Infrequent Flyers Royal Brackla 12 year old

A dual first for me. My first Royal Brackla and also my first bottle from the Infrequent Flyers range a fairly new independent bottler owned by Alistair Walker son of the famous (in whisky circles) Billy Walker of Glendronach, BenRiach and more recently Glenallachie.

I'd normally review a whisky first without water and then comment on what it was like with the addition of water.

This however, needs water and can take a lot of it. It's a bit too full flavoured neat. I experimented with varying amounts of water and never got to a point where I'd drowned it. I found it worked best for me with around a teaspoon and a half in a 25ml pour. Which is what this review is based on.

Nose

Oaky, lots of cereal, summer fruits and white wine vinegar.

Palate

An oliy mouthfeel.

Initially buttery with lots of oak. Then Golden Grahams cereal, manuka honey, sugared donuts, sourdough bread, pineapples.

Finish

Very drying and oaky.

Overall

When I first opened this I thought it was an absolute belter. It was sunshine and oak and barley in a glass. The rest of the bottle didn’t quite live up to that first pour but nonetheless was a very enjoyable dram and I found myself reaching for it quite often. I'll defintely be getting another bottle from infrequent flyers to try something else from their range.

As for Royal Brackla. Since I brought this bottle a couple of years ago they have revamped the offical range in a similar style to Glenturret and have put the emphasis on finishing in good quality Sherry Casks. Apparently the new bottles are pretty good. So I'll probably try the new 12 at some point.

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