Port Charlotte OLC:01 2010

(The Spirits Embassy – The Bruichladdich Virtual Tasting Night, 26 March 2021). Nose: Light peat, orchard fruit, berry jam, damp hay, maple syrup Palate: Rich, oily, fragrant smoke (Applewood), fruity/jammy with some nutty/oak notes. Finish: Black pepper, slightly drying. Salt and citrus notes, with a lovely dried fruit on the finish. 9y/o, finished then finished in Oloroso sherry casks for 18months 40ppm 1 of 30,000 bottles OLC: Sherry cask - OLoroso Cask Casked in a mix of 1st/2nd fill ex-bourbon casks and Syrah vin doux naturel casks Finished in casks from Fernando de Castilla in Jerez This has a lovely jammy/peaty finish. There's a great sweet fruit note that comes through the fragrant peat smoke. Delicious!

Superb dram. Sherry character with the smoke of an Islay whisky.

Smoky, some(?) peat, a bit of fruit.

As a big fan of the Bruichladdich distillery, it’s always hard to write these without any bias. But truthfully, this is probably the lowest score I ever gave a Bruichladdich made spirit. On the nose, I struggled to get as much as of OLoroso sweetness out as I could, but maybe if I add a dash of water (which I didn’t do) it may change. Will report back once I do. Once the earthy smoke clears, which there is a decent amount of, then you got lots of nuts, maybe some hints of fruit and quite a deep earthiness to it. Down the hatch, it is a 9 year aged cask strength, so without water it will bite, but the warmth is short lived which is surprising. The campfire is strong in the beginning which I like and as it makes it’s way down, again there’s nuttiness which a slight touch of sweetness and creaminess. Personally, I think if they left this in the oloroso hogshead for another year, then this would have been a winner and a price bump would be justified. All the cask movement is so interesting, but I don’t get enough fruit for it to tell me it took in enough of the flavor. Overall it’s an enjoyable dram for winter days, but maybe I need to try it with some water to see how much of a difference I can achieve.