Brora 1981 Chieftains 30 Year Old Single Sherry Cask #1523 54.6%

Brora 1981 Chieftains 30 Year Old Sherry Cask 1523
This Brora distilled in December 1981 and matured in single sherry butt #1523. One of 469 bottles.
Brora distillery, formerly known as Clynelish was initially closed after a new distillery was built next-door in 1967, and assumed the Clynelish name. The original distillery re-opened after a year’s hiatus, and bottlings of the whisky it produced between then and its second closure in 1983 are now increasingly sought after. Official bottlings of Brora did not appear until the 1990s, long after its closure, but independent bottlings like this were produced from the late 1980s.
 
Nose: Bright & fruity with pineapple, figs, vanilla, creme brulee. Quite different overall from the typical earthy/farmy Brora notes. The sherry I presume masks a lot of those hay/grassy/farmy notes.
Palate: Big, rich sherry notes up front followed by black cherry, seasoned oak, plums, and raisins.
Finish: Sherry lingers on as the oak dries out and the heat intensifies – a bit of a black cherry cough syrup note stands out.
The Brora distillery was built in 1819, although it was known as “Clynelish” until the opening of the Clynelish Distillery in 1968, whereupon the name of the original Clynelish was changed to “Brora”. Between May 1969 and July 1973, Brora produced a heavily peated whisky to supply for blending; this was done to cover a shortage of Islay whisky caused by a drought in that region. Most of the whisky produced as Brora after 1973 is in the lightly peated Highland style.
Production at Brora was stopped in early 1983