Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2013

Vanilla on the nose, the taste of sweet almost carmeled appled and sweet fruit. This is an exceptionally smooth Islay with no bite to it.

Adding another 4.75 star review in solidarity with @DjangoJohnson in his war of man vs machine.

This is a 4.25 whisky that I'm upgrading to a 4.75 because there are only six reviews and some dipshit gave it a .25 bringing down the rating, making the community rating 3.18, which is the lowest community rating of the whiskies I own. The Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2013 hardly deserves that. Like I said, this is a straight 4.25 with no argument, no doubt. This is one of those I purchased during my shore trip this past summer and only opened now. And why did I open it? Well, it just made #9 on the Whisky Advocate 2022 Top 22, which always makes me curious about a pour whether I agree or disagree, plus the Eagles were playing the Giants. Huge divisional rivalry and I felt it deserved something special. I also have to admit that when I saw this on the shelves I picked it up without knowing anything about it other than the brand. I assumed it was peated, got back to the beach rental, read the words unpeated on the container and thought, well, hmmm. Then I looked up reviews and saw that Thijs Klaverstijn gave it a glowing review on his site Words of Whisky. And if you don't know Thijs Klaverstijn, he's one of the harder to please of the expert reviewers on Distiller, so I kind of, you know, trust him, though my tasting notes seem to deviate somewhat significantly from his (though not my appreciation). The nose here reminds me a great deal less of a standard Islay and more of Dalwhinnie. It's floral, full of honey with the slightest trace of smoke thought since it's unpeated that's more of a barbeque smoke than it is a peat smoke. Barrel char? On the palate the floral honeyed notes continue with a slight citrus edge and pear. The finish is long with a white pepper, ginger tang. Now this was only the first taste and it was one pour so it may evolve over time, but this drinks older than the 8 years it professes on the packaging, and I'm looking forward to trying this again. We didn't continue throughout the night with this, as we watched the Eagles trounce the Giants (with all due respect there were questions after Philly lost to Washington and then barely eeked by Indianapolis whether they were the real deal, but after the past three weeks, is there any doubt?) , but shifted to various other whiskies. I got my dad a bottle of Teeling Blackpitts for his birthday, which we sampled. Then we switched to JW Green and finished with the JD SBBP, so it was pretty much a high quality pour day, but the Bruichladdich stood high among the pours. Like I've said, I'm grading on a curve to pull the community score up. .25? really? I wouldn't even rate the piss that is Jim Beam White Label .25, and certainly a dram like this shouldn't be that low. Don't know why it bothers me that much except the review was a mix of non-sensical words and the profile looks like a bot, and I feel like that does a good whisky wrong, and if we don't stand up for the good whiskies, well then, who will? Am I right?

Pop j CC

Great nose - so smoky. Fullness in the body, so smoky on the finish I love it

OK dram.