Nose: Terry’s chocolate orange, grass, sulfur.
Palate: Milk chocolate, szechuan pepper, medjool dates, chow mein, milk candy.
Rating: 6 / 10 – rivesalt cask is very present
Nose: Cinnamon raisin oatmeal cookie, touch of peat, deep wood
Palate: Palate is tiptoeing on the very edge of the sulfur spectrum. or maybe Wine tannins. Something bitter that isn’t my vibe tight. Stale coffee. Touch moldy vibe. Chalky taste on the finish
Rating: 3 / 10 – smells nice but yuck
Nose: Sweet hickory smoke, incents
Palate: Juicy fruit, smoke, braggs aminos
Rating: 7 / 10 – simple sweet and fun
Nose: Some strange funk on the nose, along with white peaches
Palate: White wine cask notes, hints of peat
Rating: 6 / 10 – too rushed for good notes but nice pour. Keeping it anyways so I remember.
Nose: Cider, cider. Pear skins.
Palate: Beautiful clean bourbon cask. Carambola. Pear drops. Grapefruit. Honey. Stilton cheese
Rating: 6 / 10 – elegant, tasty but not something I’d chase for the age / price.
Nose: Leeks and potato soup, flash fried pimiento de padrón, portobello and hint of mole spices (cumin, cocoa, red chile powder, and cinnamon), mustiness
Palate: Big thick fruity wine notes, balsamic, stewed prunes, cherry concentrate, leather, coffee grounds, big tannin punch on the finish like chewing on a cinnamon stick
Rating: 8 / 10 – What a freaking wallop. This is shockingly good.
Nose: Mexican hot chocolate, pipe tobacco, puer, cascara
Palate: Slightly salty and umami. The weird sour funk of Umeboshi. Limestone. Potting soil. Black forest cherry cake.
Rating: 7 / 10 – a big complex profound full metal pour. Raise your glass.
Nose: Cinnamon honey stick, warm cinnamon roll, salt sea air, distant neighbors chimney with dry maple
Palate: Sea salt and toffee, chai spices, celery salt
Rating: 6 / 10 – quite nice frankly, but need to try it on a fresh palate.
Nose: Fresh cut grass, cinnamon honey stick, clove cigs.
Palate: Green pepper, cloves.
Rating: 7 / 10 – damn this is great. 133 phenol
Nose: Leather, dark chocolate cherries, dark chocolate sorbet, smokey mesquite briquets
Palate: Leather, warm thick as a spoon smokey dark hot chocolate, even going to cocoa nibs and raw coffee beans. With a dusting of powered chiles. Freeze dried cherries and Turkish apricots. The earthy n oak flavors taper off and menthol & figs.
Rating: 9 / 10 – rich, luxurious, powerful and amazing
Nose: Tums fruit antacids / chalk, cinamon, tangerine juice and dried peel, blue moon with a big orange slice, sundried tomato
Palate: Tangerine all the way, creme brulee, vibrant acidity
Rating: 6 / 10 – huge bold flavors. Super fun.
Nose: Chardonnay grapes, unripe white peaches, honeycomb, cinnamon simple syrup, copper, penny, rye, tonic
Palate: Ginger chews, quinine, white peach tea, grapes
Rating: 6 / 10 – a really simple lovely pour. Nice balance of fruit and spice.
Nose: Cinnamon smoke – like atomic fireballs, burnt ends, I would use this as a basis for an epic sweet smokey salsa to dip fried chicken, chipotle mayo, shrimp head reduction, bandaid
Palate: Way lest smokey than the nose suggests, fire roasted tomatillo salsa, roasted green bell pepper, pine needles, cider vinegar.
Rating: 7 / 10 – I can’t wait to buy this next week. Damn it’s lovely.
Nose: During my full day bike ride in Belgium last weekend we ended up talking about making a craft cola. I’m thinking of starting with rose hips, orange peel, the tiniest brush of cloves. And something to bring a sense of aged wood but not sure how to approach it. We didn’t discussed a smoky cola, but I kinda want to give it a shot. Layer in a solid peat smoke and a maritime vibe. It is a solid nose but every time I’ve stepped away from the glass and come back, the first sniff isn’t filling me with joy. Maybe it is the wool socks vibe.
Palate: Salty first then sweet. Blackberries and cassis. Licorice root. A faded meaty note, sweet glazed beef jerky. Oh and it is not wool socks, although that does fit. It is the fine edge of the sulfur spectrum. Not terribly dominant, nor particularly unpleasant, but enough that it won’t outshine the bourbon for me. Even then, this is still a pretty interesting whisky.
Rating: 5 / 10 – When I tried the straight bourbon, I loved it and also wished it had some kind of funky note. Mission accomplished, it’s funky. But I don’t think it actually elevated the pour. Went back to the straight bourbon cask and it’s still awesome.
Nose: Camping should smell this good. A gentle haze of smoke from a sage brush and old oak fire from a few miles upwind. My parents used to drive us from Los Angeles, through Death Valley and up into the mountains where we would camp by a river. This was back in the days before you had to stay in an assigned spot. It was usually searing hot and we’d spend days building dams, fishing and drifting in the water. I can still smell the hot stones on sandy soil. Roasted trout with sea salt. Wild flower honey.
Palate: Holy shitballs, that is delicious. We had dinner with business partners last night and my favorite dish, which everyone else hated, was a grilled and smoked head of lettuce with candied strawberries, tiny crisped anchovies and a drizzle of sweet cream. The sweet, the salt and the creaminess pair sublimely. Salted toffee. While the peat is the star, and the under study, I like the granny smith apple peel vibe.
Rating: 7 / 10 – As Port Charlotte gets older, I keep expecting the peat to mellow, but it just seems to integrate better over time. I love the way it dances with the bourbon sweetness. I do wish it had an extra note or character to bring deeper complexity, as in some ways for my palate, it is almost too pretty. I know, it’s weird complaining because the pour has nailed a perfect note. I can’t wait to try its sister cask.
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