Peat

Port Charlotte 10 Year

The distillery of Port Charlotte lies two miles south of Bruichladdich facing Loch Indaal and is where the parent company’s peatier whiskies are distilled. Though the distillery was resurrected some years ago by Bruichladdich, the Port Charlotte 10 year is a recent addition to the stable of offerings. The barley used is from the Shire of Invernes, Scotland’s largest county, which covers parts of the northern Highlands and the Outer Hebrides. Even the casking is particular, with 75% of the maturation happening in first or second fill American whisky casks, and with 25% coming from second fill French wine casks. We assume that since the website does not list the exact American whiskies or French wines, it must mean there are many potential options and thus would be impossible to list for a uniform bottling expression.

By Adam | February 5, 2020 | Islay | No Comments |

The Glengyle distillery is a story of what can happen to a name in the topsy-turvy history of scotch. The storied Springbank distillery of Campbeltown was founded by Archibald Mitchell, and his two sons took it on after him. The brothers had a falling out eventually. Brother John kept Springbank and William founded Glengyle distillery right down the road in 1872. Like many distilleries in Scotland and Campbeltown, it closed in the 1920s before being reopened after several attempts in 2000 by the great-great nephew of William Mitchell, Hedley Wright, operating under J&A Mitchell and Co, the current owner of Springbank, along with Scotland’s oldest independent bottler, William Cadenhead. The choice of the name Kilkerran comes from the Gaelic Ceann Loch Cille Chiarain, the name of an older settlement on which Campbeltown now stands. It is not called Glengyle, because that name is already in use by a brand of blended Highland scotches and the distillery wanted to avoid confusion. The distillery has released several “works in progress” offerings and only recently has introduced core aged statements, this Kilkerran 12 year and Kilerran 8 year.

By Adam | January 20, 2020 | Campbeltown | No Comments |

Released in 2013 as a travel retail exclusive, the Talisker Dark Storm is a direct sibling to the Talisker Storm. The difference here, besides a larger bottle size, is that the casks used to age the whisky are heavily charred. The differences between the regular Storm and this one lead us to wonder if there are any age differences between the two or other factors besides the charring. Because Talisker is operated by Diageo, who are can be very opaque with product details, not many details of any kind are known about the whisky.

By Adam | December 20, 2019 | Island | No Comments |