Whisky: Port Charlotte 18 Year (2003), WhiskySponge No. 35

Country/Region: Scotland/Islay

ABV: 57.1%

Cask: First Fill Bourbon Barrel

Age: 18 Years (Distilled 2003, Bottled 2021)

Nose: Briny tide pools, heather, dried grass, wet basalt stone, farm and earth, distant cowshed, semi-sweet chocolate chips, hints of beach tar.

Palate: Medium to full-bodied with a creamy viscosity, full-fat cream, heather and dried grassy florals, hay, beach tar, slightly worn rubber, kippers and tinned seafood, mellow brine with hints of toffee, rusted iron, and coal dust.

Finish: Medium-length with mellow brine, grass, and earth.

Score: 7

Mental Image: Romantics on a Beach Holiday

Narrative & Notes: An aroma for the romantics; decayed ruins along the shoreline, wet basalt and weathered stone, briny tide pools, dried grass, and patches of heather. A farm stood in the distance, the aroma of cow sheds and hay drifting on the breeze. Hints of beach tar paired with semi-sweet chocolate chips recalling the duality of humankind: things that stick to your feet and the promise of warm cookies. Medium to full-bodied, the palate had a lovely creamy viscosity, full-fat in all its glory. Heather and dried florals fronted hay, dried grass, fennel, and a worn rubber or mild plasticine note. Salt asserted itself on the back end with salty-oily tinned seafood and kippers that lingered with hints of toffee, rusted iron, and coal dust. The finish was medium-length with a mild brine, dried grass, and hints of earth.

The romantic movement and their love of decay, decline, and the wasted pallor produced by late-stage tuberculosis have cast a long shadow over fiction and fashion since the early nineteenth century. Somehow this dram reminded me of that coastal imagery; grey skies, seas, and moss-covered ruins of a by-gone age. The aroma was beautiful and classically Port Charlotte, while the palate tugged in a different direction with its upfront creaminess and more prominent grass notes. If someone had told me this was a Bunnahabhain, I might have believed them.

Overall, this was good, though it left me wanting more. My expectations for Port Charlotte are almost certainly unreasonably high and in need of recalibration. For years it has been one of my favorite malts, and rarely disappointed, even as my expectations have grown. This single cask was lovely, but I kept holding out for some additional earthy or farmy complexity to appear on the palate and for the finish to develop longer legs. It was one of those whiskies where I could not help but wonder how I might have felt had I come into it blind and not weighed down by the albatross of my expectations.