Brora 1972 - 22 Year Old - Rare Malts 58.7%

INFORMATION

Brora 1972. 22 Year Old. Bottled by Diageo for their Rare Malts Selection. 70cl. 58.7%.

A legendary bottling of Brora, distilled at the old Clynelish distillery in 1972 and released as one of a trio of Rare Malts 1972 Brora 22-year-olds in 1995. Remarkably, this 58.7% cask strength edition was the lowest strength of the three versions released, and was judged to be the best of the bunch by ultra Broraphile Serge Valentin of whiskyfun.com, who gave it what was then his highest ever score of 97 points. 

DISTILLERY:Brora

DISTILLERY STATUS:Closed

Bottle ABV:58.7%

Bottle SIZE:70cl / 700ml

BOTTLER:Distillery Bottling

SPIRIT TYPE:Scotland

LIMITED EDITION:yes

CASK TYPE:Single Malt

REGION:Highland

DISTILLED YEAR:1972

AGE:22

The distillery now called Brora was known as Clynelish for most of its working life, producing a remarkable coastal Highland style lightly peated whisky with an acclaimed waxy character. Clynelish’s success led owners DCL to build a second distillery on the site in 1967, which is the Clynelish we know today. 

The original Clynelish closed briefly in 1968, but reopened the following year as Brora to make a more heavily peated malt whisky for blending purposes. Sadly the distillery was later deemed surplus to requirements and was closed in 1983. DCL’s successors Diageo announced plans to reopen Brora in 2017 and after a lengthy restoration distillation recommenced in 2021.

Any Clynelish whiskies pre-dating the 1970s are from the distillery now known as Brora, as are most if not all of the old Ainslie & Heilbron official 12-year-olds that continued into the early 1980s. The most famous modern era Brora bottlings are the 1990s Rare Malts Editions (particularly the 1972 vintages) and the Brora 30-year-olds from Diageo’s Special Releases.