Caskshare's Mark Reynier Signature Collection Release 1

Mark Reynier is a high profile figure in the whisky industry, liked by some and not by others! What you can't ignore though is that he saved the Bruichladdich Distillery on Islay.

Reynier liked to experiment with maturation and Caskshare are bottling three of his experiments.

In August 2018 Reynier took three casks two Bourbon (from 2010) and one Oloroso (from 2008) and vatted them together. The whisky was then filled into three new casks: Andean (South American Quercus Humboldtii which is an oak high in eucalyptoides), Amarone (French oak) and Oloroso for a further 18 months. The whisky was again vatted and then this time filled into another three different casks: a first fill American Barrel (R190410003),  a Virgin American barrel (R190410002) and a first fill Oloroso hogshead (R190410001).

@Caskshare is a collective which allows you to buy a cask in 1 bottle shares, some of these are bottled and ready to ship, some you'll have to wait a little while for them to mature fully. I've been a member for a year or so now and got to try some fabulous drams.

Caskshare are selling shares (bottles) in the three Bruichladdich casks from Reynier's private collection, the first two are available now, the third will be ready next year. They kindly sent me a sample of the first one (R190410003) to review.

Bottler notes:

11yo 46% ABV, natural colour, NCF

Tasting notes:

On the nose, sweet stone fruits with a background of malt. A deep and complex body – the perfect balance between red fruits, vanilla, and spicy oak. A long and biscuity finish with wafts of sea-salt. 

My thoughts:

Appearance: dark gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line of beads and fall as slow thin oily legs.

Nose: orchard fruit: apples, pears, apricots; a little honey and some salinity.

Palate: sweet oily arrival, golden syrup coats the mouth, the orchard fruit from the nose are back alongside some berries: raspberries, strawberries, blackberries; some cherry notes and a lovely peppery spice. There's a little vanilla, barley sugars, some shortbread and a lovely salinity.

Finish: lingering salinity, fruit, honey and a little spice.

Overall: a lovely dram as you'd expect from Bruichladdich but a very complicated maturation! Can you pick out all of the little nuances of each maturation including the Andean oak? Well if you can you have a better palate than me! But to be honest it doesn't really matter - what you are getting here is a well rounded dram with bags of flavour - a little more ABV would have helped.