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Release Notes
Our Port Charlotte Islay Barley expressions are a direct embodiment of everything an Islay whisky can and should be. Conceived, distilled, matured and bottled on the island, with barley raised on our home shores by seven of our farming partners.
In 2004, backing our drive for the ultimate “Islay” Islay single malt, farmer Raymond Stewart grew barley for us at Kentraw, just a mile from the distillery. His harvest was then malted and distilled separately - we believe the first time an Islay single malt had been made exclusively from 100% Islay grown grain.
The barley harvest for this 2013 vintage was raised on our home shores in 2012 by seven of our Islay farming partners. Hunter Jackson at Cruach, Ian McKerrell at Island farm, Raymond Fletcher at Dunlossit estate, Donald and Andrew Jones at Coull, Mark French at Rockside, Alastair Torrance at Mulindry and Raymond Stewart at Sunderland all undertook the risk of growing in challenging conditions to deliver the barley for this Scotch whisky with unparalleled provenance.
This Port Charlotte Islay Barley 2013 single malt has been matured in ex-American and ex-wine casks hailing from the Pessac-Leognan region of France. Heavily peated and malted to 40 PPM, this eight-year-old single malt pays homage to its island home.
With redberry fruits, toasted oak notes and hints of coffee and chocolate, it offers a dramatic, smoky finish.
Peat phenol level: 40ppm. Farms: Cruach, Island farm, Dunlossit, Coull, Rockside, Mulindry and Sunderland farms.
In 2004, backing our drive for the ultimate “Islay” Islay single malt, farmer Raymond Stewart grew barley for us at Kentraw, just a mile from the distillery. His harvest was then malted and distilled separately - we believe the first time an Islay single malt had been made exclusively from 100% Islay grown grain.
The barley harvest for this 2013 vintage was raised on our home shores in 2012 by seven of our Islay farming partners. Hunter Jackson at Cruach, Ian McKerrell at Island farm, Raymond Fletcher at Dunlossit estate, Donald and Andrew Jones at Coull, Mark French at Rockside, Alastair Torrance at Mulindry and Raymond Stewart at Sunderland all undertook the risk of growing in challenging conditions to deliver the barley for this Scotch whisky with unparalleled provenance.
This Port Charlotte Islay Barley 2013 single malt has been matured in ex-American and ex-wine casks hailing from the Pessac-Leognan region of France. Heavily peated and malted to 40 PPM, this eight-year-old single malt pays homage to its island home.
With redberry fruits, toasted oak notes and hints of coffee and chocolate, it offers a dramatic, smoky finish.
Peat phenol level: 40ppm. Farms: Cruach, Island farm, Dunlossit, Coull, Rockside, Mulindry and Sunderland farms.
Bruichladdich
3rd Party Tasting Notes
Character: Islay grown barley brings so much complexity to the character in this whisky. The peat smoke in this Port Charlotte is, as ever, beautifully evocative of that traditional Islay style. Purity from the distillation and complexity of maturation brings all the components together with harmony and balance.
Colour: Pale gorse flowers
Nose: The nose opens with delicate floral notes of lily and geranium before warm orange zest and dried earthy peat smoke brings body and gravity. Banoffee pie and digestive biscuit come out from behind the peat smoke and carry forward this dram’s malty, fruity character. Cherry coconut and malted barley counterbalance apricot and melon. Sweet and enticing; the oak and the outstanding peppery phenolic notes are balanced perfectly with the fruit and floral style of our slow, careful fermentation and distillation.
Palate: The first taste is a wondrous thing; all at once the salinity, ripe fruit, light peat smoke, and sweet oak show their presence in a whirl of complexity. There is great texture from the spirit and its maturation allows a subtle almond note to combine with coconut, caramel, vanilla, and muscovado sugar. The peat smoke is beautifully balanced. It is a dram that is gentle on the palate yet has a tremendous depth of flavour.
Finish: The finish is once more perfectly balanced. The smoke, fruit, oak and floral notes melt into each other, and a beautiful creamy texture allows melon, peach and cherry to come through before dwindling into the dry embers of peat in the hearth.
Colour: Pale gorse flowers
Nose: The nose opens with delicate floral notes of lily and geranium before warm orange zest and dried earthy peat smoke brings body and gravity. Banoffee pie and digestive biscuit come out from behind the peat smoke and carry forward this dram’s malty, fruity character. Cherry coconut and malted barley counterbalance apricot and melon. Sweet and enticing; the oak and the outstanding peppery phenolic notes are balanced perfectly with the fruit and floral style of our slow, careful fermentation and distillation.
Palate: The first taste is a wondrous thing; all at once the salinity, ripe fruit, light peat smoke, and sweet oak show their presence in a whirl of complexity. There is great texture from the spirit and its maturation allows a subtle almond note to combine with coconut, caramel, vanilla, and muscovado sugar. The peat smoke is beautifully balanced. It is a dram that is gentle on the palate yet has a tremendous depth of flavour.
Finish: The finish is once more perfectly balanced. The smoke, fruit, oak and floral notes melt into each other, and a beautiful creamy texture allows melon, peach and cherry to come through before dwindling into the dry embers of peat in the hearth.
Bruichladdich
The Distillery: Bruichladdich
| Established: 1881 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: Bruichladdich, Islay, Argyll, PA49 7UNI, UK |
| → website |
In the new Millenium
The Bruichladdich distillery lies on the north shore of Lochindaal (directly opposite Bowmore), which made it the westernmost distillery in Scotland until Kilchoman was officially opened in 2005.
The overwhelming succes that Mark and Jim have had with the bottlings they released from these old stocks is a perfect illustration of the crucial role of careful cask selection; Bruichladdich was transformed from an ugly duckling into a swan. Well, I"m sure clever marketing also helped.
Apart from the traditionally lightly peated spirit that is still produced under the name Bruichladdich, two more heavily peated malts are being produced at the distillery. A heavily peated (40 PPM) malt under the name "Port Charlotte" (the name of the village two miles south of the distillery) is being produced since October 2002 and they also have an even more heavily peated (80.5 PPM) malt with the name "Octomore". This is the name of another silent Islay distillery in the area, situated in a farm next to the warehouses of the old Lochindaal distillery. The original Octomore distillery was closed in 1852, three decades before Bruichladdich was built. However, a link with the past remains; Bruichladdich uses spring water from Octomore farm.
The Bruichladdich distillery was mothballed again in January 1995 and sold in 2000 to a consortium of twenty five different shareholders that operated under the name "Bruichladdich Distillery Co. Ltd.".
Driving force behind the purchase was Murray McDavid"s Mark Reynier. Together with other seasoned professionals like Jim McEwan (formerly of Bowmore) they managed to get the production started again in May 2001. Although that new spirit probably won"t be widely available until well after 2010, the new owners also acquired a lot of maturing stocks that were laid down by Invergordon and JBB / Whyte & Mackay.
Bruichladdich was constructed in 1881 by Robert, William and John Gourlay Harvey. Members of the Harvey family remained owners and shareholders until 1929 when the Bruichladdich distillery was mothballed.
In 1938 Bruichladdich (also known as Bruichladdie) was sold to Hatim Attari, Joheph W.Hobbs and Alexander W.Tolmie. And the distillery kept changing hands like a hot potato. In 1952 it was sold to Ross & Coulter Ltd, who in turn sold it to A.B. Grant in 1960. Invergordon Distillers acquired Bruichladdich in 1968 and expanded the number of stills from two to four in 1975, before selling it on to JBB / Whyte & Mackay.
Until recently Associated Scottish Distillers also offered a so-called "bastard" bottling of Bruichladdich under the name Loch Indaal or Lochindaal. This bottle was named after the old Lochindaal distillery located East of the village of Port Charlotte, which used to have its own distilleries. Lochindaal operated until 1929 when it was dismantled. Its warehouses are now used to store the Port Charlotte malt. Until recently Bruichladdich was the only surviving distillery on the Western peninsula, but since the new Kilchoman distillery was opened in 2005 by proprietor Anthony Willis the number of western Islay distilleries doubled.
And the future looks bright for the friendly people of Bruichladdich. With the new bottling plant that was opened in 2003, Bruichladdich can now bottle its own malts on site, providing some much needed employment opportunities on this relatively remote part of Islay in the process. It"s much more convenient for Bruichladdich as well; before they opened the bottling plant they shipped tankers full of spring water from James Brown"s farm at Octomore to the mainland to dilute the whisky from the casks to 46%.
2000 - At the start of the new millennium the Bruichladdich distillery is bought by bottler Murray McDavid. Reports say that the price of the distillery was 6,500,000 GBP at the time - including maturing stocks.
2001 - The driving force behind the purchase of the distillery was Murray McDavid"s Mark Reynier. Shortly after the distillery was obtained by the new owners, Bowmore"s Jim McEwan was called in as production director.
2006 - The first bottling of Port Charlotte is released; a more heavily peated brand of the Bruichladdich.
2012 - On September 3rd the distillery is sold to Rémy Cointreau.
Trivia:
- For their first new bottlings the new owners used extremely lightly peated barley of 2 PPM.
- William Harvey (the father of the Harvey brothers that built Bruichladdich in 1881) was the owner of two other distilleries; Yoker and Dundashill.
- Bruichladdich distillery is open to visitors all year, Monday to Friday. Tours are available at 10.30am 11.30am and 2.30am (and at 10.30am on Summer Saturdays).
- Bruichladdich is one of almost two dozen malt whisky distilleries that were founded over a century ago during the "whisky boom" of the late 19th century and which have managed to survive until this day. The other survivors include Aberfeldy, Ardmore, Aultmore, Balvenie, Benriach, Benromach, Bunnahabhain, Craigellachie, Dalwhinnie, Dufftown, Glendullan, Glenfiddich, Glenrothes, Glentauchers, Knockandu, Knockdhu, Longmorn, Tamdhu and Tomatin.
from Malt Maniacs
The Owner: Rémy Cointreau
| Established: 1724 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: Avenue de Gimeux |
| → website |
Rémy Martin, a wine maker from the Cognac region founded the business in 1724. It was acquired by Andre Renaud in 1924. Through various acquisitions the company took ownership of champagne brands such as Charles Heidsieck and Piper Heidsieck, Mount Gay Rum. In 1991 the company changed name to Rémy Cointreau. Since then the group as acquired the Bols and Metaxa brands. On September 3rd the group acquires Bruichladdich distillery on Islay.
from Various