Port Charlotte 17 Years Old Phil & Simon Thompson 49.7% 2002

Professional reviews

Serge Valentin (90)

Angus MacRaild, Whiskyfun:

Colour: unsurprisingly softer and with a rather silky smokiness. Although, it’s still typically quite farmy, sooty and displaying notes of crispy bacon, tar, black olive, smoked dried herbs, salt baked white fish and kippers. Hits that sweet spot of smoky, farmy and coastal! There’s also a rather pure and lean medical streak running underneath. Mouth: smoked sea salt, brine, petrol, hessian, squid ink and lapsang souchong tea. Sardines in olive oil, rock pool water, dried seaweed and even some strangely floral notes like pot pourri and gorse flower. In fact what’s appealing is that over time more and more of these lighter notes emerge. Wee notes of sandalwood, gooseberry, green apple and dandelion. Quite unusual and probably something to do with being bottled at a reduced ABV. Finish: long, elegantly coastal, citrusy, smoky cereals, pink sea salt and a lightly herbal peat smoke. Still residually farmy as well. Comments: I do think Port Charlotte from the early 2000s is some of the best and most interesting distillate from the new ownership years of Bruichladdich. Very fun to see it coming into full maturity now. This one was superb and rather captivating.

BOW (90)