Review by: The Muskox

’s place! We did two rounds of blind tasting before we could all just go nuts trying stuff. I started with this one, which I think I guessed pretty well, considering we all brought pretty rare bottlings and that some of us were clearly out to stump everyone else. We were going pretty fast, so this review won’t be quite as detailed as my usual fare.

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Distillery: Braeval.

Bottler: Maltbarn.

Region: Speyside.

ABV: 48.7%. Cask strength

Age: 23 years. Distilled in 1994. Bottled in 2018

Cask type: Ex-bourbon.

Price: N/A, no idea what my friend paid for this.

Color: Light gold. Natural Color. Non-chill-filtered.

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Nose: Fresh. Apple, lemon, green grape and a bit of banana candy up front. There’s some firm musty oak in here too, so it’s not all fruit and honey. I got some more sweet notes over time: elderflower and gummy candies. Coming back to it much later, I got strong notes of butter tart, pie crust, and peach.

Palate: Medium texture, with some warmth up front. Opens with apple, caramel, and barley sugar, with the sweetness building to vanilla and marshmallow before turning fairly oaky. The astringency comes in here, along with a bit of a cask char or smoke note.

Finish: Medium and slightly tart. Lemon, apple, green wood, and barley sugar.

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Conclusion: This was my first Braeval, and it’s a pretty solid, if a little predictable, bottling. I tried this blind and managed to correctly guess that it was a ~25-year-old bourbon-cask Speysider.

Final Score: 78.

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Scoring Legend:

• 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
• 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
• 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
• 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
• 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
• 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
• 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
• 50-59: Save it for mixing.
• 0-49: Blech.