Uncharted Whisky, Paint It Brack, Royal Brackla 8 Year Old

Key Facts About This Single Malt Scotch Bottler: Uncharted Whisky Company Founders: Jack Breslin and Dana de Vos Release: Paint It Brack Distillery: Royal Brackla Region: Speyside, Scotland Age: 8 years Distilled: February 2018 Bottled: August 2026 Cask Type: Two oloroso sherry casks Cask Ref: UC068 Alcohol by Volume: 55% Outturn: 797 bottles Bottle Size: 700ml Bottled: Natural colour and non chill filtered Royal Brackla 8 Year Old Tasting Notes Nose: Cinnamon, honeydew melon, & tinned fruit cocktail. A touch of aniseed, oak, vanilla & sherry. Palate: Rich & spiced without being hot! Oloroso adds dried fruits and an entire spice cupboard aroma without the typical sticky toffee pudding notes. Imagine Christmas cake without the sugar. Finish: Dry & woody with the spice mingling nicely with dried cake mix, sultanas and raisins. About Uncharted's Back In Brack Unpeated Highland spirit soaked in first fill sherry wood every day of it’s maturation. What is not to love? Indy bottled spirit from Royal Brackla Distillery is often called “Cawdor Springs” - a reference to the Cawdor estate neighbouring the distillery and the waters drawn from there to produce this spirit. Unpeated Brackla, or Cawdor Springs, was filled as new make spirit to fresh oloroso sherry hogsheads and left there for the entire maturation. No finishing casks this time, simply 8 years basking in glorious sherry oak. The natural cask strength was 63.8% which on tasting was a bit over the top to show the best of this whisky. Jack and Dana have bottled it at the still gutsy but less lethal strength of 55% and of course at natural colour, without chill filtration. What’s In A Name? The natural colour of all Scotch is driven by the wood it is matured in and whatever those casks held previously. These are beautiful first-fill European sherry oak hogshead which housed oloroso sherry. The oloroso lends a red colouration while the oak blends in its own golden brown to the palette! Consider this a red cask, painted Brack- fabulous wood balanced with a fabulous spirit, bottled high, as opposed to Brackla painted over in red! It’s all about balance. Interesting factoid Cawdor Estate was mentioned in Shakespeare’s Macbeth - the Scottish play. Like all good storytellers, though, Shakespeare didn’t let the truth get in the way of a good story. The real historical Macbeth lived and died hundreds of years before the castle was built. It was originally called Calder, not Cawdor. The name evolved after the real Macbeth (died 1057) but before the play was penned circa 1606.