Review #330 - Bruichladdich 26 Year Black Art 08.1

The 8th edition of Bruichladdich's famous 'Black Art' series - this one boasts an age statement of 26 years, and it comes with a strength of 45.1% ABV (believed to be cask strength). As usual, the cask mixture that comprises the batch is undisclosed, and considering it's from a distillery that employs just about every cask type imaginable, we really have no idea.

For this release, 12,000 bottles were produced - not a huge outturn, but certainly not the rarest whisky, either. We get a stated vintage, so we know that all of the spirit was distilled in 1994, during the Whyte & Mackay ownership, a period that saw times of partial production and even closure. Put together by head distiller Adam Hannett, this single malt was bottled and released in 2020.

Bruichladdich 26 Year Black Art 08.1

Scotland/Islay - Single Malt

Current Locally Available Price: USD 590 (2024)

Age Statement: 26 Years

Strength: 45.1% ABV

Details: Not chill filtered, no color added; distilled 1994, bottled 2020

Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 1 times; bottle at 10% fill level at time of review. Tasted in a Glencairn glass, rested 10-15 minutes

Nose: Quite rich - some oak up front, and it's balanced between sweet and dry. There is a lot of fruit to sort through: inky fruits like plum and prune, some strawberry or raspberry, but also tropical pineapple and savory orange. Soft perfume arrives with more air time, and even later, toasted coconut or coconut soup can be found... fresh mint and cream at times, too.

Palate: Rich in flavor but the mouthfeel is more of a medium thickness; stronger drying oak from the start, and it's accented by spices like cardamom... chai spices. Plum, prune, and raisin lead the dark fruit, and we get top notes like caramelized pineapple, slightly fizzy. Vanilla and coconut come in, and at the end of the palate, floral notes grow stronger.

Finish: Medium-long, but soft and subtle. The oak mellows out at last, the astringency disappears, and it's all about dark fruits in the aftertaste: figs, juicy prunes, and sweet grapes.

Final Note: This tasting was a birthday treat at one of our favorite local bars, and we probably spent more than an hour with the glass - there were so many flavors to pull out. Loads of different fruits, especially from some darker sherry or other fortified wine influence, but the coconut notes possibly hinted at some ex-bourbon casks as well. Oak was quite strong in the palate, showing all of those 26 years of aging, but it did mellow out later on.

Of course, price is the main issue here - this is a very expensive bottle of whisky. At initial release, it was closer to $400, but since this is limited and a few years old now, prices are creeping up. Then again, it's a 26 year age-stated whisky from a very popular distillery - value isn't great, but this is in line with the pricing that we expect from the market for mature whisky like this.

Our Average Rating: 8.8 / 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: 4.17

About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.