Young Braeval laid down in May 2010 and matured in a refill ex-bourbon barrel. View on SMWS
Nose: Strawberry laces and Chantilly cream are served with honeydew melon and toasted hazelnuts. Deeper, milk chocolate sits with dried grasses, reeds and flax. Dilution adds apricots and lychee with some pencil shaving and toasted oak.
Taste: Richer, bigger, and certainly boozier. Barley corns and malt loaf are joined by cacao nibs, whipped cream and plenty of old fashioned orange liqueurs. The development heads through a journey of sweetness into sourness, ending with grape juice and gooseberries. Reduction softens the attack adding vanilla cream for a rather nice balance between sweet and sour.
Finish: Medium with chopped hazelnuts and over oakiness.
This young Braeval is characterful and tasty, but to my mind a touch hostile fresh out of the bottle. Dilution is worthwhile here, adding balance and greater integration of spirit and wood. A worthwhile opening dram, but have the pipette on hand.
Score: 83/100