Braeval 21 Year Old 1991 The Whisky Mercenary

The Whisky Mercenary, aka Belgian bottler Jürgen Vromans, released two new bottlings on 9 May 2013. A Cooley from Ireland and this Braeval.

Very sweet nose, albeit extremely soft. Beesax, pineapple cubes, toffee, hints of brown sugar, mandarin, almond paste. Surely this was a sherry cask. Pretty floral as well with grasses and wild flowers. It even has something sour like from berries. Than a nice touch of vanilla kicks in. Very accessible.

On the palate, it does the sweet thing again, but is also pretty spice, which I did not get on the nose. Ginger, nutmeg, even some cloves. The fruit is again of the tropical variety, upholstered with some melon. The oak puts its foot down as well with woodspice and a trace of smoke, but it never turns dry. The fruit is more than juicy enough for that.

The finish is long, warm, spicy and slowly but surely dries the mouth.

Great Braeval, a whisky that I have absolutely not tried enough. A spring whisky pur sang. Now that the sun is finally coming out, this is the kind of bottle to put on the table. Around 90 EUR.

Find where to buy Braeval whisky