Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2007 Rockside Farm

Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2007 Rockside Farm

We are heading back to Islay for the next review to sip a bottle that was sitting on my shelf unopened for a while now, Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2007 Rockside Farm.  This is an interesting whisky from Islay, which is known for its peated Scotch, as this is an unpeated release.  This series of releases, of which this is the third, focuses on, what they call, “uber provenance”.  So…super local.  For the distillation, Bruichladdich uses 100% barley grown on Islay, in this case at the Rockside Farm.  As I mentioned, this is unpeated and is distilled and matured entirely on Islay.  It’s a bit on the younger side at 6 years old so we’ll have to see if that is noticeable.

Distilled in 2006, bottled in 2013.

ABV: 50%

How it smells…rubber cement and something a bit funky and not in a pleasant way..

How it tastes….sweet at the start followed by some earthy notes and charred meat.  The end is a bit fruity, like black walnuts and the finish is peppery spice that builds throughout the finish.

Price…$70

Rating...🥃🥃🥃

Final thoughts….This sip threw me for a loop.  Since it was labeled as unpeated, I suppose my expectations were for something a bit more straight down the fairway so I was really surprised to get those meaty, charred, earthy notes on the sip.  I hated the nose, it was very off putting for me, but I can overlook that since I don’t drink with my nose.  I was also surprised that it is only 6 years old as I don’t get any of those grassy and green apple tastes that I typically associate with younger scotches.  Overall, I kind of liked the taste of it, although it’s that profile that I tend to have to warm up to and I know may not be the favorite of many folks.  Since it has more flavor than a lot of NAS $60-$70 scotches that I’ve had, I think 3x 🥃 is appropriate, even if it is pricy for a 6 year old.

Rating aside, I like the idea of this estate produced, locally sourced, farm to bottle bougie nostalgia, but I need to get something great out of it or otherwise I’m just paying for marketing and BS.  For me, this was a 3x 🥃 because I mentally thought of it as a NAS and the voluminous amount of words on the label aside, it was a decent taste at a decent price.  I’d say that it lacks a “wow” factor but if Bruichladdich has another release of this type, perhaps aged up a bit, I’d give it a try if the price wasn’t outrageous.  But $70 is really stretching the upper level of where I would value this, a dollar more and it is a 2x 🥃.