The most proportionally muscular and dramatically tapered straight Brandy in Rattray's portfolio, the "18" presents a broadly splayed waist with a crisp taper toward the rim. I find that the Brandy shape is one of the most ergonomically comfortable of classic shapes with the degree of upward taper directly proportional to that in-hand comfort. As such, Rattray's "18" conforms exceptionally well to wrapped fingers, and it remains visually balanced thanks to the stout shank matching the heartiness of the lower bowl.

Like Rattray's Beltane's Fire series, the Samhain line celebrates one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, specifically the one marking the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter: Samhain (pronounced "sah-win") or, as it's most colloquially known, Halloween. The festival falls on November 1st but the celebration traditionally begins on the night of October 31st, falling halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, and as with Beltane, bonfires are common during Samhain. For this commemorative Halloween line, the Scottish marque presents pipes in an extra-dark sandblast contrasted by an acrylic stem of intermingling black and scarlet hues for a deep, smoldering motif.