DESCRIPTION

Port Charlotte Islay Barley 2013 is a heavily peated (40PPM) limited release produced at the Bruichladdich distillery on Islay. Distilled in 2013 using barley from seven Islay farms, matured for 8 years, initially for 7 years in ex-American whiskey barrels with 25% then transferred to first-fill Pessac-Léognan French wine casks for a finishing period before being married back together for bottling. Non-chillfiltered, naturally coloured and bottled at a high strength of 50%.

OFFICIAL TASTING NOTES

Nose: The nose opens with delicate floral notes of lily and geranium before warm orange zest and dried earthy peat smoke brings body and gravity. Banoffee pie and digestive biscuit come out from behind the peat smoke and carry forward this dram’s malty, fruity character. Cherry coconut and malted barley jostle with apricot and melon.

Palate: The first taste is a wondrous thing; all at once, the salinity, the fruit, the light peat smoke, and the sweet oak show their presence in a whirl of complexity and entice you in to go again. There is great texture from the spirit, and its time resting in carefully selected oak allows a subtle almond note to combine with coconut, caramel, vanilla, and muscovado sugar.

Finish: The finish again shows the balance we are looking for. The smoke, fruit, oak and floral notes melt into each other, and a beautiful creamy texture allows melon, peach and cherry to come through before dwindling into the dry embers of peat in the hearth.

#BRUICHLADDICH #ISLAY