The Bruichladdich distillery is set to relaunch Port Charlotte, which is the Islay distillery’s heavily peated single malt whisky.
If this news made your heart skip a beat, as it did mine, you can rest easy. Bruichladdich say that “[f]ans of the smoky Islay malt can be assured that the style of the spirit remains unchanged”.
Phew!
Malting will continue to be at 40ppm (“ppm” means phenol parts per million, which is a fancy scientific sounding term indicating the level of phenol barley absorbed from being dried with peat smoke).
This year, Bruichladdich will release a number of new whiskies.
The relaunched Port Charlotte 10 year old
The first is the return of Port Charlotte 10, which will now be a permanent release (previously it was only available in limited quantities). It will replace the multi-vintage Port Charlotte Scottish Barley. Port Charlotte 10 is bottled at 50% abv and is distilled using 100% Scottish barley (from the Invernesshire region). It is aged for 10 years on Islay, with 65% aged in 1st fill American whiskey casks, 10% in 2nd fill American whiskey casks and 25% in 2nd fill French wine casks.
The new Port Charlotte Islay Barley 2011
The second is a new vintage of Port Charlotte Islay Barley, being a 2011 vintage which is distilled from harvests from three Islay farms (by Raymond Fletcher at Dunlossit, Raymond Stewart at Sunderland and Neil McLellan at Kilchiaran). Three quarters (75%) of this whisky is matured in 1st fill American whiskey casks and 25% is matured in 2nd fill wine casks (Syrah, Merlot).
The new Port Charlotte MRC: 01 and MC:01
The third is a limited Port Charlotte MRC: 01 which was distilled from Scottish barley in 2010 and then matured in oak casks from the Bordeaux left bank before being bottled at 59.2% abv.
The fourth, making its way to travel retail shops to tempt thirsty travelers, will be the MC:01, a 2009 vintage matured in Marsala casks.
Port Charlotte 10, Port Charlotte Islay Barley 2011 and Port Charlotte MRC:01 2010 will be made available through select whisky retailers.
Port Charlotte MC:01 2009 will be exclusively available through travel retail.
Malt Mileage Whisky & Spirit Reviews 