Berry`s Ruadh Mhor 2012 KWM Cask

Tasting Notes

Andrew's Tasting Note

Nose: nutty, oily, and smoky; beer nuts, lime mezcalritas, and spicy Mexican peanut salsa; hickory smoke and burnt baby back ribs; Dutch licorice, fennel seeds, and chewy malt; a touch vegetal with leather, tobacco, and chocolate.

Palate: thick, creamy, and malty with clean smoke; loads of citrus, mostly in the lemon and lime territory, added to the sweet and smoke it again reminds me of mezcalritas and also peated penicillins (cocktails); honey and salted caramel, building dried fruits (apricot and raisin), and more hickory smoke; soft leather, fruity tobacco, and a trace of cocoa nibs; the smoke gets bigger, meatier and more ethereal with time, ending in smoked ghost peppers; more burnt BBQ; late spices: fennel, anise, and hot cinnamon; chewy malt and again with the spicy peanut salsa.

Finish: long, malty, and creamy with fading citrus and firm spicy smoke; the leather, chocolate, and tobacco show later with some espresso bean.

Comment: remarkably drinkable for the abv, this peated Glenturret has a beautiful balance between its spirit character and the oak; it is also making me pine for another week in Oaxaca, Mexico...

Independent Bottler

One of our favourite independent bottlers, Berry Bros. & Rudd is a stored London-based firm which has resided at #3 St. James Street, a stone's throw from St. James Palace, since 1698. Primarily a wine merchant, they have also played a prominent role in the Scotch whisky industry. In addition to founding the Cutty Sark Blend, and managing the Glenrothes brand for 30 years, BBR is also an independent bottler. We have long been impressed not only by the quality of their independent bottlings, but also their value! 

Berry Bros. & Rudd in Their Own Words

With two Royal Warrants and more than 300 years of history, Berry Bros. & Rudd is Britain’s original wine and spirits merchant. 

We can trace our history back to 1698, when an enterprising woman called the Widow Bourne started an “Italian grocer’s” at No.3 St James’s Street, selling tea, snuff, spices and the most fashionable drink of the day, coffee. The sign of the coffee mill still hangs outside our premises at No.3 today, in tribute to our roots.

In due course, our focus shifted to something a little bit stronger. As wine became important to the business, so too did spirits, and we started bottling casks under our label in the early 19th century, making us Britain’s oldest independent spirits bottler. Three centuries on, the family business continues to flourish, with its heart still very much at No.3.

While much has changed over the years, we are still owned and managed by members of the Berry and Rudd families, and we continue to supply the British Royal Family, as we have done since the reign of King George III. We still, from time to time, weigh customers on a giant set of coffee scales, a tradition which began in the 1760s, with Lord Byron, William Pitt and Beau Brummell among those who have had their weights recorded in our ledgers. Most importantly, we still believe that everything you should look for in a wine or spirit comes down to one simple question: “Is it good to drink?”