Port Charlotte SYC01, 54.4%
https://youtu.be/9LF9ba2qne8
Matured in ex-bourbon casks and finished in Syrah (shiraz) wine casks – here we have another addition to the Cask Exploration Series from Bruichladdich.
As good as all of this sounds – heavily peated, fun finish, cask strength, etc. I have a few issues with this bottle.
Starting with the positives, this liquid has such a lively and fresh nose to it. Even with the heavy peat that runs through the core of the product, the wine casks have added such a red fruit, summer berry, and raspberry sauce aroma to the nose. That is quite a remarkable thing to do with a liquid as powerful as Port Charlotte.
The palate is where we run into some of the first problems. There are some extremely vegetal notes that really dominate the overall feel of the whisky, for me anyway. The video goes into a little more detail as to what it actually reminds me of, but it isn’t complimentary. The finish is incredibly long and could actually give Apocalypse Now a challenge for run time, but it is full of those flavours that just don’t sit right with me.
My biggest issue with this bottle is the price. Now I was sent this by Remy Cointreau’s PR team, quite a treat. Thank you! At retail, you’ll be paying £110 a bottle for this…standard Port Charlotte is normally below £50 a bottle for something which is nearly the strength of this wine finish variation. Is the cask that expensive? I know previous releases have been around the same price, the MRC01 release, etc. But I’ve been in a room when people have tried that, and it split the room in half, but not because of the peated element, but because of the wine.
Overall, this is an expensive purchase if you end up going for it, but I believe standard Port Charlotte to be a significantly better bottle for more than half the price of this.
