Yep, was lucky enough to pick up a couple of these about 7 years ago for a still reasonable price. The first is long gone while the second will need to wait for a special occasion before being opened. Don't remember getting a phenolic or smoky note, but the lactic characteristic is definitely there. And yes, you're right, there really isn't much that the modern bottling has in common with its elder brother from 2011. I think that the high number of French wines casks bought during Mark Reynier's ownership of Bruichladdich have to be "channelled" somewhere by the distillery's new owners, Remy Cointreau, so much of that stock ends up these days in the Classic Laddie - as well as the many other iterations of Laddie, Port Charlotte and Octomore. Cheers.
It's shocking how different it is, right? And it wasn't even a particularly gradual change IMHO. As soon as they dropped the age statement it just became a very different beast. What you say about the Reynier wine casks makes sense. I wouldn't mind so much if they at least gave us some more traditional expressions. Cheers.
Yep, I managed to get my hands on those Laddie 10's. Being a typical Toro though they were guzzled down long ago. I got seriously annoyed with the NAS replacement and refused to touch it. I did, eventually, in a hotel bar and it was way better than I thought it would be. I really hope that your review and our response can send a message to Bruichladdich to elevate Classic Laddie to a 10 year yet again. Go on Bruichladdich, do it. Honestly, Bruichladdich are a great distillery but messing things up right now. They're becoming too expensive and we will drift away from them. Don't do auction mate. It really sucks. WT
The glory days! When we could go online and buy a whole case of this stuff at £35 a pop! I bought my first bottle of the NAS replacement in person at Bruichladdich. It had just been released and the shop staff were visibly apprehensive about recommending it to someone who they knew loved the old Laddie 10. It's not too late for them to salvage things but their prices, especially of the new 18s and 30 send a rude message to us enthusiasts.
I recently did a tasting of many Bruichladdich/Port Charlottes and the Classic Laddie came out on top for me! I was very surprised as some of the other whiskies were well aged, both bourbon/refill and sherry casks. Classic Laddie used to be a great price here and readily available, so that scored some bonus points! Nice review Shane, glad you were able to squirrel away one of the originals for this!
Honestly I'm not surprised! Back in the good old days I remember preferring the Laddie 10 to the Laddie 16 and 22. And not just on the value for money front. Cheers!
Interesting review and comparison Shane! I think you are right in that Bruichladdich may not be able to make something comparable these days due to changes at the distillery. Good luck at the auctions! Cheers!
A ha ! . . . i got a case of 6 from batch 1, back then 55$CA ~ 30-31 quid/UKP. . . but as far as I can remember, ALL regular Laddie releases were NORMALLY 46% : 3D3 Norrie Campbell, Moon, the 15, 16, Torrey Pines, Links 9 (Birkdale) . . . all at 46% normally - back then. The 50% abv started with post-10 series of NAS Laddie . . .
Nice! Hopefully you have some left. Yes there were a few other 46% releases in those first few years before they decided that 50% is where it's at. Rocks, Laddie 16 and Laddie 22 I remember. Laddie 10 was always my favourite. Its funny that they decided that 46% wasn't quite enough when there are so many distilleries who still insist that 40% is fine 😕
Thanks John! No offense meant to American chocolate 😬it is very different to what we have though! I actually enjoy the stuff you guys make occasionally. Possibly because it reminds me a little of Laddie 10 😂 Cheers!
You know, you remind me of the conversation about Talisker 10; I used to buy it for 35-40£ and enjoy the classic one so much (to be perfectly honest not like the Ardbeg 10 or even the newer versions like the Wee Beastie), but now that it became more expensive and seems to be somewhat different from the classic one, I really miss it - and feel the same as you, I probably didn’t appreciate it as much as I should.
You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone... as they say! Talisker has definitely changed over the years and honestly I'm dreading Diageo doubling the price of the 10 like they did with the 18. Or just getting rid of it like they did with 57° North 😕
Once again, you hit it out of the park, Shane (which seems to be the standard for your reviews tbh). Never tried the old Laddie Ten, but I do like the Classic Laddie, although it's not a "must buy" for me. Decent entry level Laddie for sure, though. I'm looking for some indie Laddie bottlings (bourbon matured) to buy, but there are not many of them out there (at least not on the Danish market). A bottle that I remember (and would like back) is: The old Arran 14 yo. Such a lovely dram, and no less than a banger for the price level. I've been fortunate enough to stash up 2 bottles of that expression from under the radar webshops, so I'm quite pleased with that. Should Arran actually reintroduce it to their core range, I don't expect it to be the same (just as well as the new 10 yo is not the same as the old 10 yo). So I'll try to make my 2 bottles last as best I can, when I open them some day. Cheers! 🥃
Thank you very much Benny! Oh my... Arran 14. That was a truly incredible whisky and funnily enough I had the same experience with Arran 14 that I had with Laddie 10. With both of them, I tried that expression, fell in love, they discontinued it and I pretty much stopped buying from those distilleries for a few years. The Arran 14 is rightly legendary and I have one bottle left on my shelf. I hope to be able to compare it to a re-released 14yo soon. Cheers!
Very interesting take on B. Have you tried Laddie 8 (I have and loved it) by any chance? If so, how does it compare to 10? Quite curious about the latter now. Always look forward to more of your reviews. Keep 'em coming. Cheers!
I have tried the Laddie 8 and I liked it quite a lot too. I think it's closer to the old Laddie 10 than the new Classic Laddie but the Laddie 10 beats it on the palate. Cheers!
I got blinded on this recently! I thought it was unrelated Caol Ila. 😂 What an absolute banger of a bottling this was. A bit of a triumph at the time as well, kind of a celebration of their own distillate hitting 10. If you're craving lactic/butyric notes, by the way... dare I suggest you explore some raicilla? 😂
Oh it is (was) fantastic stuff! And a real curve ball that doesn't show the new house style. Raicilla you say? I haven't had any yet but I am partial to some agave juice. Cheers Scott.
I have an old single cask bottling of Ledaig 13 and holy cow I get a huge amount of cheese from it. I am glad I am not just imagining a very lactic note from old school Ledaig.
Oh yes! Just a few years ago Ledaig used to be a total butter-bomb! There used to be an OB Ledaig NAS bottled at 42% years ago that you could get in the supermarket for £20. I really enjoyed it despite the low strength. Excellent budget dram full of that cheesy character. I hope somebody will start making this kind of whisky again. It's getting hard to find.
Normally probably not... but sometimes! I remember back in 2011 some people accused Bruichladdich of colouring Laddie 10... and honestly it kind of looks like they did because it has that orange Irn Bru glow... but it says natural colour on the label 🤷♂️
Time and time again I see a story about how a genius entrepreneur bought and revived an old distillery which allegedly closed as it was producing blend fodder which was no longer needed, and ensured they started producing the good stuff, for single malts, in the best casks. Yet at the same time, what people really want and yearn for is the old juice - back when they made the good stuff, or made it right. How can both these things be true? You even hear the contradiction from the distillery itself: they will rave about the new production process, but then put out a 20+ year old special release and expect everyone to rave about it (and they will). I'm not quite sure that's what I'm seeing here with Bruichladdich since they restarted in 2001. If the old 10 and new 18 are made from the new stuff, then perhaps it's just age = better?
Whenever a distillery talks about their processes, 9/10 you can bet that you're going to get some BS about how their slow and traditional processes are what makes their whisky the best. Often accompanied by references to whatever process is the quality flavour of the month: for a while it was trendy to talk about still size and shape and water sources, then it was barley varieties, then cask finishes. At the moment it seems to be worm tubs. What I'm seeing is marketing folk trying to reduce what is quite a complex process into one selling point that can be used to sell bottles and justify prices 🤷♂️ What's more worrying to me than the usual BS that all salesmen give us is the trend for distilleries to reopen, produce really, really good stuff and then let the quality slide. I think that's what has happened with entry level Bruichladdich, Glendronach and a few others. Laddie 10 was more of an inaugural batch than a core release and was made with super attention to detail and care because the reputation of the reopened distillery depended on it. I think that is what made Laddie 10 great. I haven't tried Bruichladdich 18 yet but I hope it will be similar to Laddie 10. As for Bruichladdich distilled before the reopening. I haven't had much of it but the Laddie 16 and Laddie 22 would have been from that period. I tried those and honestly I preferred the Laddie 10 that was distilled by the new owners. We need to be careful there though, casks that were cherry picked from the legacy stock is unlikely to be representative of what the older owners were doing on an average day. Same as how the modern reputation of Port Ellen is now entirely defined by a handful of the very best of the best casks that remain and nobody remembers the millions that were tipped into blends.
I don't mind something lactic as in a touch creamy or a nice latte. But butyric acid is funky cheese as best, and literally vomit at worst. When it goes that far I have to say no.
@@WhiskyLock Haha, that's much more better indeed. "Used to" is a particularly idiotic one as well; we really only use(no pun intended) it in the past tense these days, but a couple centuries ago it just meant "to be in the habit of/be accustomed to".
@@osirisgolad I think OED say 'used to' for past tense with the exception of negative or interrogative (why?). Fowler and Burchfield list examples of use to and used to being correct for both and don't take a side but do recommend restructuring in order to avoid the problem entirely 😂This problem has been debated for at least 40 years... I must admit that I've always been inclined to agree with Fowler's on this one as I do like an easy life... That and I can't stand some of the things creeping into Oxford Spelling, such as -ize endings for words that can be traced back to Greek (bloody hell!) because apparently we should all know which words are Greek and it's better to used an Americanization than spell like a Frenchman 😀 I swear things usedn't be this complicated 😉
@@WhiskyLock It's all very confusing because we really only use this archaic verb in the past tense these days, so restructuring would indeed be better. When we have to add "do", as you would in a negative or interrogative, you end up with double past tenses. You wouldn't say "I didn't went to the store" or "did you went to the store?", after all. Centuries ago, you could say things like "Tom uses to shower in the evening" to mean "Tom is in the habit of showering in the evening", but I doubt anyone would understand you these days. I'm just glad I learnt the English language naturally as a child, through books, music, video games and the like, so I never had to study it; I had already absorbed all the nonsense by the time I was old enough to question it. 😅
Yep, was lucky enough to pick up a couple of these about 7 years ago for a still reasonable price. The first is long gone while the second will need to wait for a special occasion before being opened. Don't remember getting a phenolic or smoky note, but the lactic characteristic is definitely there. And yes, you're right, there really isn't much that the modern bottling has in common with its elder brother from 2011. I think that the high number of French wines casks bought during Mark Reynier's ownership of Bruichladdich have to be "channelled" somewhere by the distillery's new owners, Remy Cointreau, so much of that stock ends up these days in the Classic Laddie - as well as the many other iterations of Laddie, Port Charlotte and Octomore. Cheers.
It's shocking how different it is, right? And it wasn't even a particularly gradual change IMHO. As soon as they dropped the age statement it just became a very different beast.
What you say about the Reynier wine casks makes sense. I wouldn't mind so much if they at least gave us some more traditional expressions. Cheers.
Excellent review as usual Shane.
Thanks for shining a light on this Bruichladdich.
Slàinte mhath
Cheers buddy!
I like Classic Laddie as long as I open it a few weeks before I start drinking it!
That's valid for many other young whisky too.
@@Soldano999 especially this one for me. My first bottle, I opened it and thought it was horrible. Three weeks later I tried it again and loved it.
@@revolvermaster4939 i have the same experience with "writer tears"
A little air can truly work wonders. Especially for younger and/or stronger drams. Cheers!
Yep, I managed to get my hands on those Laddie 10's. Being a typical Toro though they were guzzled down long ago. I got seriously annoyed with the NAS replacement and refused to touch it. I did, eventually, in a hotel bar and it was way better than I thought it would be. I really hope that your review and our response can send a message to Bruichladdich to elevate Classic Laddie to a 10 year yet again. Go on Bruichladdich, do it. Honestly, Bruichladdich are a great distillery but messing things up right now. They're becoming too expensive and we will drift away from them. Don't do auction mate. It really sucks. WT
The glory days! When we could go online and buy a whole case of this stuff at £35 a pop! I bought my first bottle of the NAS replacement in person at Bruichladdich. It had just been released and the shop staff were visibly apprehensive about recommending it to someone who they knew loved the old Laddie 10.
It's not too late for them to salvage things but their prices, especially of the new 18s and 30 send a rude message to us enthusiasts.
@@WhiskyLock Yes they do and the entire range is creeping up in price as well. They've adopted the slow creep but we are watching.
I recently did a tasting of many Bruichladdich/Port Charlottes and the Classic Laddie came out on top for me! I was very surprised as some of the other whiskies were well aged, both bourbon/refill and sherry casks.
Classic Laddie used to be a great price here and readily available, so that scored some bonus points!
Nice review Shane, glad you were able to squirrel away one of the originals for this!
Honestly I'm not surprised! Back in the good old days I remember preferring the Laddie 10 to the Laddie 16 and 22. And not just on the value for money front. Cheers!
Interesting review and comparison Shane! I think you are right in that Bruichladdich may not be able to make something comparable these days due to changes at the distillery. Good luck at the auctions! Cheers!
Thanks!
A ha ! . . . i got a case of 6 from batch 1, back then 55$CA ~ 30-31 quid/UKP. . . but as far as I can remember, ALL regular Laddie releases were NORMALLY 46% : 3D3 Norrie Campbell, Moon, the 15, 16, Torrey Pines, Links 9 (Birkdale) . . . all at 46% normally - back then. The 50% abv started with post-10 series of NAS Laddie . . .
Nice! Hopefully you have some left. Yes there were a few other 46% releases in those first few years before they decided that 50% is where it's at. Rocks, Laddie 16 and Laddie 22 I remember. Laddie 10 was always my favourite.
Its funny that they decided that 46% wasn't quite enough when there are so many distilleries who still insist that 40% is fine 😕
Great review and analysis… also interesting comparison to Hershey chocolate 🍫.
Cheers 🥃
Thanks John! No offense meant to American chocolate 😬it is very different to what we have though! I actually enjoy the stuff you guys make occasionally. Possibly because it reminds me a little of Laddie 10 😂 Cheers!
@@WhiskyLock actually I prefer dark chocolate with high Cacao %…. Hershey milk chocolate is Mass produced low quality imo….
@@justwhisky Classy! Ever pair it with a heavily sherried dram?
@@WhiskyLock No…. Not Ralfy recommend 🤣
@@justwhisky 😂 I must say that I agree. It goes well and is a nice experience... but good whisky deserves more respect.
You know, you remind me of the conversation about Talisker 10; I used to buy it for 35-40£ and enjoy the classic one so much (to be perfectly honest not like the Ardbeg 10 or even the newer versions like the Wee Beastie), but now that it became more expensive and seems to be somewhat different from the classic one, I really miss it - and feel the same as you, I probably didn’t appreciate it as much as I should.
You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone... as they say!
Talisker has definitely changed over the years and honestly I'm dreading Diageo doubling the price of the 10 like they did with the 18. Or just getting rid of it like they did with 57° North 😕
Once again, you hit it out of the park, Shane (which seems to be the standard for your reviews tbh).
Never tried the old Laddie Ten, but I do like the Classic Laddie, although it's not a "must buy" for me. Decent entry level Laddie for sure, though. I'm looking for some indie Laddie bottlings (bourbon matured) to buy, but there are not many of them out there (at least not on the Danish market).
A bottle that I remember (and would like back) is:
The old Arran 14 yo. Such a lovely dram, and no less than a banger for the price level. I've been fortunate enough to stash up 2 bottles of that expression from under the radar webshops, so I'm quite pleased with that. Should Arran actually reintroduce it to their core range, I don't expect it to be the same (just as well as the new 10 yo is not the same as the old 10 yo). So I'll try to make my 2 bottles last as best I can, when I open them some day.
Cheers! 🥃
Thank you very much Benny!
Oh my... Arran 14. That was a truly incredible whisky and funnily enough I had the same experience with Arran 14 that I had with Laddie 10. With both of them, I tried that expression, fell in love, they discontinued it and I pretty much stopped buying from those distilleries for a few years.
The Arran 14 is rightly legendary and I have one bottle left on my shelf. I hope to be able to compare it to a re-released 14yo soon. Cheers!
@@WhiskyLock Yes, it could indeed be quite interesting to compare it to a new 14 yo release from Lochranza.
Such a useful comparison. Well done!
Thank you! I'm glad you got something out of it :-)
Very interesting take on B. Have you tried Laddie 8 (I have and loved it) by any chance? If so, how does it compare to 10? Quite curious about the latter now. Always look forward to more of your reviews. Keep 'em coming. Cheers!
I have tried the Laddie 8 and I liked it quite a lot too. I think it's closer to the old Laddie 10 than the new Classic Laddie but the Laddie 10 beats it on the palate. Cheers!
That is one unique bottle, indeed! Cheers
unique inside and out! Cheers!
I got blinded on this recently! I thought it was unrelated Caol Ila. 😂 What an absolute banger of a bottling this was. A bit of a triumph at the time as well, kind of a celebration of their own distillate hitting 10.
If you're craving lactic/butyric notes, by the way... dare I suggest you explore some raicilla? 😂
Oh it is (was) fantastic stuff! And a real curve ball that doesn't show the new house style.
Raicilla you say? I haven't had any yet but I am partial to some agave juice. Cheers Scott.
I have an old single cask bottling of Ledaig 13 and holy cow I get a huge amount of cheese from it. I am glad I am not just imagining a very lactic note from old school Ledaig.
Oh yes! Just a few years ago Ledaig used to be a total butter-bomb! There used to be an OB Ledaig NAS bottled at 42% years ago that you could get in the supermarket for £20. I really enjoyed it despite the low strength. Excellent budget dram full of that cheesy character. I hope somebody will start making this kind of whisky again. It's getting hard to find.
Does ex bourbon cask whisky normally get that dark?
Normally probably not... but sometimes! I remember back in 2011 some people accused Bruichladdich of colouring Laddie 10... and honestly it kind of looks like they did because it has that orange Irn Bru glow... but it says natural colour on the label 🤷♂️
Time and time again I see a story about how a genius entrepreneur bought and revived an old distillery which allegedly closed as it was producing blend fodder which was no longer needed, and ensured they started producing the good stuff, for single malts, in the best casks. Yet at the same time, what people really want and yearn for is the old juice - back when they made the good stuff, or made it right. How can both these things be true? You even hear the contradiction from the distillery itself: they will rave about the new production process, but then put out a 20+ year old special release and expect everyone to rave about it (and they will).
I'm not quite sure that's what I'm seeing here with Bruichladdich since they restarted in 2001. If the old 10 and new 18 are made from the new stuff, then perhaps it's just age = better?
Whenever a distillery talks about their processes, 9/10 you can bet that you're going to get some BS about how their slow and traditional processes are what makes their whisky the best. Often accompanied by references to whatever process is the quality flavour of the month: for a while it was trendy to talk about still size and shape and water sources, then it was barley varieties, then cask finishes. At the moment it seems to be worm tubs. What I'm seeing is marketing folk trying to reduce what is quite a complex process into one selling point that can be used to sell bottles and justify prices 🤷♂️
What's more worrying to me than the usual BS that all salesmen give us is the trend for distilleries to reopen, produce really, really good stuff and then let the quality slide. I think that's what has happened with entry level Bruichladdich, Glendronach and a few others. Laddie 10 was more of an inaugural batch than a core release and was made with super attention to detail and care because the reputation of the reopened distillery depended on it. I think that is what made Laddie 10 great. I haven't tried Bruichladdich 18 yet but I hope it will be similar to Laddie 10.
As for Bruichladdich distilled before the reopening. I haven't had much of it but the Laddie 16 and Laddie 22 would have been from that period. I tried those and honestly I preferred the Laddie 10 that was distilled by the new owners. We need to be careful there though, casks that were cherry picked from the legacy stock is unlikely to be representative of what the older owners were doing on an average day. Same as how the modern reputation of Port Ellen is now entirely defined by a handful of the very best of the best casks that remain and nobody remembers the millions that were tipped into blends.
Haven’t had the 10 in many years, it was a good bottle. I still have a little bit left in my bottle of Laddie 16, saving it for a special occasion.
The 10 was a stunner and I really miss it! Make the most of that 16 while you can. Cheers.
bought 3 of the 2nd edition and right now trying to get a hold of this 1st edition in auctions.
The 2nd edition was nice. Better than the Classic Laddie IMHO. This original is very different but I love it! Hope you find one for a good price.
hope they rerelease the 10 in full 1st fill bourbon / refill cask
That would be great 👍🥃
Enjoyed that mate 🙂
Great to hear 🙂
I don't mind something lactic as in a touch creamy or a nice latte. But butyric acid is funky cheese as best, and literally vomit at worst. When it goes that far I have to say no.
Bring on the cheese 🙂I agree that it can be taken too far but generally I love this style. Shame that it's becoming rare. Cheers
😊😊👍🏻👍🏻🥃🥃
The grammar police would like to have a word with you. The correct phrase would be "Did whisky use to be better?" , not "used to be".
Ohh... that's some very high level grammar policing! I changed it just for you 😂
@@WhiskyLock Haha, that's much more better indeed. "Used to" is a particularly idiotic one as well; we really only use(no pun intended) it in the past tense these days, but a couple centuries ago it just meant "to be in the habit of/be accustomed to".
@@osirisgolad I think OED say 'used to' for past tense with the exception of negative or interrogative (why?).
Fowler and Burchfield list examples of use to and used to being correct for both and don't take a side but do recommend restructuring in order to avoid the problem entirely 😂This problem has been debated for at least 40 years...
I must admit that I've always been inclined to agree with Fowler's on this one as I do like an easy life... That and I can't stand some of the things creeping into Oxford Spelling, such as -ize endings for words that can be traced back to Greek (bloody hell!) because apparently we should all know which words are Greek and it's better to used an Americanization than spell like a Frenchman 😀
I swear things usedn't be this complicated 😉
@@WhiskyLock It's all very confusing because we really only use this archaic verb in the past tense these days, so restructuring would indeed be better. When we have to add "do", as you would in a negative or interrogative, you end up with double past tenses. You wouldn't say "I didn't went to the store" or "did you went to the store?", after all.
Centuries ago, you could say things like "Tom uses to shower in the evening" to mean "Tom is in the habit of showering in the evening", but I doubt anyone would understand you these days.
I'm just glad I learnt the English language naturally as a child, through books, music, video games and the like, so I never had to study it; I had already absorbed all the nonsense by the time I was old enough to question it. 😅