BRUICHLADDICH YELLOW SUBMARINE [RECLASSIFIED]
SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY
ISLAY, SCOTLAND
The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” is one of the most idiosyncratic and irresistible songs ever recorded.
Sixty years after its release, along comes Bruichladdich’s Yellow Submarine [Reclassified], which is, likewise, an experience unto itself and, we submit, just as richly layered and memorable as that marvelous confection from John, Paul, George, and Ringo.
What we have here, folks, is the third installment in the Islay icon's Yellow Submarine series, a cult-favorite bottling that surfaces only after long intervals. In this case, it arrives to mark something special: the 25th anniversary of the distillery's modern revival.
Which is a story well worth telling, and we will, but first: let’s get you to the specs.
This is a strapping, high-ABV (54.2%) single malt with a 14-year age statement and a rather unusual tale of maturation behind it: three-quarters of it was aged in French red wine casks and the remainder in first-fill bourbon.
That's a heavy lean toward wine cask influence, and you feel it immediately.
The nose opens with honeyed oats and buttery shortbread, edged with nutmeg, pink peppercorn, and ginger. The palate is all orange zest, honeysuckle, crisp apple and pear, with crème brûlée and golden heather underneath and — perhaps most invitingly — that unmistakable whisper of sea salt that only Islay can produce. The finish brings a touch of gentle spice to go along with more sea salt and — surprise — a lingering note of hazelnut.
This is exactly the sort of whisky that doesn't quite make sense on paper — French red wine casks having their way with an unpeated Islay malt? — but trust us: it works gloriously in the glass.
There's nothing that Bruichladdich does that we don't like, and this one's got us passionate.
Now, about that story that we teased up top ...
The saga of Bruichladdich is one of visionary innovation, tumultuous family feuds, an abandoned ghost town, and one of the most remarkable revivals in Scotch whisky history.
Purpose-built in 1881 by the engineering-minded Harvey brothers, and state-of-the-art for its day, it thrived for decades before collapsing in a swirl of family infighting and financial ruin. It went silent in 1929, and was finally mothballed altogether in 1994: a Victorian ghost on the Rinns of Islay.
Then, in December 2000, a small consortium bought the dormant distillery for £7 million, brought in legendary master distiller Jim McEwan, and defied every modern instinct: the Victorian equipment stayed in place, the belt-driven machinery kept running, and the brand was rebuilt around terroir, 100% Scottish barley, and radical transparency.
The current master distiller, Adam Hannett, took the reins from McEwan, and has carried the lineage forward with both reverence and his own fearless instinct for experimentation.
He is, in our book, one of the most consistently exciting whisky makers working anywhere right now.
And with Yellow Submarine [Reclassified], he has paid fitting tribute to the distillery that gave him his start, a place of free-wheeling experimentation and fun, with a single malt that you'll be coming back to again and again … just like that delightful earworm of a tune from a band that time has not forgot.
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