How time flies. It has been well over a decade since we last tasted Bruichladdich’s flagship single malt, The Classic Laddie, when it was initially launched. I would say we’re way overdue for a revisit, but today’s Laddie is a big departure from what we tasted back then, so this is more like a belated review. That first taste of Laddie was in 2011, when Bruichladdich was still coming into its own and before the Remy Cointreau buyout. It was a vatting of new, younger single malts (5-7 years old) with much older stock (18-20 years old) produced before the distillery was mothballed in 1996. Modern Bruichladdich is all unpeated, but the Laddie we sampled back then was “minimally peated” likely owing to the use of older, pre-Jim McEwan whisky.

Today’s Classic Laddie continues to be a non age-stated, batch release that relies primarily on younger, ex-bourbon-aged single malts, although likely a bit older than the youngest components in the original Laddie (reportedly around 10 years old). A smaller portion of single malt aged in specialty casks like sherry and other wine types is also incorporated. All of the whisky is unpeated, made from 100% Scottish barley, slow-distilled (what they call “trickle distillation”), and aged entirely on Islay. Let’s see what this latest Laddie has in store for us, shall we?

The nose is bright and fresh with notes of sweet, cut grass, minted syrup, and heather honey. As it opens, the malt arrives with banana bread and nougatine notes, adding lemon pie, baked pear, and orange peel in time, all laced with a bit of salty air. It’s certainly not a mild aroma, but it buries the lead a bit for a palate that delivers outsized flavor and complexity for an entry-level single malt. Things kick off on the palate with bright, round notes of lemon curd, candied ginger, green apple, and kiwi, before giving way to darker, caramelized sugars, toffee biscuits, and baking spice notes that simmer on the midpalate with a pleasing, easy warmth. As those early, higher-tone flavors calm, the palate acquires an almost creamy texture. It’s a lot to savor, and the finish doesn’t quite give it all time to come together before shifting to green tea and seasoned oak accented by ample barley sugar and a bit of saline. Bruichladdich has come a long way over the decade-plus, and while the first Classic Laddie was a fine way to showcase the distillery’s potential, this Laddie presents more purely the true house style, offering not just a gateway to the age-stated and specialty expressions in the lineup but an impressive everyday dram in its own right.

100 proof.

A- / $70

Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie (2024)

$70

9

Rating

9.0/10

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