Side by side : An indie Royal Brackla flight

The largest of Bacardi's John Dewer & Son's distilleries sees most of it's maturation taking place off site and is used mainly for Dewar's blends.

There aren't too many distillery bottlings (although recently they released three aged sherry cask bottlings) but there are quite a few indies - here I'll try 3.

Photo: nairnbairn

Captain William Fraser took out a licence for his Brackla distillery in 1817 in competition to the local illicit stills on his estate in Brackla northeast of Inverness. His peated whisky must of been good as it was the first to receive a  Royal Warrant from King William IV in 1835. The distillery changed hands a few times until 1943 when it became part of Scottish Malt Distillers. Expanded in the 60's and 70's the distillery closed down in 1985 and due to the industry surplus. Reopening in 1991 it was soon sold to Bacardi-Martini (only the distillery - no stock) and used for blends, there have been a few single malt releases, the current range includes 12, 18 and 21 year old sherried expressions.

A stainless steel semi lauter mash tun is used to make the now unpeated wash. Six wooden and two steel washbacks ferment the wash for around 70 hours.

Photo: www.whisky-distillery.net

Two Wash stills and two Spirit stills, with long upward angled lyne arms use shell and tube condenser to distil new make to around 70% ABV.

Photo: whisky.com

So which Independent Bottlers are we trying today?

Duncan Taylor is a family owned business producing quality Scotch whisky, gin and rum. Now in Huntley it has its origins in Glasgow where the company was initially a merchant and broker of Scotch whisky casks within the Industry.	The Scotch Malt Whisky Society was founded in 1983 when a group of friends clubbed together to buy a cask of fine malt whisky. They now sell their bottles to their thousands of members.

Let's see what the whisky is like:

Dram	2011 7yo Whisky Galore [Duncan Taylor]	2006 12yo 55.54 Gingerbread in the flowerbed [SMWS]	2000 16yo 55.45 Dreamy Dandelion Fuzz [SMWS]
Characteristics	46% ABV Ex-Bourbon	58.9% ABV Refill Ex-Bourbon Hogshead	56.7% ABV 1st Fill French Oak Hogshead
Bottler info	Nose: Nougat and spiced, stewed apple, with almond croissant and a good helping of honey. Palate: Spiced milk chocolate, with candied citrus, vanilla custard and lots of ripe orchard fruit. Finish: Grassy oak and a drizzle of caramel.	The nose opened with a bouquet of perfumed and floral scents that combined pot pouri with the distinctive character of pear drops. Sweetness came with caramel and butter pastry whilst a strong spicy note tickled the nose like horseradish sauce. The tingle softened to cinnamon stick with a sprinkling of dried turmeric on malted barley. A dash of water created a backdrop of ginger biscuits and shortbread, still bound by a strong sense of freshly cut flowers and jasmine tea. Confected notes now turned to marzipan with chilli white chocolate warming the tongue. The warming glow of fresh ginger prevailed through to the finish where it was joined by crunchy cereals and a dry and woody finish.	We all closed our eyes and imagined what it would be like in summer; skylarks singing, hedgerows buzzing with bees enjoying the wild flowers and we licked on a buttered popcorn ice lolly. On the palate plenty of spices; nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and fresh ginger – mouth numbing at first but soon followed by the juicy sweetness of peach slices in Gewurztraminer. A drop of water and we moved into the rose garden for buttered crumpets with strawberry & champagne jam and apricot & nut cookies with Amaretto icing. After fifteen years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, we transferred this whisky directly into a 1st fill French oak hogshead for the remainder of its maturation.
My thoughts:
Appearance
	Light gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, form large beads and fall as slow thick legs.	Pale gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up and fall as slow thin legs.	Dark gold, almost brown, in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, form large beads and fall as slow thick legs.
Nose	Stewed orchard fruit - apples, pears and peaches; vanilla custard and cinnamon spice. Some oak notes after a little time in the glass.	Lemon bonbons, honey, dried flowers, perfume. A little time and air offers orchard fruit and golden syrup.	Huge sherry notes - strawberry jam, berries, musty bookshop notes - very strange as there's been no sherry in the maturation...
Palate	Smooth sweet arrival, a little oily, lots of honey and ginger spice - lip tingling. After the spice fades the stewed orchard fruit from the nose coats the tongue, fading to leave a milk chocolate note - yummy!	Thick mouthcoating arrival of honey and peppery spice. There's some citrus - grapefruit? and orchard fruit - pears and apricots; in here but the spice is dominating. again a milk chocolate note as the liquid disappears.	Thick syrupy arrival, sweet berry notes and again a big hit of spice.  There's some milk chocolate notes again, a little chewy toffee and some citrus. Very drying - almonds, peach, grape skin, icing sugar.
Finish	Dry spiced orchard fruit with milk chocolate notes	Dry spiced orchard fruit with milk chocolate notes which linger.	Lingering oak and berry notes with a peppery spice.
Overall	The Duncan Taylor at 7yo was the youngest dram here and being matured solely in ex-bourbon gave the closed idea of distillery character and to be honest I really liked it! Orchard fruit and spice with a lovely milk chocolate note as the liquid disappeared. The two SMWS bottlings upper the age and ABV both still shared that orchard fruit, spice and milk chocolate DNA. The ex-bourbon 55.54 add spice and citrus notes, the French Oak 55.45 colour, berry fruit, spice and dryness. It's no wonder this distillery's output is used in blends such as Johnnie Walkers and Dewar's - it's pretty good. I recently tried the newly released 12yo ex-oloroso and was impressed by that too.

Many thanks to @newdramrising for the two SMWS sample swaps.