Product Description
THE BARTENDER’S BOOK
The Brora 1982 Reserve Cask #43, bottled in 2002 by Gordon & MacPhail, is a rare Highland single malt Scotch whisky from the now-silent Brora distillery. Distilled in 1982, just a year before the distillery’s closure, this expression was matured in a single cask (#43) and released at 40% ABV as part of the esteemed Reserve series, exclusively for Collecting Whisky. With only 120 bottles produced, it offers a unique glimpse into Brora’s final production years. Tasting notes reveal a clean and appetising nose with a gentle floral character, a sweet and smooth palate with real oak flavour, and a long, full finish rich in complexity.
TASTING NOTES
Taste is more than flavor. It is the full conversation between glass, nose, mouth, and memory. Here, we break each spirit into four parts:
AROMA
Waxed apple, pear, lemon peel, soft malt, old oak, light smoke, vanilla, dried herbs, and a coastal mineral edge.
PALATE
Orchard fruit, citrus oil, gentle wax, malt, vanilla, soft peat, light pepper, dry oak, and a faint sherry-or-old-cask sweetness.
FINISH
Medium, dry, lightly smoky, and mineral, with lingering citrus peel, wax, oak, pepper, and soft Highland malt.
TEXTURE
Medium-light and restrained, with the 40% ABV giving elegance and approachability rather than cask-strength punch.
Brora 1982 Reserve Cask #43 shows the softer late-Brora register: orchard fruit, citrus, wax, malt, old oak, mineral smoke, herbs, and gentle peat. It is not a roaring early-1970s Brora monster. It is a more restrained closed-era bottle, valuable for provenance, rarity, and that unmistakable Brora-Clynelish wax-and-mineral echo.
STRAIGHT TALK
This one is rare, but differently rare from the Douglas Laing Old & Rare or Cask of Distinction bottles. It is not rare because of huge age or massive proof. It is rare because it is closed-era Brora, bottled by Gordon & MacPhail, tied to a specific Reserve Cask #43, and from stock distilled just before the distillery shut down.
WhiskyFun’s Brora index lists a related entry as Brora 1982/2002, 40%, G&M Private for Collecting Whisky, cask #43, 120 bottles, which suggests the cask had a very small private-style outturn. The Whisky Exchange currently lists the bottle at £1,200, and Whisky Marketplace shows the same Gordon & MacPhail Reserve Cask #43 at roughly the same market level.
So the scarcity note belongs here. It is not impossible-to-name unicorn scarcity, but it is absolutely not normal retail whisky. It lives in the specialist-retail and collector lane.
THE MIX
Collector-pour direction:
Keep the focus on Brora, 1982, Gordon & MacPhail, Reserve series, Cask #43, and closed-distillery provenance.
Flavor-reference direction:
Use it as a late-era Brora reference: waxed fruit, lemon peel, mineral smoke, gentle peat, old oak, and soft malt.
Food-context direction:
Aged cheese, smoked salt, roasted mushrooms, black tea, orange peel, dark chocolate, and restrained savory dishes.
A DISTILLER’S TALE
Brora began life as the old Clynelish distillery in Sutherland. After a new Clynelish opened nearby, the old site eventually operated under the Brora name. The distillery closed in 1983, which made its remaining old stock finite and helped turn Brora into one of Scotch’s great closed-distillery names.
Gordon & MacPhail’s role matters. Unlike a standard distillery bottling, this Reserve Cask #43 came through one of Scotland’s most important independent bottlers. Independent Brora bottlings are especially significant because they preserve cask-specific snapshots from a distillery whose old production cannot be recreated. This bottle’s facts, 1982 distillation, 2002 bottling, Cask #43, 40% ABV, and Gordon & MacPhail Reserve identity, make it a document from Brora’s final working chapter.
MY TAKE
Brora 1982 Reserve Cask #43 is a quieter archive bottle, but still meaningful. Waxed fruit, citrus, malt, old oak, soft peat, herbs, and mineral smoke give it a classic late-Brora shape. It does not have the brute force, huge proof, or cult intensity of earlier Brora releases. Still, it has provenance, scarcity, and closed-distillery character. This is not the wild Brora sermon. It is the final-chapter Brora footnote, and for collectors, those footnotes matter.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.