Bruichladdich 15 Year Old Links - Valhalla

Bruichladdich Links Valhalla 15 year old is limited to 18,000 bottles and is part ten in the Golf themed Links series from Bruichladdich. Each bottle is made from casks specially selected by the Laddie master distiller Jim McEwan. This one has a golf themed label with a picture of Valhalla, painted by the famous golf artist Graeme W. Baxter.

With a nice backstory and label Bruichladdich Links Valhalla 15 was a mild disappointment. Of course I wasn't expecting too much because of my lack of appreciation for sherry whisky. But I've come across with few good sherry whiskies in the past and for me Bruichladdich has become one of the great distilleries, so I expected a little more from Links Valhalla.

This turned out to be too much of an sherry bomb for me. Very sugary and powerful indeed. And it got me to a point where I was trying to balance it with water but ended up ruining it by flatting out. And this time I really was composed with the water (only two drops) so I won't recommend it for this Laddie.

I couldn't figure out a nice movie reference here so I'll use Forbidden Fruit (lots of movies out there with that title). I guess it suits for Bruichladdich Links Valhalla 15 because even though it was a sherry explosion, I still liked it a bit (77 points are not bad). So I'll call it the forbidden one.

Nose: Subtle compared to the taste but still, very fruity. Sweet and oaky with the sherry still in the background. Peachy.

Taste: Sweet honey with heather and sherry. This was a sherry sugar bomb for me.

Finish: Length is good, warming honey with sweet sherry.

Balance: In good balance, every step of the tasting follows each other coherently. And the sherry influence grows along the way so I'm sure that fans of sherry whisky like this one.