Bruichladdich Continues Using Secret Ways to Make Fine Whisky

Black Art, Black Box

The mysterious art of whisky-making from the Bruichladdich distillery has struck for the third time. Black Art 6.1 (RM1,625) is the sixth in the series of limited single malt whiskies, and like its predecessors, details of its manufacture are largely secret. Some have been revealed: it remains unpeated, despite the intimidating name and all-black packaging reminiscent of its stablemate, the monstrous Octomore; it is 26 years old and bottled at cask strength of 46.9% (its age means this percentage is lower than one might expect); and, like everything from Bruichladdich, is non chill-filtered and has no added colouring.

The cask makeup is known only to head distiller Adam Hannett, who had free reign to create whatever he wanted. The 36-year-old is a young and rising star in the industry, befitting the hand-picked successor of the legendary Jim McEwan. This is his second Black Art endeavour, and some of the whiskies that went into it are from casks he worked with since his early days at the Bruichladdich warehouse. His instincts are in fine form for this bottling: Black Art 6.1 – limited to 18,000 individually numbered bottles worldwide – has a big, spicy kick on top of a rich fruit foundation, though its age means it never strays into overly insistent territory. It is layered and complex—there is plenty to unravel of this whisky enigma.

Bruichladdich