Ben Bracken 28 Year Old Speyside

By Barry Bradford on November 25, 2015 • ( 5 Comments )

Ben Bracken 28 Year Old Speyside (40%, Lidl, 2015)

Category: Speyside single malt scotch whisky
Origin: Distillery unknown
Bottling: Clydesdale Scotch Whisky Co for Lidl
ABV: 40%
Cost: £49.99 from Lidl

What they say

Distilled in 1987, Product of Scotland. Ben Bracken distilled, matured and bottled in Scotland, Speyside single malt scotch whisky. Chill Filtered and matured in oak casks for 28 years. Distilled in copper pot stills in the centuries-old manner, it is then laid down in oak casks and matured, undisturbed, for twenty-eight years.

Official tasting notes:

Colour: A magnificent lustre of honey gold and sandy highlights
Nose: Elegance personified as freshly baked banana bread, succulent grape pulp, Victoria plums and Crepes Suzette drift in profusion. A spectrum of unashamed enchantment opens up before you as another wave of fresh apple, succulent apricots, lemon grass and vanilla rolls out like a summer breeze. One final burst of honeycomb, rose hip syrup, jasmine and sandalwood completes this sensual sensation.
Taste: Sophisticated and intrinsically refined. The long years in the finest American White Oak ‘Quercus Alba’ seasoned with freshly filled bourbon has nurtured this aged Speyside Single malt to an outstanding panacea of perfection. Warm delicate flavours of fleshy Doyenne du Comice pear, moist Victoria cake coupled with coriander and a kiss of sweet pineapple linger lovingly in the background. The hand of time has truly tamed this rare beauty. Pure class in a glass!

What I say

As soon as these were announced I was determined to secure myself the pick of the Lidl festive whiskies on offer.

In the end I opted for both Ben Bracken single malts; 22 Year Old Islay and 28 Year Old Speyside and the Glen Alba 34 Year old blend.

My tasting notes:

Appearance: Lustrous and refractive orange amber gold (11/20), slow-forming medium-sized tears leave well-defined medium legs
Nose: Slightly musty apricot, plum and peach fruits and their skins, heather honey and golden syrup, really quite rich, give way to a lighter mango and pineapple tropical nature with a touch of coconut, rum and milk chocolate or rum truffles, freshens to give crisp green apples and crystallized ginger, pineapple, grapefruit and lemon sorbet with caramel and butterscotch, granulated demerara sugar hints at vanilla sponge cake mixture with buttery and milled cereal malted barley flour all mixed in
Taste: Pineapple cubes and crystallized ginger initially give way to that same musty furry apricot and peach skin, their is a rich heather honey and golden syrup sweetness with flashes of caramelised sugar/spun sugar, toffee apples, popcorn with butterscotch sauce, crème brulee and milk chocolate, golden syrup and sticky toffee sponge puddings, all with lashings of fresh stem ginger, jasmine and galangal, woody oak and hints of herbal rosemary wood.
Finish: Long, sweet, tropical fruits, slightly drying toffee oak wood and spiced ginger

Overall

Wow, what a wonderful expression. I was expecting this to be tame at 40% ABV but there is no hiding the age in this dram. Some superb qualities from the aged tropical fruit medley to the masses of honey and beautifully complimentary spice from those ex-bourbon casks. Impressive to say the least! Considering the price point this is a spectacular whisky released by Lidl in the run-up to the festive period – so congratulations to those lucky enough to purchase or receive this bottle! Slainte!