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.
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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.
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