11
Score: 93
Port Charlotte PAC:01 2011
ABV: 56.1% ● Price: $130 ● Style: Single malt ● Origin: Scotland (Islay)
This malt professes to be “heavily peated,” but fear not: peat is but a single brush stroke on a much broader canvas. Scottish grain evokes Honey Nut Cheerios and warm porridge, while the peat suggests grilled vegetables and molten campfire marshmallow. There’s briny smoke wafting from a beach bonfire, girded by bright berry and cherry fruit from time spent in red Bordeaux wine casks. Fine oak tannins meet heaps of sweet vanilla on the finish. A captivating malt that seems to have it all. —Jeffery Lindenmuth