Ben Bracken 28 Year Speyside Single Malt (40%)

Rating: 18/23 I just reached mutual agreement with a seller to buy a house. This seemed like a nice whisky when I bought it, being a 28 year old single malt, but I had serious reservations seeing as I'd never heard of it before and it was chill filtered and bottled at a meager 40% ABV. High potential but highly uncertain? Sounds like my future house, so this seems like the occasion to crack this bottle. N: Some maltiness with some bitterness and a bit of water, but tangerine as well, a bit of caramel, minerality, and a hint of dungeness crab. A bit of vanilla. It's on the light side, but that maltiness is rich. A hint floral. This is nice. P: At such a low ABV, this is mellow and the flavors do tend to blur together. There's a nice sweetness mixed with some buckwheat nuttiness, lightly toasted grain, and layers of mellow funkiness that are interesting and balanced, aside from this disappointing bitterness like somebody watered this down too much. Hints of tangerine and then a bolder vanilla in with the buckwheat and malt. I think this would really have shone at 46% ABV. It's quite good, but it's a bit too muddled. F: Richness from the malt, with a bit of bitterness that is under control. There's some sweetness with woody, vanilla, floral, and tangerine hints. The grain really stand out here .I get some buckwheat, but I also get a bit of a breakfast cereal vibe. Still, this is on the bitter side. It's a pretty good finish. - Conclusion - This reminds me a lot of Linkwood 11 (The Barrel Thief Single Cask) (18/23) that I just tried with its nuttiness and speyside character. This is more bitter, but also better integrated. McIvor 17 (17/23) tastes much more youthful and less complex than this, but it doesn't have that overly watered-down bitter funk to it. I think that this is the clear winner. Dalmore 12 (15/23) is more muddled and substantially less tasty and coherent than this is. Overall, I'm quite happy with this. I think it has earned an 18.