Bruichladdich Port Charlotte Islay Barley 2011 is a heavily peated Islay single malt Scotch whisky distilled in 2011 at Bruichladdich Distillery using 100% Islay-grown barley sourced from Dunlossit, Kilchiaran and Sunderland farms. The barley includes Oxbridge and Publican varietals and was distilled in the distillery’s Victorian stillhouse. The whisky matured in a combination of 75% first-fill American whiskey casks and 25% second-fill Syrah and Merlot wine casks. It was bottled on Islay with local spring water, non-chill filtered and without added color at 50% ABV.
You can taste the quality and patience that makes it special, and you can easily imagine yourself on Islay drinking it by a cold rainy bay not far from where the barley itself was grown. Impressive, and definitely something worth trying for it’s backstory and for the taste itself.
Peaches dipped in salt on the palate, with milk chocolate and more vanilla, then dark berries. The peat is spicy and quite acrid in the long, briny finish.
The taste is spicy with touches of licorice, black pepper, allspice, and chili powder, along with hints of anise, honey, and dried fruits in the background. The finish is long and spicy with hints of licorice, anise, and burnt caramel.
The palate is again bold with fruit, here heavy with banana, finding some marshmallow sweetness to boost its mouthfeel. The smoke is laced throughout all of this, leading to a relatively simple but surprisingly herbal finish.
