Bruichladdich "Port Charlotte" Heavily-Peated 10 Year Islay Single Malt

BRUICHLADDICH PORT CHARLOTTE 10 YEAR

Bruichladdich Distillery (pronounced brook-laddie, with just a breath of celtic ch- on the finish, if you really want to be authentic), founded in 1881, is a study in the vicissitudes and possibilities inherent to the modern whisky game.  Resurrected from near-decrepitude at the turn of the century by Londoner Mark Reynier and a team including the sublime talents of formerly-Bowmore distiller Jim McEwan, Bruichladdich began producing a beautiful, feminine Scotch that completely eschewed the use of peat smoke.  However, cognizant of the island’s stylistic heritage, at around that time they also began work on their Port Charlotte, an homage to the produce of the historic distillery of the same name, closed in 1929.  This sexy malt flaunts its protypically peaty Ìleach nature, with “heavily peated” and a measure of smoky PPM right there on the bottle.  This is classic Islay whisky in the finest sense: masculine, wistful, maritime, and complex.  I’d say it’s not for the faint of heart, save that I’d have little doubt of its salubrious effects on that sanguine muscle.  Plus, if more folks drink it, there are more chances for me to drink some with them.  This is killer juice indeed, and, on a related note, it is particularly wonderful in a setting similar to that in which it was born: misty and sea-blown.  I found the Pacific Coast at the juncture of Oregon and California to be Goldilocks-perfect.

We can only hope that their acquisition by Remy Cointreau last year (2012) will do nothing to dull the cut of this tremendous house.  To that end, McEwan’s services were retained, in the capacity of Production Director and Head Distiller, which can only be a good thing.

N: Broad and grassy as new-mown lawn; there are banana peel, cured meats, and salted butterscotch, with a stemmy, pithy core of dark berries, purple grape, and sandalwood.  Smell again and find dried lavender, cinnamon bark, and seaspray, hung with a foggy breath of sweet applewood smoke.

P: Greets the foretongue with lime backed by salty baguette, sweet vanilla cream, and raw almonds, followed by a burst of super-clean seawater and old campfire smoke, with a thrilling, savory umami hit like mushroom fennel broth.  It’s sweaty and intimate and long in the very best way, with a persistent echo of blueberry ash, sweet bloody spice, and damp, fresh-turned earth.

A truly exciting whisky from one of my favorite distilleries anywhere.  F*ckin-a!

Islay Mist 17-Year Blended Scotch Whisky

ISLAY MIST 17-YR BLENDED SCOTCH WHISKY

This yummy little blend, a label founded by the then-owner of Laphroaig in the 1920s, is a tremendous value at $30.  Laphroaig juice does make up a portion of the current 17-year.  Easy-drinking and delicious, it will likely find a permanent place on my shelf- that is, if the OLCC can manage to allow sufficient quantities into the state.  The sole caveat with Islay Mist is that, despite the name, it's not a particularly peaty whisky, which is neither good nor bad, just a little counter-intuitive.

N: It shows creamy, mossy smoke and pine needles over stones-after-rain, with river clay, and a fruity component like tomato leaf and fresh-crushed grapes.

P: Hits the tongue with lemon candy and saddle leather, beautifully creamy and persistent.  The grain whisky is apparent here, but not obtrusive or raw-tasting.  It finishes with cinnamon meringue and a hint of gentle, ashy smoke.

MacDuff International Lmtd. give this short history of the brand:

     "Islay Mist Blended Scotch was originally created on the Scottish island of Islay in 1922 to celebrate the 21st birthday of Lord Margadale. It was thought that the local single malt scotch, Laphroaig, might be too heavy for all the guests’ taste so this unique blend of Laphroaig with Speyside malts and grain whisky was born."

Kentucky Vintage Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

KENTUCKY VINTAGE KSBW

Kentucky Vintage does not feature an age statement on its attractively retro-styled packaging (don’t worry, no ersatz prohibition stylings or mountebank poster art, thank God), save a vague reference to its having been in barrel ‘far longer than other bourbons.’  The best I can find is on the ever-reliable Wikipedia, where it is listed at a whopping 17 years old.  When you consider the price- south of $40, less expensive than any other iteration in Buffalo Trace’s excellent Kentucky Small Batch portfolio- it almost seems too good to be true… Then you experience the juice itself, and, whatever the truth, you sure want to believe.  This is gorgeous bourbon, the most thrilling American whiskey I’ve tasted in some time.

N: Textbook bourbon aromas of lemon jolly ranchers, vanilla orchid, and cinnamon toast are here shaded by pine needles, dried tarragon, whole white peppercorn, and a sort of compelling, ashy tropicality.  Looking deeper, there are pencil shavings, banana peel, fresh-turned earth and lime zest.  Impeccably well-knit and sophisticated.

P: A lithe, racy entry, very like Blanton’s (cardamom and calvados), but with even more suppleness and velvety texture; unbelievable smoothness for a product in this rice range.  A helix of bloody berryskins coils round sweet, salty, almost maritime flavors (a whole ‘nother iteration of such than one would find in, say, an Islay) that smoulder into the long, delicate finish of raw almonds and roasted hazelnuts, finally leaving just a touch of salt and cinnamon on the tongue.  Dry, grown-up, and wonderful.

This whiskey has an attractive, pale amber color that belies its (supposed) age- it’s a full shade darker than its brasher cousin, Pure Kentucky.  Yes, these names are repetitive and the packaging a little kitschy (although nothing like as kitschy as a Corsair, for instance- love y’all!), but given the quality of the whiskey inside, and their provenance, I’m more than happy to give them a pass for that.  Hell, at least they didn’t go with a pun.  And, honestly, I love both labels.

Anecdotally, this tremendous Kentucky stopped my exclusively-scotch-loving tasting partner in his supercilious tracks: the guy who normally pans all bourbon as hot and one-dimensional (total bullshit, by the way) raised his eyebrows and grinned at this one.  This guy thinks it’s pretty damn great too.  Highest, highest recommendation when the $37 price tag comes into play.  Poor man’s Pappy?  You need this bottle on your whisk(e)y shelf.

BUSHMILLS 16 YEAR, Irish Single Malt Whiskey

BUSHMILLS 16-YR SINGLE MALT (matured in three woods)

Aged sixteen years in bourbon barrels and oloroso sherry casks, then finished for several months in port pipes.

N: Saddle leather and sweet old glossy-stock mid-century library books; Meyer lemon candy, sagebrush, sea salt, and grass; fortune cookie dough, rich tobacco leaf, tarragon, and oatmeal cookies over stones-after-rain (coarse rainy pavement)

P: A sweet fig-and-rhubarb entry note is starred with ginger and cinnamon and fresh bay leaf; there's an Irish exuberance of briny, sanguine flavors (gushing mandarin segments, white pepper, spearmint candy, and blood), with a finish of sweet creamy pineapples and cinnamon, all hung with a funky undercarriage of blueberry skins and stones; salty and concupiscent and wonderfully dirty and really, really long…

Like drinking a beautiful old book.  Delicious and light and compelling and persistent.  Gorgeous juice, eminently worth the sieben-bill pricetag.

Five new reviews from Kentucky, Scotland, and Ireland

PURE KENTUCKY XO KSBW

N: fresh-hewn hickory and sassafras root; grilled orange, clove, and candied cherries; honeysuckle, ginger snaps and just-turned bottom soil; long tobacco hung in an august barn; the tiniest breath of campfire on the outro

P: earthy, bloody cinnamon and lime zest; juniper berry and banana bread; clean sweet clay and chai tea; vanilla icing and pine needles; orange pith and brine on the back end.

Medium-bodied, sophisticated, and pleasingly dry, this is a 12-year whiskey produced by Kentucky Bourbon Distillers, who also make Rowan’s Creek and Noah’s Mill.  It’s my current favorite in the $40-$50 range.

GLENMORANGIE NECTAR D’OR

N: Warm apple compote with cinnamon-crumb crust; lime zest and creamy cherimoya; an almost bourbon-like spice in the center; herbs on the finish: rosemary, tarragon

P: sweet creamy cedarwood and marzipan; delicious oxidized-winey notes of roasted filberts and grilled lemon; a hint of brine, pencil lead, and pine needles on the medium-long finish

I probably prefer the sherry-cask Lasanta to this pretty bottling, but it shows all the purity and plushness for which Glenmorangie are justly famous.

CLYNELISH 14-year

N: delicate, airy sun-dried grass; lime pith and molten caramel; big, broad, and just slightly maritime, with warm, buttered banana bread and pencil shavings

P: first hit is classic highland, elegant and nutty, with old-library-pages, sweet tobacco, and vanilla crème fraiche; cinnamon toast and grape skins, a breath of lychee syrup and white pepper on the finish.

A delicious single-malt, one of the most northerly produced on the mainland, this Clynelish is some juice I will reapproach with pleasure.  I look forward to exploring their further expressions.

LEDAIG 10-year  (Isle of Mull)

N: extremely tight at cork’s pull; needs at least a week to open up, until which it smells more like inexpensive blended whisky than anything else… after its week of air, sweet cherryladen smoke and dried mango show some briny notes on the tail end…

P: banana bread and incense ash flow into cinnamon sticks and creamy smoke; green tropical flavors like underripe mamosillos (Spanish limes, we called ‘em) and coconut hull; the finish is salty, with ginger and a touch of salt

This was an odd whisky (pron. "led-chig," so i read) that took some time to warm up to.  Its label proudly proclaims “wonderfully-peated,” which, though surely a matter of opinion, mightn’t be the way I’d describe this rather mildly-peated Island malt.  The disconnect between nose and palate is fascinating rather than off-putting, for some reason.  With some time under air, it is an eminently enjoyable dram.

CONNEMARA PEATED IRISH SINGLE MALT

N: sweet bubblegum and peach syrup, coiled round with mossy fir needles and next-morning campfire (barely a-crackle, here and there a spiraling whorl of ruby heat that shimmers like a wind-shoal over white ashes)

P: once more that bright yummy sweetness that I so want to call something more fancified than bubble-gum (strawberry-banana yogurt?  Fruit Slices gum [the one with the zebra on the package]?  …damn, gum again), not least as the idea of that flavor in a whiskey sounds so- well, gross-  but is in fact delicious and grinningly compelling here.  The smoke is subtle, but present, particularly on the finish, which is rather short, but dense with character and nearly refreshing (Erin go braugh!).

With its flavors of smoke and bubble gum, it’s a whiskey reminiscent of one’s first 9^th-grade make out sessions.  Made by Cooley- who else, with all these riotous fruit flavors?