This was the second blind sample from the Cask Six session.

There are quite some private owners of Bruichladdich’s Port Charlotte casks. Most are small bloodtubs (32 liter) but this one is from a bigger cask (first fill sherry hogshead) shared by three Italian guys (Giorgio d’Ambriosio, Franco di Lillo & Nadi Fiori, who was behind Intertrade and is now behind High Spirits). The spirit was matured for 5 years and filled into 3x 134 bottles with 3 resembling labels.

Port Charlotte 5y 2002
(46%, Nadi Fiori 2009, first fill sherry)

Nose: peat and barbecue ashes but with a fruity, sherried side (citrus, tangerine, melon). Hints of wet stones, slightly burnt bacon and eucalyptus. Tobacco. Very powerful and expressive but I thought it was a tiny bit young (read new-makeish) maybe, in the same way PC7 was better than PC5. Mouth: quite clean smoke with a salty edge. Sweet peat, some pears covered in chocolate. Lemon juice with lots of sugar. Keeps getting sweeter. Finish: long, sweet and peaty. Notes of roasted peanuts with a sugar coating. Barbecue ash again.

The peat in this Port Charlotte is really countered by the very sweet sherry. If Glenfarclas was ever to produce a heavily peated bottling, could it be similar? An interesting battle between two powers. Around € 115.

Score: 86/100

Some may notice that this score is slightly higher than the blind score I gave earlier. I know most reviewers tend to pursuit “objective” scores (i.e. based on the liquid regardless of distillery, price, age, packaging or “uniqueness”) but personally I find it justified to give one or two bonus points if it turns out to be exceptional value for money or unusual / invidiual whisky compared to its region or age. Think of it as school results: a first grader can get the same score as a sixth grader, although “objectively” they don’t have the same level of knowledge of course.