamom, and even curry. It is fatter than the RM, with more oak and certainly more spices, especially pepper. That's probably why I had thought it was Talisker… back in 2002. It is also clearly farmy, this time, but that was really a trait of the 1972 vintage. With water: a lot of hay, almonds, coal, also mint, and distant whiffs of the very friendly farm dog barking at you for no reason. Mouth (neat): more ashes than in the 1977, more very dry and tarry lapsang souchong, and with all those spices that keep fighting you. Coriander seeds, chiefly. With water: awesomely almondy and mentholy. Touches of salt, smoke, smoked salmon, fatter oysters… Finish: long, a tad bitterer and grassier. Comments: in my view these very early 1972 'SRs' were somewhat stuck between the otherworldly younger, more brutal Rare Malts, and some older 1972s that had gained a fabulous complexity over the years. But they remain high-class.

BOW (92)