Port Charlotte Releases Its Oldest Whisky To Date

With a non-peated whisky as its flagship label, Bruichladdich Distillery is a rare bird on Islay—Bunnahabhain being the island’s only other distillery to lead with a non-peated expression. After laying dormant for much of the 1990s, the distillery was reopened in 2001, and began focusing on the Bruichladdich label. But the new owners felt the need to create a peated expression, considering the distillery’s Islay provenance. Thus Port Charlotte was conceived in 2001, and Octomore soon followed, forming quite a twosome in Bruichladdich's peated arsenal.

The first Port Charlotte bottling was released in 2006. Tapping a limited inventory, the early expressions carried no age statements. It wasn’t until 2018 that Port Charlotte released its first-ever age statement whisky, the 10 year old, and it was heralded as a major milestone. Now, nearly six years later, Bruichladdich is out with an 18 year old version of Port Charlotte, its oldest expression yet.

Port Charlotte 18 year old is made from 100% Scottish barley, just like the 10 year old. The cask influence is slightly different, however. While the 10 year old’s maturation is 65% first-fill American whiskey barrels, 10% in second-fill American whiskey barrels, and 25% in second-fill French wine casks, the 18 year old was matured in a combination of refill sherry casks (74%) and refill French oak wine casks (26%)—the aim being to elicit more dried fruit and sweetness. Port Charlotte 18 is peated to 40 phenol parts per million (ppm), the same as the 10 year old, but not nearly as high as Octomore releases, which are always at least at 80 ppm.

Bottled at 54.3% ABV Port Charlotte 18 was distilled in 2004 and is a limited release of 6,000 bottles. Priced at $199, it’s available on reservebar.com and at retail.

Bruichladdich has been showing more of its aged whisky game lately, as this release comes on the heels of the recently announced 18 and 30 year old expressions of the Bruichladdich label.