Review #99 - Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 8 Year Islay Barley 2013
'Local Barley' Series: Part 5 of 5
Wrapping up our local barley series, we have one last entry from Islay, Bruichladdich's Port Charlotte heavily peated line. This specifically is an 8 year old bottling with a 2013 vintage, made up of barley grown exclusively on Islay, but on a variety of farms on the island.
Having already looked at the unpeated Islay Barley variety and the super heavily peated Octomore Islay Barley variety from this distillery, the Port Charlotte might represent a nice middling balance between the other two. It's also the oldest age statement of the three despite spending only eight years in the cask, so we might have a little more refinement and roundness as well. Cask types were unspecified on the bottle, but from the tasting, it seemed that at least a good portion of the maturation took place in ex-bourbon casks - research showed this to be true, but 25% of the maturation also took place in first-fill ex-red wine casks, for an added twist.
Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 8 Year Islay Barley 2013
Scotland/Islay - Single Malt
Current Locally Available Price: USD 83 (2023)
Age Statement: 8 Years
Strength: 50% ABV
Cask Makeup: 75% Ex-bourbon, 25% Pessac-Leognan red wine casks
Details: No color added, not chill filtered; distilled 2013, barley grown on the Coull, Island, Mulindry, Dunlossit Estate, Cruach, Rockside, and Sunderland farms
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 3 times over 3 months; bottles at 100%, 80%, and 70% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a Glencairn glass each time, rested 10-15 minutes
Nose: Quite farmy and green - hay, agave, vegetable oil, seaweed, mossy wood, and a slight funk, too. There are fruits of lemon and lime, both soft and sharp, and a mild apricot jam later. The peat smoke is strong but not overwhelming, and it's accented by wood smoke and some salty notes of the sea, a mild medicinal iodine as well. We found mineral water and some baking notes of dry vanilla and wildflower honey and malty grain, and as it opened up, a sort of earthy-umami layer blossomed.
Palate: Medium-heavy peat level to go with the medium mouthfeel, and while plentiful in a variety of flavors, this feels slightly softer than the standard PC 10 with a cooling feeling on the cheeks. Those farmyard notes stick around: lots of hay/straw and buttery oil, along with wet wood and mild tannins. Sweet, bright tones of lemon, lime sherbet, and Riesling are juxtaposed by blackberry ham, burnt orange rind, and savory dry rub barbecue; it's jammy, but with kick from white pepper and roundness from vanilla and brown sugar.
Finish: Medium-long finish, with medium-level sweet peat and some biting white pepper. There's sweetness of vanilla bean and lime sherbet again, or maybe orange sherbet; still, this isn't overly sweet, with drying oak and a mild char note, along with dry grass at the end.
Final Note: A nice whisky to compare with the standard Port Charlotte 10 year - this is softer and a little more intricate, with several layers of flavor hidden behind the usual strong peat smoke. The longer this was allowed to open up in the glass, the nicer and rounder it became, with the sweeter sherbety notes especially coming to the forefront. Given that this is about the same price as the PC10 in our market, we may pick this up instead when we're looking to dive into a detailed tasting.
Our Average Rating: 7.7 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 7.03
Check out some of our other Bruichladdich reviews:
Review #97 - Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2011
