Royal Brackla 11yo
Cadenhead’s Authentic Collection | 56.3% ABV
A Sunny Walk Down Longrow
Greeted with an unsure squint, the lady asks how she might help me on this fine day and I say I’m just in for a look… but she lingers. There’s something about my appearance that’s putting her flashing red warning light into standby mode, and I see I’m not exactly looking my finest.
I have the look of someone typically up to no good; my face is bright red from exposure to the coastal grit, and my clothes are weathered from a week at sea. I take my salt-stained cap off, smile as friendly as I can, and excuse my appearance on account of the week I’ve had. It does the trick.
Soon we’re chatting about how things are going and what’s new in the town, when some new customers enter the Cadenhead’s shop in Campbeltown. By now there’s more staff around and I’m quickly handed over to Joyce to continue waffling on – and what wonderful waffle it is. We talk about my trip so far, Irish whiskey and what whiskies I enjoy. Joyce then shows me around the shop and what it all means. There’s mention of the discontinuation of Cadenhead’s “Small Batch'' range of bottles; the black and silver labelled bottlings of interesting distilleries such as Glentauchers, some featuring the Glenlivet suffix, ie Glenrothes-Glenlivet. Confused? Don’t be as Dramface have everything you need to know in Gallie’s brilliant Ye Olde Glenlivet Whisky article
Joyce shows me the brightly labelled rum collection Cadenhead’s are also known for, as well as talking about what she likes and the bottles she’s bought her husband that turned out to be hidden gems. There’s a hefty section of the shop dedicated to the tall green labelled bottles of single cask whisky, featuring loads of distilleries I know, and a few I don’t. We talk for a while about Ord, a distillery I’ve never heard of but Cadenhead’s seem to have quite a lot available, including a 10yo, 11yo, 12yo and 13yo. It makes me wonderI why there’s so many bottles with just a year separating them. How do you know which one to pick? We soon land on Royal Brackla, a name that rings a bell, probably owing to the Aqvavitae YouTube channel, as I’m sure Roy’s mentioned it. Despite not having any 12yo on the shelf, I’m given a small thimble of it which is really tasty: Bright fruits and a bit of dark spice to contrast, but it’s quite hard for me to tell what’s what in these little measures.
The discussion turns to my day of fun the following day, and Joyce asks when we’re starting the Springbank tour? I say we’re not going to Springbank and she looks a bit perplexed. The tour is awesome she says, and it’s only £10 for goodness sake! Continuing her case, Joyce mentions I could fit it in before our 11am warehouse tasting, and I should ask for the post-tour samples to be bottled (driver’s drams) which would help a little with what's shaping up to be a heavy day of whisky intake.
I’m convinced enough to say that I’ll wander up to Springbank and see if there’s space. I look over towards the four large demijohn glass vials stacked on a rack, and ask what the deal is. These are Cadenhead concoctions – vattings of lowland, grain or highland whiskies – with the fourth holding an amalgamation of all Cadenhead’s best rums. Joyce states assuredly that the rum will be nothing like I expect, but I’ve never tried anything other than one or two rudimentary Tesco rums, so she decants some into another little cup and at once I’m whacked by the wave of sugary, spicy liquorice. It’s powerful and evocative. I take a 20cl bottle of the rum which costs a pretty reasonable £14 for premium cask strength spirit, but they don’t have the Royal Brackla 12 in stock. Instead I take the Royal Brackla 11 - the tasting notes on the bottle mention heather, scottish tablet and citrus, which is good enough for me.
The sun continues to shine outside the shop and I wander down Longrow thinking about how friendly whisky folk are. I love talking to people and finding out their stories, and it’s refreshing to have a genuinely interesting chat about a topic both sides are passionate about. Longrow isn’t so refreshing though; closed shop fronts flaking in the wind, derelict flats and “for sale” signs line the road, and I’m starting to see what the town might have looked like before the recent rejuvenation on the main drag. It’s nothing too startling and anyway, so what? Every town across the motherland has areas in need of TLC, so I can forgive the extra time it’s taking for the whisky fuelled paint-fairies to get down Longrow.
The following day our Springbank tour is, as Joyce said it would be, really quite brilliant and we’re soon ushered into the Cadenhead’s warehouse with six other willing participants. Our guide is Grant, the retail general manager of Cadenhead’s UK, and he offers a potted history of Cadenhead’s. It’s now that I learn about the ties between Springbank and Cadenhead’s and why this warehouse is on Springbank soil. He then turns our attention to six casks lying on the ground behind him. Most cask-ends are blank with exception to one, which reads “Cameronbridge 1989”. Grant then takes us through the six exceptional whiskies, from a 9yo Ben Nevis finished in a Manzanilla sherry hogshead, to that 32 year old single grain Cameronbridge. A nice Glen Elgin, Ardmore, Orkney (Highland Park) and a Caol Ila complete the tail end. As we all stand, collectively humming on a high-pitched frequency of whisky appreciation, one of the other tour participants asks Grant if has anything special, tucked away. He's obviously done this before. Sure enough he does and he produces another Caol Ila, this time a long gone 16 year old which has been matured in a sherry cask. It’s a stunner – what a way to finish, with a wee bonus dram. We head to the Cadenhead’s shop afterwards, floating on a cloud of yum-yum and meet the guy who asked for the secret dram. He now lives in Glasgow with his wife after they moved from China for the sole reason of whisky. We're astounded by their story and chat to them for ages – a genuinely lovely couple. He whispers to us to try the Paul John in the Cadenhead's shop and I spot the bottle, but it's too expensive for me and I really want to get some of the bottles from our warehouse tasting. So instead, I pick up the Ben Nevis and the Caol Ila, while my uncle grabbed a Glen Elgin.
We shake hands and exchange well wishes and head back to the boat for lunch. It’s a phenomenal start to our day in Campbeltown with only a visit to Glen Scotia to come in the afternoon. We’re meeting Dramface podcast host Gregor McWee and having a good old tasting in their warehouse. I don’t know it now, but the tour around Glen Scotia would be one of the best tours I’ve done so far in my whisky journey, and we saw some pretty incredible things, tasted even more incredible whisky (including some Scotia new-make spirit) before finally heading off into the tidal sunset, totally smitten with Campbeltown.
Review
Cadenhead’s Royal Brackla 11yo, 56.3% ABV
£57 form Cadenhead’s
This bottle is from Cadenhead’s Authentic Collection winter 2020 outturn. It’s matured in an ex-bourbon hogshead and, as always, presented at natural colour and non-chill filtered. It’s still available online via the Cadenhead’s shop.
Back home, I’m assessing my wares from the trip; with seven new bottles of whisky to pick apart and enjoy, I’m a bit sheepish about how decadent I’ve been: two Springbanks, one Kilkerran, the wee rum bottle, two Cadenhead’s warehouse bottlings and this, the Royal Brackla 11yo – all cask strength. It is what it is… I knew I’d go mad, had budgeted to go mad and did go mad, but that’s the draw of Campbeltown. Surrounded in an environment of superb whisky enjoyment every way you turn; it’s no wonder the shop staff have little persuasion to do, for the ability to extend your experience long into the future is just a matter of portable glass, amber liquid and cold, hard cash.
I’ve already sampled my two bottles of Springbank and the Kilkerran and all have been impressively unique, despite coming from – roughly – the same place. The Royal Brackla is next and I’m excited to see how close it resembles that fleeting glance-off-the-lips sample I tasted in the shop. The colour of this whisky is more like a white wine and smells richly sweet. I’m not enamoured by the label presentation, which makes it look like it belongs in a vintage greengrocer’s, but perhaps that’s the intention – Cadenhead’s shop aesthetic is all old-school, so it does fit. Regardless, this is single cask whisky presented, without fiddling, at a not insignificant 56.3% ABV, so let’s get down to it.
Nose
Soft citrus mixed with an enveloping creaminess. Earthy and bushy – those label-referenced heather notes. Sweet toffee and boot polish. Mint and freshness. A faint crusty bakewell tart. It’s a light, sweet and freshly presented whisky. A nice summer’s day vibe coming off this one.
Palate
Big, bold and brightly fruity: Green apples and tart grapes. A sweet, sugary, confectionary note enters the room and bats everything else out of the way and the label’s homemade Scottish tablet note starts to reveal itself. There’s also orange sherbet and Calypso ice lollies – the creamy ones, not the icy ones. Purple florals and crunchy love hearts. Boiled sweets that have a sharp jelly centre. Lemon sherbets and pear drops, as detailed on the label. So enjoyable.
The Dregs
It’s amazing just how accurate I’m finding the notes in the whisky as pronounced on the bottle label. Usually these advisory notes are a bit loose, however here they’re all pretty much bang on: lovely sweet and biting arrival, round mouth-filling creaminess, oiliness and potent sweet florals. The nose is great to sit and inhale, losing yourself in all that heathery lemon bon-bon. The palate is big and bold at full strength, but it has a delicacy in the flavours that allows you to separate them out . The tablet note is really clearly present, which is lovely, but the other flavours follow along in their own little separate stages.
I am enjoying this whisky. It’s really well poised and deliciously drammable even at cask strength. Watered slightly it reveals more of those floral notes and tames the creamy mouthfeel a little. There’s not much more complexity to it other than the subtle sweet and sour balancing act, but the creaminess makes me want to drink it forever. Summer would be a good word to describe this whisky and at a pretty reasonable price, I think it’s a worthwhile purchase. I wonder what the 12yo would’ve been like? Even in the small cup it was clearly darker in tone and, from fading memory, a bit more dark spice was present. Doesn’t matter. For now I’ll sit happily with this expression of Royal Brackla – a distillery I might not otherwise have tried – and remember with fondness my time in the wonderful little green shop, hidden in Longrow on a sunny day in Campbeltown.
Score: 6/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. DC