Laddie Legends: Bruichladdich Blacker, Redder, Golder Still

Bruichladdich Blacker Still

The first in the series was released in 2006. At 20 years old, Blacker Still was fully matured in Oloroso sherry casks for two decades, influencing the dark treacle colour of the liquid. A complex and powerful whisky with notes of leather, clove and liquorice.

The whisky landscape then was very different to today. There was very little variety in cask maturation, with cask types selected for consistent flavours at considerable scale. However, sherry maturation had been in the mix since the 19th century.

Back in 1864, William Sanderson, a Victorian pioneer blender from the Port of Leith wrote, "It is well-known that whisky stored in sherry casks soon acquires a mellow softness which it does not get when put into new casks." This was very convenient, as the busy British docks at the time were awash with sherry casks. It accounted for 1/3 of all wine imports to the UK in the mid 19th century. Some casks had been used to mature sherry; some had been newly coopered in order to ship sherry – these were known as transport casks. Some distilleries built their whole house style around “sherry oak”.

In the 1980s, however, it became law that sherry had to be bottled in Jerez to prevent fraud, so the supply of casks dried up. Enter the alternatives. Fast-tracked “sherry seasoned” casks were new casks which had held second grade sherry for a short time. Others pivoted to reusing their sherry casks for short periods of finishing, reserving full term sherry maturation for rare bottles.

It was in the mid 1990s that sherry cask matured whisky began to be associated with the word “black” due to the colour of the contents. Prior to this, for nearly 100 years, there had been Black Labels (since 1909) and Black Bottles (since 1879) within the Scotch category, purely describing the packaging. Blacker Still brought the two ideas together; the limited edition release had both the rich sherry maturation and a completely coated black bottle.

Bruichladdich Redder Still

Released a year later, in 2007, Redder Still became the second expression in the series. At 22 years old, the bourbon matured spirit was finished in Pomerol, Bordeaux, red wine casks, imparting their influence upon the flavour and colour of the whisky.

The ambition to elevate red wine cask finishing to the lofty regard of sherry casks was ambitious for the time. Here was a whisky which stoked and prodded the thinking around value and collectibility, and, most importantly, flavour.

Bruichladdich had brilliant access to a range of wine casks that had never been seen before in Scotch, thanks to founders Mark Reynier and Simon Coughlin’s former lives as wine merchants. They could, and did, dive deep into famous appellations of wine casks. In 2004, the second edition of the Bruichladdich Twenty Year old had been turned pink by it “ACE-ing” (Additional Cask Enhancement) in Mourvèdre wine casks for five weeks before bottling.

The Redder Still casks had impeccable credentials, hailing from a family-owned vineyard that works with only 4.5 hectares of old vines in Pomerol. They produce one of the rarest bottles in Bordeaux, ”some of the most exotic, long-lived, and multi-layered wines in the world” according to the Oxford Companion to Wine. These highly regarded wines, which are known for notes of fresh berries, rose and violet petals, had a profound influence on both the flavour and warm red hue of the single malt whisky. 

Bruichladdich Golder Still

The third and final expression in the Still Series, Golder Still was released in 2008. Aged for 23 years in bourbon hogsheads, Golder Still made a stunning example of the influence that quality bourbon and American oak can have on Scotch. Golden in colour, with notes of sweet vanilla, spicy oak and a mix of tropical fruits.

Discovering a parcel of unusual dumpy bourbon hogsheads among the stocks the team had inherited at purchase, former Master Distiller and Production Director, Jim McEwan recognised their value in terms of the greater ratio of contact between the spirit and the wood. Of course, gold is the colour of the liquid, but it's also a nod to the unearthed treasure that these unusual casks represented. They were barrel formats that we’d be unlikely to come by again, as they were the product of a brief period of experimentation in US cooperages in the 1980s, which made them “end of an era” casks.

Together, the trilogy represented the early days of Bruichladdich experimentation and the beginning of practices that today the whisky industry embraces commonly. The hallmark of bold single malt paired with standout coated bottles is continued by many of our releases to this day, most notably our flagship The Classic Laddie, but also other icons mentioned in previous Laddie Legends articles: Black Art, and The Yellow Submarine.

So what does the future look like? We've certainly developed many flavour levers over the last 25 years, but it’ll be no surprise to Bruichladdich fans to discover we’ve Still got a lot more to explore…