Dramfool Ltd. is an recently launched independent whisky bottler. We hadn’t heard of them until seeing a posting from their facebook page which prompted a further look.
After a debut release of a 5 year old Lochindaal from a bloodtub cask, the second bottling is a 9 year old Bruichladdich from a first-fill Sherry Hogshead.
With an outturn of only 187 bottles, by the time I spotted it they were all gone. Fortunately for us, there were some miniatures still available so I bought a couple to sample.
Here’s our notes from the tasting.
Nose
A bright, fresh nose as you’d expect from a first-fill sherry cask.
Some youthful spirit notes, but in the main it’s mouthwatering fruit combined with buttery sticky toffee pudding flavours.
Just a hint of smoke in the nose, but it’s barely detectable.
As it opens up, the fruit becomes sweeter with icing sugar, boiled sweets and fruit salads appearing and I thought I detected some apricot jam.
Palate
Wow this is rich – from the first taste, there’s a lovely thickness to the liquid and it coats your mouth completely.
Darker sherry notes are much more prominent in the palate and swirling it around you get dried fruit, dark brown sugar and some leathery bitter notes.
The icing sugar and toffee notes from the nose are still present and the whole arrangement feels very well balanced.
Finish
The thickness of the spirit holds all the flavour in your mouth and as a result has quite a long finish.
Once the dried fruit moves away, the bitter notes carry on though a full-on salty flavour appears before subsiding. Bitter, leathery finish with just a hint of rubbery / plastic smoke right at the end.
It’s a really good finish.
Overall
This is a great dram and makes me wish I’d managed to get a full bottle.
The fresh nose invites you in and reminds me of the Lark we reviewed a while back in the sense that it is such a mouthwatering flavour.
There’s enough going on in the palette to keep things interesting and the finish hangs around for a pleasantly long time, making the whisky seem much older than it is.
Both of the Dramfool bottles have been given high scores in Jim Murray’s 2017 Bible, and with the third bottling, “Avian Gull” recently being released it looks like a strong future for the company.
We look forward to tasting more!
Braw Spirit 