Port Charlotte OLC:01 2010

One of the best

Big bold peat but still well balanced.

An all-around beautiful whisky: it’s outperforming the Octomore 12.2 that I’m having alongside of it. Shoe polish, oat, and charcoal on the nose give way to passion fruit, pepper, grape, and smoke in the mouth. It’s complex, balanced, and lingers forever.

I'm pretty excited to even taste this let alone review it. And I've already had a few pours! Nose - jams, meat, peat, sugar, jelly, earthy clay dirty, and so many fruity wine elements. Oh boy. Taste - I know there's a crazy blend of casks but the sherry cask is KING! Its sherry over fruity elements and this combination of smoked meat and roasted cream if that makes any sense. So much sweet up front, almost too much, and then balanced instantly with oak and dirty smoke then HUGE smoked meat and just straight up charcoal smoke. Overall, this is a completely stupidly balanced whisky. Nothing about this whisky makes sense to me. It's just all over the place and I think ultimately that's a lack of age to mellow this all. That said, it's also AMAZING, lol. I guess that's why this is so experimental. It's not a completed whisky or well put together, but instead a flavor bomb that's giving you so much and none of it is bad. I'm going 3.0 right now. I really am enjoying this, but I think my score reflects more that it doesn't make any sense to me as a premium whisky. I also think I'd buy this again at 130 and I'd think at 130 this should be a higher score for me to rebuy....so maybe I'm crazy? Anyway my 3rd whisky review of the day and honestly, all 3 were crazy challenging for me. This might be the most and that's a HUGE statement. This is however by FAR my favorite, but scores are a BIT more than just if I like it. Edit Going back, no this is 3.75 stunner stuff!