Bruichladdich’s New Yellow Submarine Whisky is Excellent
About a quarter of a century ago, it was revealed that U.S. military intelligence was monitoring the Bruichladdich distillery on the island of Islay for what turned out to be kind of silly reasons. The distillery’s version of the story was that it was mistakenly flagged as potentially being a site of weapons of mass destruction; the real story appears to be a bit less dramatic. Regardless, that led to the release of the Yellow Submarine series of whiskies, which just hit its third edition—and it happens to be one of the better single malts Bruichladdich has dropped in a while.
According to an article in Wired from 2008, in the early 2000s Bruichladdich had webcams installed to allow fans to monitor the activities at the distillery. At some point, the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency emailed the distillery to tell them one of the cameras was not working. When asked why the agency would even know this, the response was that “the process of manufacturing chemical weapons and distilling whisky were very similar, so it was using the Bruichladdich website to train its operatives.” Okay, so that does not exactly match the distillery’s version of events, but either way that directly led to the first Whisky of Mass Distinction and subsequent Yellow Submarine releases, which also requires some explanation.
In 2005, an actual yellow submarine was discovered off the coast of Islay by some fishermen. It turned out to be a remote-operated minesweeper owned by the Royal Navy’s Ministry of Defence, which initially denied it before owning up and retrieving the vessel. In 2018, Bruichladdich acquired a replica of the sub, which sits onsite to this day. To honor all of this benign subterfuge, three whiskies have been released over the past 25 years: Whisky of Mass Distinction: Whisky of Mass Distinction in 2004, Yellow Submarine in 2005 (14 years old, aged in bourbon and red wine casks), and Yellow Submarine II: The Legend Resurfaces in 2018 (25 years old, aged in bourbon and red wine).
And now we have Yellow Submarine III, which is said to be inspired by the original whisky. This is a 14-year-old single malt made from 100 percent unpeated Scottish barley. It was bottled at 54.2 percent ABV with no color added and un-chill filtered, and spent its entire life maturing on Islay at the distillery in a combination of casks: 75 percent first-fill bourbon barrels and 25 percent first and second-fill French red wine casks.
“Bruichladdich Yellow Submarine III is one of those whiskies that makes you smile as soon as you nose it,” said master blender Adam Hannett in a statement. “The bourbon and French red wine casks wrap around the spirit beautifully—you get honeyed oats, buttery shortbread, then this ripple of nutmeg, hazelnut, and gentle ginger heat.”
We were able to try a sample, and this is a fantastic new whisky. Add to Hannett’s notes flavors like fresh cherry, Concord grape, ripe orange, vanilla custard, and dark chocolate, and you get the picture. Yellow Submarine III is available starting today (SRP $135) at the distillery’s website and select retailers around the country.
