Review #23 - Paul John Brilliance Single Malt

NAS World Whisky Mini-Series: Part 1 of 4

Our next series focuses on whisky from other parts of the world, rather than our oft-sipped bourbons, ryes, and scotches. Additionally, this will be honing in on bottles without age statements, something easy to find in many countries outside of Scotland and the USA.

With our first entry in the series, we're looking at Paul John, specifically their single malt whisky named 'Brilliance.' Released starting in 2013, this is India-grown 6-row barley, distilled and then aged in Goa, supposedly for 3 to 5 years in ex-bourbon barrels. The conditions are going to have an effect on the grains and the maturation, so we'll be on the lookout for some less common flavor notes, though we could find commonalities with whisky from other hot climates like Taiwan or Texas.

Paul John Brilliance Single Malt

India - Single Malt

Price Paid: USD 82 (2021)

Current Locally Available Price: USD 46 (2023)

Age Statement: NAS

Strength: 46% ABV

Details: Non chill filtered; Batch No. 1

Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 3 times over 11 months; bottles at 100%, 80%, and 70% (blind tasting) fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a Glencairn glass each time, rested 10-15 minutes

Nose: Light and pleasant, starting off with quite a bit of fruit: mild green apple, orange, apricot, and synthetic peach flavoring, and at one point, bananas foster with rum sauce. There are a couple of dark fruits like fig or extra dry raisin in there, too. One of the biggest flavor families overall, though, has to be the earthy, musty notes: wet dirt, rotting wood, moss, wood shavings and lumber... it's all a bit funky. As the bottle opened up, there were more wood and grain notes, things like cinnamon baking spice and some malt, barley sugars, maple syrup and brown sugar. There's definitely some young spirit in here, and later, it can turn slightly sour.

Palate: This actually reflects the nose relatively well: plenty of fruit with orange, grapefruit, rich pear, hints of lemon, and a hint of that raisin. Ripe apples are there, too, but less green now, and it's coming across a bit hot. Then, the spirit and wood notes take over once more - cinnamon spice, drying oak, wood sugars, and a decent amount of vanilla. Tiny bit of smoke poking through, and along with it come grain, barley sugars, some sugar cream, and plenty of wood spice and hot peppers. Again, there is a young spirit note here, a little bit of ethanol comes through, and it's still a bit warm. Overall, mouthfeel is medium-thin.

Finish: Medium length finish, but sometimes seemed shorter and sometimes longer. Some drying oak notes, but the fruit is still there: cinnamon apples, dark fruits, maybe a bit of ex-sherry maturation. It's a bit oily, and after the fruit, there is more spice development, baking spice and some pepper and lots of vanilla. A bit of smoke, too, but again, we eventually get back to those grainy spirit notes and oak kick.

Final Note: Huh, this one was quite hard to place. The spread of the individual ratings from our different tastings of this whisky was the widest we've observed so far; sometimes it was quite mediocre, while other times, it seemed great. It's undeniable that this has a number of different tasting notes to offer, but the more the bottle opens up, the younger this seems, and the more hastily aged it feels - not a huge surprise given India's hot climate, which could lead to heavy wood interaction. This one is decent, but in truth, we might lean toward Paul John's 'Edited' release a bit more often. One last note: the label, 'Brilliance?' Here's one whisky with name that isn't necessarily a self-fulfilling prophecy. (Actually, there are a lot of those.)

Our Average Rating: 6.4 / 10

In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.

Value Rating: 5.91