Lochindaal 2007 Loch Na Dàla Private Cask Bottling 10 yo

 

 

 

63,3°

Distillery : Bruichladdich - Islay 

Bourbon Barrel 

Original Bottling 

Limited Edition 

Single Cask 

Bottled in 2018

Unchillfiltered, Uncoloured, Cask Strength

Peated around 50 ppm

 

 

 

In the wide range of Private Cask Bottlings, you can find everything at Bruichladdich. We must not forget that they have four brands at their disposal. Lochindaal is certainly the least used, but it is very old, much older than Port Charlotte or Octomore. In fact, it seems that when the distillery started producing unpeated juice, the Lochindaal brand appeared to distinguish peated from unpeated. Here we have a Single Cask aged in a Bourbon barrel for ten years, before being released into the world in the form of 247 bottles. It should be noted that the peat is more important at Lochindaal than at Port Charlotte, the first normally displays 50 ppm, while the second is content with 40.

 

 

 

Let's Taste It : 

Sea breeze, stormy peat, vanilla sweetness. Very fine balance, helped by a bit of cumin and eucalyptus. The iodine adds thickness, but it's beginning to be quite greedy, cane sugar, genoise, whiffs of smoke. Pastry cream, sugar balls. Zest of lemon. The addition of water takes the wind out of it and awakens the alcohol, it's not a good swimmer. On the palate, it's strong, peppery, spicy, it hurts the taste buds, but I can smell a few citrus fruits nonetheless. It scratches the tip of the tongue, and is fruity at the same time. A few extra shovelfuls of peat. The finish is a real blast, a nice explosion at first, but it soon mellows and suddenly you're on a sunny, sandy beach, with some seafood at hand. Orchard fruits, comice pears, Golden apples. A very long finish. Drizzle of coal at the end. Shortbread biscuit.

 

In Short, 

Very friendly and very robust, this Lochindaal. To me, it's closer to Bruichladdich. It feels like peated Bruichladdich, whereas Port Charlotte and Octomore have quite a different profile. With this one, I also had a taste of sweetness, so much so that I had to check that it was not aged in rum barrels. But it's very well done. It's not too sweet like many other similar expressions. I can't imagine what the price of this little thing would be today, anyway it's sold out everywhere, so it's not even worth thinking about.

Score : 89

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                           To Be Listened While Sipping :

 

                                           Evanescence - Bring Me To Life