Bruichladdich 18 Year Old ‘Opitz One’ Single Malt Review

I've written before about the arrangement my friend Paddy and I had when we went on holidays around different parts of the world. We'd find local off-licences/liqour stores, see if they had anything interesting and then send pictures to each other of the shelves. It's always been a fun way to potentially find dusty old bottles of whiskies long discontinued and a trip to Tenerife proved to be no exception.

My phone pinged, pictures were received and scoured for potential orders. Paddy's trip had indeed been fruitful.....Springbank and Longrow CV, old style Bowmore's, Bruichladdich's and more brands than I can remember....sorry for the hazy memories but I'm going back to 2018 here, give my old noggin a break please!

Paddy brought himself back a nice bottle of Springbank CV for the frankly absurb price of 33 euros and I decided to go for this Bruichladdich 18 year old for the not too shabby price of 71 euros.

It's always a bit of craic to get bottles that are discontinued especially at or around the original retail price so both of us were happy with our dealings in the Spanish whisky market!

Let's taste!

Bruichladdich 18 Year Old ‘Opitz One’ 46% abv

Matured in bourbon then finished in Optiz wine casks €71

Nose: Golden syrup, lacquer, a candy store, fresh apples and wine poached pears. Now we get red berries, toffee and leather. Sweet malt and creamy vanilla. Milk chocolate and ground almonds. Oak. Aromatic, bright and juicy.

Palate: A fruit laden arrival – ripe apples, pineapple, poached pears and cranberries. Then we get a hit of black pepper, clove and cinnamon before some raisin. Flaked and toasted almonds. Quite oaky along with earthy tobacco notes, dark chocolate cherry liqueurs and black coffee.

Finish: Medium to long with sour cherry, peppery spice and oak.

Score: 7 out of 10

Overall: A really interesting dram with plenty going on to engage the senses. Again it feels like the Bruichladdich coastal quality has been lost to the wine cask but it has gained a lot of red berry and fruit notes as well as darker notes from the European oak. Definitely well worth what I paid and I’m glad I had the chance to own a bottle of this.

If you’d like to support my site and continued whiskey exploration there’s a ‘buy me a coffee’ link on the homepage menu bar. Thanks for reading and please check out my YouTube Channel too!