I got to experience a few new-ish Bruichladdich expressions that I have written about but never tasted. I have to say that I really loved the Resurrection 2001 dram. It was a well-balanced expression and I find the range of whiskies that Bruichladdich produces to be a continual source of amazement. This is the first (I think) product since the new owners acquired the distillery in 2001. The Port Charlotte range also dates from that time frame, and I’m not sure which came first.

I also had the 16yr “First Growth” Series – A and B. They are very different! The effect of the wood on the whiskies is very unique. I believe that all these started out as 16yrs in ex-Bourbon barrels and then were migrated to the appropriate ex-burgundy casks. These were not as fruity or sweet as Sherried whiskies, but were wonderful nonetheless. Sadly, the First Growth Series is a bit out of my price range, but I think I’ll be having a Resurrection 2001 (and a Port Charlotte PC7) before the year is out.

Finally, it was a pleasure to meet Andrew Gray, one of the principals at BDC. I’ve exchanged many emails with him in the past and it was nice to personally welcome him to my home town.

Whisky Fringe’s tasting in 2009 included 200 whiskies, and the winner was based on the public’s voting, not that of whisky “experts.” Bruichladdich’s Port Charlotte 8-year-old (“Ar Dùthchas,” or “Land of Our Fathers”) won it all.

I love it that a major whisky tasting happened in a church. Only in Scotland, I guess. Come to that, I wonder if I could open a branch of that church here in California?

I was really impressed with PC5 and PC6, and based on Jim Murray’s ratings, I can’t wait to taste PC7, which he gave a very slightly better rating than the PC6. Bruichladdich has to be congratulated for executing so well on resurrecting Port Charlotte. It should be an excellent dram for years to come. For 40 ppm phenol content, it’s very drinkable and exceptionally well balanced (speaking of PC6, the oldest I’ve tasted).

…that I tasted Port Charlotte “PC5″ 5-year-old whisky. For a not-quite-peat-freak, that was something else! And the PC6 was (to me) amazingly evolved after only one further year in wood (I wasn’t the only one that was impressed; Jim Murray loved it!). I haven’t had PC7 yet, but I hope to have a bottle soon.

Now I hear that PC8 has won the “Spirit of Whisky Fringe” award at Whisky Fringe 2009 in Edinburgh, and sadly, I’m hearing that PC8 will be the final annual bottling of Port Charlotte. Does this mean that the 8-year-old expression will be the first Official Bottling of Port Charlotte? Perhaps….

I’ll keep an eye out for more details and let you know as they happen. The PC8 won’t appear in the US retail market for a while — probably not until 2010 if past years are any indication.

Peat is all the rage these days in Scotch whisky. It seems that whisky lovers can’t get enough of it. Bruichladdich has produced Octomore, first made from malt peated at 80.5 ppm phenol, now made from malt peated at 131 ppm. Ardbeg just released their Supernova, peated at about 100 ppm. Both of these are significantly higher than Port Charlotte, peated at about 40 ppm. Peat is also prominent in the Bruichladdich 3D, 3rd Edition (3D3 for short), which first shipped in 2006. It was produced in tribute to Norrie Cambell, the last traditional peat cutter on Islay. Bruichladdich has this to say about 3D3:

Bruichladdich 3D3

3D3 is the third version of 3D – the peated Multi-Vintage Bruichladdich. This single malt selected from several vintages is even more peaty than the previous two releases due to the debut of the mighty Octomore – the heaviest peated whisky in the world at a whopping 80.5 ppm. Combined with other versions of the Bruichladdich it makes for an awesomely complex and layered version of Bruichladdich: peat without the medicine. Listen to Jim McEwan’s Podcast here. For more information click here. For a tasting note please click here.

I got this bottle today as an early Valentine’s Day present. I’m a very lucky man! This is one smooth malt. The peat is very well balanced and the fruit is not overshadowed. Yes, it’s complex, but not shockingly so. There isn’t overwhelming sweetness (the color might make you assume there would be a lot of sherry sweetness, but there is nothing approaching treacle), and the mouth feel is slightly oily, which I suppose is what helps leave such a nice finish.

I paid just over $60, and I think that’s a good price for such a well-executed product. Yes, there are peatier whiskies on the market, but speaking for myself, I don’t buy exclusively based on phenol ppm. When I am in the mood for whisky, peat is not the only thing that determines which I will select. The 3D3 is a good example of a whisky that uses peat as an ingredient to complement the rest of the product, not to dominate it. (Now, I’m not saying that Octomore or Ardbeg’s Supernova are just peat with no other flavor. In fact, I’ve heard that they aren’t as peaty as the numbers make it sound. I would like to be able to sample them and I’ll see what I think at that point.)

The 3D3 is peaty, but it’s a gentle peatiness compared to, for example the Port Charlotte PC5, which is quite a stormy beast! Despite the fact that they both rate around 40 ppm phenols (the 3D3 was a combination of several different malts, vatted together so the ppm value is approximate), there is a vast difference in flavor. The more different whiskies I try, the more I realize that they can’t be reduced to numbers. There are bad whiskies, to be sure, but I luckily haven’t purchased any to date. Among those that I own, or have tasted, there are so many nuances that I can’t imagine how hard it is for professionals to rank them. For me, I can just say that this is an interesting Bruichladdich because it’s a blend of old and new, and the peat aspect is very well executed, to my non-professional palate.

To Norrie, I say: Slainte!

Looks like K&L is trying to make room for PC7: The price was $129.99, now it’s $89.99. The thing is, PC6 is AWESOME and is easily worth the higher price. You should probably consider using some of that Christmas money to get a bottle before they are gone.

Port Charlotte PC6

Standard disclaimer: I am not being compensated by K&L for relaying this information…I’m simply a satisfied customer of theirs. I was alerted to this offer earlier today by a friend in North Carolina!

PC7 has been bottled! I’m counting down to its arrival in my corner of California at Beltramo’s. BTW, the name of this expression is “sin an doigh Ileach“ which is Gaelic for: ‘it’s the Islay way.’ Sales of PC7 will probably be boosted by the fact that PC6 just won two awards in Jim Murray’s 2009 Whisky Bible. Presumably, PC6 sales will also be boosted by the awards.

In other Bruichladdich news, Octomore and X4 are available if you act soon.

I spoke to a distributor that was at the Bruichladdich table at WhiskyFest San Francisco and asked when I’d see the PC7, his opinion is that it won’t appear until the PC6 is nearly gone. So…drink faster, people!

This is being posted from my iPhone on Caltrain 192 heading home. Apologies for any typos and the lack of links.

More reports this weekend as I digest my notes.

The Whisky Exchange’s blog has an article on Bruichladdich’s latest releases: Octomore (in a new bottle shape!) and Port Charlotte PC7 (named: Unity; NOTE: I found out the week before Thanksgiving that the name is not going to be Unity). I don’t have much to add to the descriptions that they posted, except to note that the bottle design for the Octomore is really striking. The contents, at 131 ppm phenol, deserve an impressive bottle!

I am going to try to order Octomore, but I have doubts as to whether I can get it in California. If I can, I have doubts as to whether I can handle that much peat. WOW!

I have to admit that this is a tough thing to write about. The physiology of taste is something that is very personal, and tied to the sense of smell as well. When you drink whisky, those senses plus the “feel” in the mouth are all involved, and even sight.

I am tasting Port Charlotte PC6 “Cuairt Beatha” now, and it’s much more mellow than the PC5, which was like a wild winter storm in comparison. Not that I didn’t like it. I’m conserving my PC5, else I’d do a side-by-side tasting right now. The first sense involved when drinking whisky is olfactory: The smell is not just peaty. There is a nice subtle sweetness, almost brown sugar, in the nose, and as you may know, a lot of alcohol. It’s 61.6% ABV, so I added a splash of water.

Anyway, when I taste it, I swirl it around in my whole mouth. There are taste buds all around the inside of your mouth, even though most by far are on the tongue. After the initial “burn” of the alcohol, there is a nice sense of sherry and bourbon oak notes, undercurrents of vanilla and caramel, that evolve into dark and/or dried fruits like plums, raisins, and I definitely get brown sugar. The sensations evolve across the tongue as well. I get the sweetness from different parts and as the flavor profile evolves, I am left with the afterglow of the fruit and oak notes.

The nice final parting shot comes from the vapors coating the throat that you can smell when you exhale. It’s a wonderful experience and it involves so many senses. I suppose the one sense I didn’t mention is sight. One of the wonderful things is the anticipation of the coming smell and taste, and it starts when you look at the bottle. Before I had even opened it I was able to tell — just by the color — that this was aged in Sherry butts. It’s much redder than whisky that’s aged in ex-bourbon barrels. [Ohh...nice -- just got a black cherry sensation!]

Anyway, the whisky experience starts as soon as you heft the bottle out of the can and pull out the cork. It’s a multi-sensory experience and it involves, I would presume, a lot of the brain running in parallel. I combine what I sense with what I know about who made it, where it came from, and if I have ever visited, those memories as well. After all that, it’s good for you, too! A dram a day is definitely very good for the health.

BTW, Cuiart Beatha is Scottish Gaelic for “Walk of Life” — and that word “Beatha” is also used in the phrase Uisge Beatha, which means “Water of Life” and Uisge is the source of the word “whisky.” It’s essentially how Uisge is pronounced. Not being a Scot, I’ll never be able to modulate it exactly correctly.

I have been spending a lot of time reading about the expressions that are no longer available, and trying to compare them in my mind to the ones I have tasted, or that I own. I can see the range splitting into “legacy” Bruichladdich (i.e., stuff they are bottling that pre-dated the current owners) and “future” Bruichladdich.

The neat thing about whisky in my mind is that it cultivates patience. All of the activity that starts in the malting floor and distillery and ends on the bottling line involves mostly a lot of waiting. Sometimes whisky moves to a different type of barrel for aging in a different environment, but it mostly just sits in a warehouse until it’s ready.

Bruichladdich has earned a reputation for light, floral whiskies that (to my mind) are great all-purpose whiskies. They are not “typical” Islay’s by any stretch of the imagination.

For the “legacy” range, I can sort them into the “tame” and “feisty” categories. This is a high-level sort. I think that numerically, most are in the former sub-category. Reviewers give these pretty decent marks, ranging to excellent marks. I personally don’t put much stock in reviewers: I think that you are the ultimate reviewer. If you like something, then it’s good. What you need to know at that point is whether another product is similar. A friend in Chicago just bought the 3D3 and it’s in the latter (i.e., highly reviewed). I can’t wait to hear what he thinks of it. Tomorrow, I’ll type in all the names of the expressions I know and categorize them this far. Further categorization may emerge.

The “future” Bruichladdich’s are things like the Port Charlotte brand, the Octomore brand, and the extremely potent quadruple-distilled “X4 – PERILOUS WHISKY.” You know, it’s clear that these guys are having a hell of a lot of fun! I am sure that these aren’t the only types of new make spirit being produced. I imagine that there will be some future Bruichladdich expressions that are reflective of the floral styles that have been produced to date. But the ones I listed just above are clearly on the more unique end of the scale. Octomore (then Octomore II) gives a new meaning to “peaty,” and Port Charlotte is no slouch in this department. Definitely feisty!

Given the evident innovative spirit (pun intended) on display to date, I imagine that future Bruichladdich expressions will defy concise classification. However, as they say, there’s no expectation that anyone except a collector would try to acquire them all. As the “legacy” Bruichladdich is being used up, there will be ample supply of “future” Bruichladdich ready for bottling. I can’t wait! If I had to hazard a guess, I’d imagine that some truly special casks will be left to age until the angels have taken all they can stand. Lucky bastards! Rather than speculate on what might happen in the future, I’ll focus on what’s available now, and on what’s coming soon.