Whisky: Port Charlotte 10 Year (2008), The Cask Whisperer

Country/Region: Scotland/Islay

ABV: 56.5%

Cask: Château Margaux Wine Cask

Age: 10 Years (Distilled 2008, Bottled 2019)

Nose: Earth and birthday cake, cotton candy, toffee, meatier with time, cured sausage, coriander and peppercorn, hints of lemon grass and kerosene.

Palate: Medium-bodied and oily, earthy, coal briquettes, barbecue smoke, hints of barnyard funk, fresh cut flowers, charred meaty gristle, maple syrup, more earth and barbecue smoke at the end.

Finish: Medium-length with meaty, slightly acrid smoke and earth.

Score: 7-

Mental Image: Overflowing Potluck Plate

Narrative & Notes: With the aroma, I imagined a baby’s first luau; the kind where parents have gone all out and set up a bouncy inflatable castle, hired someone to pass out cotton candy, and provided a table spread of sugary Unicorn poop cake pops, toffee blondie bars, and ample birthday cake frosting. Beyond the sweets were meats, and the aroma became meatier and more herbal over time, with fatty pork sausages flavored with coriander, peppercorns, and more subtle lemon grass. Kerosene and freshly lit coals promised that food would be ready soon. Medium-bodied and oily, earth and meaty barbecue smoke dominated the profile with mild sweetness on the sides of the palate. Coal briquettes and parched dirt paired with a barbecue smoke of sweet caramelizing fats and sugary marinades. Hints of a barnyard funk sometimes appeared with fresh-cut flowers that drifted somewhere between carnations and lavender. Charred meaty gristle and maple syrup arrived at the end with an extra helping of earth and smoke. The finish was medium-length with more meaty, slightly acrid smoke and earth.

A lovely Port Charlotte from the Cask Whisperer, another one of the bottlers Jim McEwan partnered with to bottle all the casks he alighted from Bruichladdich with upon his retirement. Talk about a retirement plan. I like to imagine that Jim just pulled up a truck on his last day and recruited a tour group to help him load casks from the warehouses and then drove off laughing. Okay, maybe not, but he does appear to have retired with upwards of 40-60 casks to his name, and there could be many more for all I know.

I thought this was a pleasant trip with all of the earthy barbecue I love; I considered it a slightly wilder version of the more recent MRC:01 or PAC:01. It was punchy and concentrated, though I did find those small-batch products a bit richer and deeper. This was a touch sweet for my taste at times as the wine cask asserted itself with the occasional whiff of cotton candy or sweet caramelized sugars on the palate. Those floral notes threw me for a loop as if the DNA of 1980s Bowmore was somehow subtly imprinted on this malt.

Overall, a delight.