Review by: The Muskox
These “coded” wine-cask-matured Port Charlottes all tend to be pretty great. This iteration has been finished in Pauillac red wine casks, from the left bank of the Gironde in the north of Bordeaux.
Distillery: Bruichladdich.
Bottler: Official bottling.
Region: Islay.
ABV: 56.1%. Cask strength
Age: 8 years. Distilled in 2011. Bottled in 2020.
Cask type: Initially matured for six years in American oak casks, then finished in Paulliac red wine casks from Bordeaux.
Price: N/A, sample.
Color: Bright gold. Natural Color. Non-chill-filtered.
Nose: Savoury and rich. Beef Bourguignon, soy sauce, (cheap) balsamic vinegar, and teriyaki glaze. There’s a strong berryish sweetness too – black currants, wild blueberries, strawberries, raspberry jellies, slightly tart orange, apple chips, and chocolate cake. Some maritime and farmy/muddy hay flavours in there. Licorice allsorts and saltwater-soaked moss. A hint of tarry and carbolic peat. Dried rose petals and sage.
Palate: Thick texture. Arrives sweet and honeyed and vanilla’ed with more blueberries, then comes slightly medicinal and carbolic peat – iodine, old tires, and salty rotting wood. That sage note peeks in again. Dark maple syrup, malt, and stonefruit in the middle. Towards the finish, the sage sweetens and starts to morph into raspberry leaf tea.
Finish: Very rich and fairly long. Huge vanilla, rich spiced oak, chocolate ganache, and salty earth. Strawberries drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Maple sugar lollipops, cooked honey, and candied ginger. Lingering hot asphalt and salted chocolate.
Possible SMWS bottling name: “Frutti-di-boscodon trapped in a tar pit”
Conclusion: In my head, a frutti-di-boscodon is some kind of berry-eating giant ground sloth. This is great – very rich, lots of complexity, and interesting flavours. I love the chocolate-and-berries flavour combo. I’m not quite as big a fan of bitter iodine and salted licorice, which are both here, but they’re relatively minor. I’m trying to decide whether this is better than Octomore 12.3, which I tried the other day… I think the Octomore has it by just a hair.
Final Score: 86.
Scoring Legend:
- 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
- 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
- 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
- 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
- 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
- 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
- 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
- 50-59: Save it for mixing.
- 0-49: Blech.
Malt Runners 