Bruichladdich loves a wine cask maturation— an approach no doubt inherited from Jim McEwan and Mark Reynier— and Port Charlotte has had no shortage of special releases with specific wine cask maturations. Though wine casks are not my favorite, the Port Charlotte releases have generally been good to great— a real triumph for proponents of peat and wine marriage. This release featured peated malt matured in bourbon and sherry with a sauternes finish.  Sauterenes is a sweet dessert wine, delicious in its own right, and an exception to my ambivalence toward wine maturations— sauternes can be fantastic and no one uses them better than Bruichladdich.

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Whisky: Port Charlotte 2012 SC:01

Country/Region: Scotland/Islay

ABV: 55.2%

Cask: Bourbon, Sherry Butt, Sauternes Finish

Age: 9 Years (Distilled 2012, Bottled 1 Feb. 2022)

Notes: Pasturelands and grass tennis courts promised a country escape— into the country club locker room the aroma went with sandalwood, camphor, wood resins, pepper, oak moss, and all manner of pleasant aromatics. A wispy, meaty smoke drifted in from outside with brisket, smoked meats, and a sweet brown sugar and citrus-based barbecue sauce. Medium-bodied on the palate, the flavors kicked off with dusty earth and wispy barbecue smoke, a touch acrid and bitter at times like over cooked sugar or burnt brisket bark. More leather arm chairs and resinous woods arrived with charred orange peel and tobacco pipe while stewed plums and a touch of vanilla hung around the edges. The finish was medium to long with dusty earth, leather arm chairs, burnt wood, and a touch of chocolate orange.

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Score: 6 (78)

Mental Image: Country Club Snack Bar

Conclusion: Pleasant and enjoyable; typically when I write something had a “restrained sweetness” I mean it in a positive sense. In this case, I oddly found myself wishing the whisky were sweeter and the sauternes influence more apparent. In fact, the wine finish seemed to sort of disappear on the palate, reappearing only briefly for the finish. I also found this strangely bitter, which is not typically an issue I have had with Port Charlotte, though it was never quite so bitter as the first time I sat with it. Overall, enjoyable but some of those issues held me back from really getting stuck in, in the way I expected.