October 2007
The fifthteenth Edition of "A Whiff of Peat Smoke...." , Why ? because i can !
The nights are fair drawing in......
A Fistful of PC......
Your mission tonight , should you wish to accept it . is to head to head 5 Port Charlotte Whiskies .....
So to the Head to Head ......
No point in bothering with the colours lets get straight into the nose , i'll do them in the following order The Alchemist (AL) , My Bloodtub (R23) , PC5 , First Cut (FC) then PC6 .....
AL - The Weakest at 46% , Very spirity at first , peaty , very nose tingling for 46% , not much else , a tad immature .
R23 - 61.4%, malty and for the first time i get Jim's smell of Distilleries ! Also sherry (the old Cola Cubes Sweets this time ) , lots of smoke .
PC5 - The strongest at 63.5%, this is very much as i got on my original tasting notes on the PC5 , big and malty on the nose at first then peat smoke and green fruits (apples , gooseberries ) plus a strange lemony touch (very Bruichladdish in a way....).
FC - 61.5% , again Malty , peaty , slightly spirity at first , smoky and it smells like the inside of a warehouse ! very earthy .
PC6 - 61.6%, so to the new one ......Again a touch spirity at first then Peat , and as the PC5 it has the Bruichladdich signatures of green fruits and lemon citric . It also has a touch of wine presumably from the Madeira finishing .
and how do they compare on the palate.....
AL - Very immature on the palate , spirity , Dried peat with smoke , just behind most young peated malts i've got but could definitely have done with a load more years in the cask !
R23 - Oh wow .....Bags of dry smoky maltiness , very dry(from the sherry cask) . Extremely well balanced for it's age , The Sherry and peat in perfect harmony !
PC5 - More Spirity than the R23 but still with the Smoky , peaty maltiness ! Again very dry on the palate , this one really bursts into life on the finish . A surprisingly smooth peatiness on the way Down .
FC - Still slightly spirity , Malty , peaty , fruity , not as harsh as the PC5 , lovely smooth peatiness on the finish .
PC6 - At first spirity but that passes quickly to peat , smoke and a touch of the laddie Fruit (apples etc) with something like raspberries lingering in the Background . The finish is very nice , long peaty and a touch winey .
So after 5 PC's what's the verdict ? Personally i think the Alchemist one should have been left in the cask , with the PC5 , The First Cut and the PC6 you can see it developing , as for the R23 what can i say that already hasn't been said !!!! So the order of preference is the R23 first , the Alchemist last , with the PC6 and First Cut equal 2nd and the PC5 3rd .
Note:- At the end of the tasting i mixed all five in a glass and watered down slightly , What a joy ! Very Balanced , really smoky slight peatiness , slight lemony citric taste , touch fruity , this malt will be something else at an older age and i'm so looking forward to it !
Pricing going to far ?
I've been reading with interest Serges comments on his site about Whisky (over?) pricing and agreeing with everything he says . A prime example is a Press Release i got from our good friends at Laddie this morning , they are releasing a new peated spirit at 50ppm called Lochindaal and selling the first 100 casks to the general public at £1850 per cask !!!!
A "slight" premium above the "normal" cask price , one which won't be tempting me ......
There have also been a few comments on various forums about the cost of the new PC6 , rrp of nearly £60 for a 6yo whisky ( slightly cheaper at Richards LFW ) , a lot of money for a 6yo whisky though people seem willing to pay it at the moment . Laddie aren't the only ones , a few others have upped there prices , due to the opening markets in the BRIC countries and the "Shortages" it creates , supply and demand etc oh and the rising priced of malt etc etc . There are now quite a few Premium priced malts especially what seems to be older aged ones , my favourite Ardbeg have went to silly prices since the take over , £400- 500 for a single cask bottling is unbelievable , i think the last SC Ardbeg i bought was the festival 2398 , haven't been able to afford any others , i'm not saying they shouldn't profit off their investment , it just a shame that "We" fans cannot now afford the goodies !
Lets just hope these companies remember who has supported them in the past......
Storm in a teacup ?
There has been a bit of melodrama over on the Whisky Magazine Forum , The moderator of the site "edited" some postings , a row kicked off and some of the regular posters left to go to another forum ! It seemed quite funny at the time but in a way it's very sad , perhaps the forum wasn't "moderated" enough in the past to avoid this happening now ? Never mind at least we have a nice little community going in Warehouse No.4 where a nice dram and craic is always guaranteed !
