As a big fan of the Bruichladdich distillery, it’s always hard to write these without any bias. But truthfully, this is probably the lowest score I ever gave a Bruichladdich made spirit. On the nose, I struggled to get as much as of OLoroso sweetness out as I could, but maybe if I add a dash of water (which I didn’t do) it may change. Will report back once I do. Once the earthy smoke clears, which there is a decent amount of, then you got lots of nuts, maybe some hints of fruit and quite a deep earthiness to it. Down the hatch, it is a 9 year aged cask strength, so without water it will bite, but the warmth is short lived which is surprising. The campfire is strong in the beginning which I like and as it makes it’s way down, again there’s nuttiness which a slight touch of sweetness and creaminess. Personally, I think if they left this in the oloroso hogshead for another year, then this would have been a winner and a price bump would be justified. All the cask movement is so interesting, but I don’t get enough fruit for it to tell me it took in enough of the flavor. Overall it’s an enjoyable dram for winter days, but maybe I need to try it with some water to see how much of a difference I can achieve.