Royal Brackla 16 yo Zenith 57% vs Royal Brackla 17 yo Intertrade 63.9%~bottled 1987
Royal Brackla 16 yo Zenith 57%
As much wax as a Clynelish, colour me enthralled. Gritty gravel and granny’s old sewing machines. Plenty of poached yellow fruit in honey water on a dry cedar counter top. Haybales and golden vetiver. Yet the tongue charts a completely different course. An emergent barky, tannic aspect swells out the wax, and we are met by a host of bitter-medicinal aspects like tonic water, bay leaf, saline, pine needles and jujube pastilles. Thankfully the tannicity doesn’t overtake the whisky. 90 pts though some may not appreciate the bitterness.
Royal Brackla 17 yo Intertrade 63.9% ~bottled 1987
Big old school sherry here, with all the markers to hope for: Oxidized purple fruit, dark chocolate, roasted nuts, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, piles of dark resins, black tea, licorice and so on. Rich and aromatically lifting, and dry with a undercurrent of sooty phenols. Just fantastic. Right, on the tongue however, its a different story again. Develops cracked black pepper and menthol and then going off sharp and acrid aspects. Soon after seemingly losing steam, its starts to come apart a bit. Was expecting more, still, a great nose. 88 pts
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