Bruichladdich Port Charlotte Islay Barley 2008 - 50% abv.
This is a Bruichladdich I've been waiting for for a while. Its a Port Charlotte distilled in 2008 from an impressively traceable terroir of Islay barley farms. It states right on the bottle that the barley comes from Coull, Kynagarry, Island, Rockside, Starchmill & Sunderland farms.
I would suggest this means that they either put a bunch of barely together and distilled it all together or that they did a run of each farms barley sequentially and put the spirit into casks and married them when they bottled this. After spending some time with Duncan Taylor and Simon Coughlin on Islay in April, I'd say either is certainly possible as Bruichladdich continues to develop huge variations in their product.
Either way, incredible to have small batch, hand made whisky like this available at reasonably affordable prices!
 |
| click photo to enlarge |
Colour: Pale gold.
Nose: lightly perfumed with very clear vanilla, lemon, honey, and nice thread of smoke like you get from burnering moist heather. There's mint in there as well as the scent of salt-lashed botanicals. There's a bit of floral notes in there too.
Palate: softer than I expected. A very well-balanced initial flow of light sweetness, salt, lemon, and mint. This appears to be aged 100% in american oak and the flavour suggests this as well. There isn't the sherry cask richness that seems to be in the Port Charlotte Scottish Barley. Another taste - sweet, creamy vanilla leading into a very salty lemon rush that leads to white pepper and mint and peat smoke. This truly is a pleasant dram!
Oh! Add a little water and it sweetens up a bit. Weird but this does happen with some whiskies. There's thick honey, lemon, and smoke. This like two whiskies - like above without water and then richer and sweeter with water. So good! There's a really nice white and black pepper through there which, combined with the sweet, salty, citrus, and smoke notes makes for a really nice, balanced peated whisky. Every now and then I think the arrival is like biting into a really ripe grapefruit. You don't get grapefruit often in whisky but I think this one has it.
Finish: you'll taste this one a while after you drink. The finish makes just to the Adam's apple.
When would I drink this? This really seems like a great dram to have a crisp, sunny afternoon. But it can work as a night cap on a damp night too. Another home run small batch Port Charlotte!
PS. The packaging is stellar too! The white makes it jump of the shelf into your shopping cart!
Bruichladdich Port Charlotte Valinch 02 Gorag - 62.0% abv.
Travelling to Bruichladdich distillery means you're fortunate enough to experience the place but it also means something else very special... you get valinch bottlings. Yes, bottlings because they carry both Bruichladdich Valinch and Port Charlotte Valinch now. For those who don't know, a valinch is the copper pipette that is used to draw whisky out of the cask for sampling - you know, for "quality control." Its a tough job but someone must do it.
In any case, on my recent trip I picked up a bottle of each valinch cask available. This one is a Port Charlotte distilled July 7, 2003 (so, just a shade under 12 years old) and fully matured in a Pessac-Leognan red-wine cask. Its a cask exploration, so let's explore.
 |
| click photo to enlarge |
Colour: full amber.
Nose: huge smoke with a clear thread of mint and pepper. Molasses. Brine. Rasins. Cream. Water seems to open up more of the same scents.
Palate: Classic Port Charlotte! Thick arrival. Sweet. Smokey. Like dark maple syrup coated bacon moving to a drying sensation - like evaporation - into mint and white pepper. This is huge. It really has the power of a Port Charlotte.
Water takes down the intensity a bit but spreads things out. Some more botanical type flavours come through as well. Now I get stewed berry fruits, followed by the dark syrup, nice saltiness, some spice, and then peat at the back palate. Taste some more an I get a pretty fat fruit layer in the mid-palate of this - like red current or something. The wine cask makes this different from Port Charlotte PC releases but this is still clearly part of the family! Interestingly, as I taste this more I get some lemon in here. Interesting since that usually comes from american oak combine with salty Islay air.
Finish: drying but not overly with long persistence. Very nice stuff.
When would I drink this? Its rainy and chilly as I write this evening and I would say that this is the perfect time. That chilly, humid evening fits this perfectly. A pretty heavy whisky, indeed! Really top shelf stuff if you're looking for something nice and rich and fat.
Loch Lomond 12 Year Old Organic Single Blend - 46% abv.
Loch Lomond is a pretty large distillery that most people haven't heard of. It is located on Loch Lomond which, I believe, is the the largest fresh water lake (or loch) in Scotland. Andrew Grey (formerly of Bruichladdich) is one of the key people responsible for the current direction of the Loch Lomond group. I say the "Loch Lomond group" because they also produce Inchmurrin single malts at Loch Lomond distillery (in a different still) and they also now own Glen Scotia over in Campletown.
The 12 year old organic single blend is a blend of 50% organic single malt and 50% organic single blend. They call it 12 year old but it is actually 13 years old... for superstitious reasons (marketing) they chose to call it 12 years old. Interestingly, the 12 year old organic single malt is also available from Loch Lomond. Fortunately, either way you get 46% alcohol that is non-chill-filtered. I believe this is the most aged organic whisky available as well, which is cool.
 |
| click photo to enlarge |
Colour: straw.
Nose: every time I nose this I think about two things: that's nice and light; and wow I smell cream soda. I've found the cream soda note seems to show up in a few products from the Loch Lomond distillery.
With some water I get vanilla cream or maybe creme anglaise is more accurate.
Palate: light and fresh and a little sweet. I get cream soda here too. I get a little cereal with milk and a sugar. There's other more bitter (pleasantly) notes that balance off these tastes like maybe under-ripe strawberry. There's a nice thread of vanilla throughout it as well.
Water does wonders here. It spreads the whisky out and you really get more of those lovely cream soda notes, you get some salt, and with some time you get a pretty clear note of sweet grapefruit. Good stuff!
Finish: of medium persistence and makes its way to about the back of the palate and mid-throat.
When would I drink this? This is really one of those any time kind of drams. On colder days it may not have the richness to serve as a night cap but this is very drinkable and probably would fit well as a summer whisky. You can also drink this and share this when you want to appreciate something that is organic. Truly a high quality product and a real bargain for the price.
I recently had the good fortune to travel to Scotland. Included in our itinerary (at my aggressive urging) was a visit to the whisky island - The isle of Islay. This article is a summary of my visit to Islay and more so my tour of the Bruichladdich distillery. Here Goes...
How'd you get there?
We flew from Calgary to London, Heathrow and connected to a flight to Glasgow. Our timing and desires worked out such that we spent the rest of our first day in Glasgow and the night as well. Next morning, we were back to Glasgow International to catch a Flybe Loganair flight to Islay. Yes, the plane is pretty small but definitely not the smallest I've been on. The flight was a very smooth 30 minute deal. Alternative was to take the ferry but my wife doesn't like boats. We got off the plane and were welcomed very quickly by our bags and some really neat whisky displays. We picked up our rental car and were on our way.
First impressions of Islay?
Rugged beauty. It feels like the heart of Scotland. The people are very friendly (everyone waves in the car and on the street and they are very warm).
Where'd you stay?
We like self catering situations mostly so we stayed at the Claggan Farm house which is a big house about 5 minutes driving from Bowmore and 15 minutes from the airport. The Cooperative in Bowmore is a solid grocery to get everything you need. Oh, and if you walk down the hill from the grocery you can get your picture right in front of that oft photographed white wall with the word "BOWMORE" on it in big black letters. I have the picture here somewhere...
Another cool thing, drive the other way and you are about 12 minutes from Bruichladdich and 13 - 14 from beautiful Port Charlotte. A little further is the West side of the Island where you can see for your self the sandy dunes of Machir Bay, the large Loch Gorm, and Kilchoman. Your also about 20 - 25 minutes driving from Port Ellen and the famous heavily peated distilleries.
Preparing for Bruichladdich
As anyone who reads this blog regularily knows, I'm a fan of Bruichladdich. I arrived on Islay on Monday and had a tour booked on Wednesday (thank you @Davescotchguy and @SelectwinesAB). We were on a wee drive on Monday and low-and-behold there is that unforgettable Blue. So I pull into Bruichladdich and walk into the distillery shop. The people in there are very friendly and poured me dram of the Port Charlotte Islay Barley and chatted with me. Fantastic!
Bruichladdich
So I had a distillery tour booked at 10am and a warehouse tasting booked at noon. This is a great way to do things. I showed up a hair early to get signed in with the gift shop and look around. I have to tell you, I visited a few distilleries while in Scotland but I never got the feeling from any that I did from Bruichladdich - the place is sizzling like an isotope. If feels alive!
Our distillery tour guide, Ashley, was very nice and did a great job taking us through the Victorian equipment from the mill house to the mash tun to the fermenting vats to the stills. It was all very cool. A great thing was getting to taste the new make Bruichladdich spirit right from the stills - 69% alcohol and suprisingly sweet and fruity (like kiwi, melon, etc.) and a little floral and also surprisingly soft.
The thing that amazed me most, though, was the walk through the dunnage warehouse (#1?). Amazing for the simple fact that Bruichladdich must have a million different combinations of spirit and cask type in there. Spirit that is two times distilled, four times distilled, heavily peated, super heavily peated, from different barley types, etc. and then they are any kind of cask you can imagine - Y'Quem, oloroso sherry, PX sherry, bourbon from all sorts of differnent Kentucky distillers, Mouton Rothschild, Haut Brion, Petrus, etc. etc. Unbelievable. They have no excuse to run out of new release possibilities! This was hard for me because I wanted to spend the rest of my life in there tasting it all!
After the distillery tour, we got to try a number of products available at the distillery including the two valinch barrels in the shop - all for research purposes only, of course :)
Onto the warehouse tasting, our guide Duncan was again very friendly and relaxed. It was very pleasant and it really was a neat tasting. They have three casks on the floor - 1989 Bruichladdich in bourbon cask, a 2005 Port Charlotte fully matured in a wine cask, and a 2008 Octomore fully matured in virgin oak. Duncan tells some stories and uses the valinch to draw whisky directly from the cask and deposit directly into your glass. It is such a nice way to taste and connect with the whisky. I felt kind of like we shouldn't be doing this. A good feeling here.
Some quick notes: the 1989 Bruichladdich was so soft and lead with loads of vanilla cream lightly dotted with lemon and honey. Very nice 25 - 26 year old Bruichladdich.
The 2005 Port Charlotte was classic PC but focussed more on the dark cherry and current flavors with an drying, evaporative finish. It was smokey and punching its weight.
The 2008 Octomore had sort of bourbon like qualities but with classic Octomore smoke and power. A truly interesting whisky. Really rich and sweet and smokey.
As a side note, I thought the drams might be bigger than I wanted to drink all at once and didn't want to waste anything so I brought some empty water bottles to dump excess whiskies into and then I savoured the rest later. So good!
Oh, by the way, you get a fantastic Glen Cairn dram glass along with the Warehouse Tasting that you get to keep.
Back at the shop...
I filled a bottle of each of the PC Valinch 02 Gorag and the Bruichladdich 23 Year Old that spent most of that in bourbon casks and then decanted into an Italian Barbaresco red wine cask. I'll be reviewing those shortly, but they are very good.
I also picked up a rarity - a bottle of The Laddie Sixteen that some of you may remember is one my desert island drams. Very exciting!
For me, this was equivalent to a religious experience. Bruichladdich is special and it feels like a living thing when you are there. I can't wait to see what comes in the future!
