Bruichladdich Port Charlotte PC6 Cuairt-Beatha

If you’ve been following, we ended up having drams at /u/xile_ place. After a lengthy break, due to ending with a very peated dram, we had dinner, had some coffee, cleared up our tongues, and then decided to have one more.

None of us drove. We had a DD. Because we’re not idiots.

I completely missed out on large releases of Bruichladdich. Why? Because I didn’t work there and I didn’t have tons of money. Also wasn’t into whisky just yet. Stop judging me for that reason and go back to the normal reasons.

One of the releases I missed out on was the slow come up of Port Charlotte. As they were tweaking with the recipe/age/proper mix, the PC series was released. These limited editions each had a number on them, denoting the age. They each differ, they were each selected, and some of them worked, and some were lucky to be limited.

Which brings us to Bruichladdich Port Charlotte PC6 Cuairt-Beatha. Cuairt-Beatha means “Walk of Life”, with the idea that this is the whisky continue on their path forward. It’s peated to 40 ppm, and aged in both ex-bourbon and ex-Madeira wine casks.

So I feel pretty lucky to be enjoying this now 11-year-old-since-it-was-released dram. Think about what you could do 11 years ago compared to now? For instance, I could still bet on all of the mortgages going bust and make a ton of money from them doing so.

Oh, I can still do that? Yay another crisis coming soon. Let’s see how the whisky tastes to forget, shall we?

Price: Sold out

Region: Islay

Vintage: 2001

Bottled: 2007

Casks Used: Ex-bourbon casks and ex-Madeira casks

Number of Bottles: 18,000

Abv: 61.6%

Colour: 2.5Y 8/6

Nose: Fresh cinnamon, grilled salmon, farmyard, raisin

Initial hit of cinnamon and that smell of clean, grilled salmon. Not overly fishy, don’t think bad fish. Think “yay the salmon is nearly done” with that wood smell and some of the brine. Feel free to tell me if that doesn’t sound appetizing.

Time/water brings out farmyard aspects, with some raisin to remind you that there’s a wine cask involved.

Taste: Bacon, bison grass, puffins’ egg candy, raisin funk

More bacon. The peat here is still quite strong, yet the cask influence has given an anise and chocolate flavour (that’s the puffins’ egg candy, try if you have the chance in Iceland). Think a less sharp, more sweet anise mixed with chocolate. And some sweeter grassiness. Does that help?

Water again brings the raisin, though it’s more of a funk here. Like a rich grape funk.

Finish: Grilled beef, chocolate bar, teppanyaki chicken, oak

Umami. Look, if you haven’t had teppanyaki or beef, just think a ton of umami going on here. Yes, there’s some sweet chocolate (again, cask influence is my guess) to round it out. But umami is what’s happening at the finish. And making me hungry. Glad I brought brownies.

Conclusion: I’ll admit that seeing Madeira casks used I wasn’t super excited for this dram. I mean, I’m excited because I’m a completionist, but heck, that’s expected.

However here we’ve seen that the wine casks added a much-needed sweetness. This is a sweeter, less fruity peated whisky. It has some interesting flavours. If you like anise, chocolate, and smoke, then have a dram of this. If you love an umami bomb finish, have this dram.

What I’m saying is this is a meaty dram for peat heads with just enough fiddling to be interesting enough to hunt down. Now to find PC5 somehow…

84/100

Scotch review #973, Islay review #262, Whisky Network review #1530