Three Recipes of Classic Laddie Compared

The Transparency Debate started by Compass Box and followed by Bruichladdich has given Malt Drinkers like myself an oppertunaty to get insight into the barrels and quantaties used for making the Classic Laddie Single Malt Blends.

As listed in my previous Blog the kind people of Bruichladdich have provided an option to check out the content of a specific bottling.

The Laddie Recipe information you get is is quite insightfull! I have taken some time to enter the component parts of 3 bottlings into a Wee Spreadsheet.

I compared the 14/009, 14/345 and 15/244 components. See the image below. Click to enlarge the image.

What I learned is that in all bottlings the age statement would have been 7 Years, but the components are 7 upto 11 Years old. The 14/345 seems to be less complex then the other two, with less content comming from European Oak with different kinds of previous content.

On average calculated over these three recipes The main body, about 60%, of Classic Laddie is made out of spirit matured in 1st fill American bourbon barrels and these are augmented by adding all kinds of European sourced woods and previous content into the mix. The complexity of all these different blend is depending on the availablity of stock and the choices made by the Head Distiller or Master Blender.

The barrels used in these three bottlings alone are 19 different types or previous content.

1. BOURBON USA BARREL 1ST FILL
2. BOURBON USA BARREL 2ND FILL
3. FRANCE LOIRE SWEET WHITE HOGSHEAD 2ND FILL
4. FRANCE BORDEAUX PAUILLAC RED HOGSHEAD 1ST FILL
5. FRANCE BORDEAUX SAUTERNES SWEET WHITE HOGSHEAD 3RD FILL
6. FRANCE BORDEAUX PAUILLAC HOGSHEAD 1ST FILL
7. FRANCE BURGUNDY RED HOGSHEAD 1ST FILL
8. FRANCE RIVESALTES SWEET RED & WHITE HOGSHEAD 2ND FILL
9. FRANCE BANYULS VDN RED HOGSHEAD 2ND FILL
10. FRANCE RIVESALTES SWEET RED & WHITE HOGSHEAD 2ND FILL
11. FRANCE BANDOL RED HOGSHEAD 2ND FILL
12. MADEIRA HOGSHEAD 2ND FILL
13. PORT PORTUGAL HOGSHEAD 2ND FILL
14. SPAIN RIBERA DEL DUERO RED HOGSHEAD 2ND FILL
15. SHERRY SPAIN BUTT 1ST FILL
16. SHERRY SPAIN BUTT 3RD FILL
17. SHERRY SPAIN BUTT 4TH FILL
18. SHERRY SPAIN HOGSHEAD 3RD FILL
19. ITALY TUSCANY RED HOGSHEAD 2ND FILL

You could say that, if you see this, you could argue that non of the Classic Laddie's are the same. We all knew this and you would be correct in saying so, but since the consistency of Classic Laddie is protected by the Head Distillers Jim McEwan and Adam Hannett you can see why these guys are payed for the job they do. Blending all these different casks together and making sure that the Classic Laddie is and stays the Classic Laddie is an art on its own.

There is a risk to all the openness given by Bruichladdich. People might really dive into this and start to over-analyse this Dram. I think I will just stop doing so with this blog, but I am going to find that one bottling with as much casks used are possible. Why? Terroir and Complexity. 

I can now scan for that one bottling with port / sherry / wine etc notes, or the hint of Italy! How frigging fun is this!!

So yay to Bruichladdich and Yay to Compass Box!