Caskplan is a Dutch collective of whisky fanatics that own some casks in Scotland. Obviously they plan to bottle those casks under their own label and have some awesome drinks available that they owned from the distillation date till the end.

A pretty cool concept and something I still like to try my hand at at some point, but which so far hasn’t happened yet. Especially the part where you can go to the distillery or bottler’s warehouse and visit the cask, as well as try a sample from it as it matures is something that I find very appealing.

But, to actually do something like that, I should stop buying bottles and save some money to buy a (share of a) cask. I suck at that. The slew of bottle shares proves that.

Anyway, they had a Port Charlotte bottled last year and I got to try it through Govert, one of the Longmorn collectors I’ve blogged about earlier.

Port Charlotte is Port Charlotte. The peaty Bruichladdich brand, but not as peaty as Octomore. Not much to say about it, except that it’s becoming more and more unlikely that that distillery is ever going to be rebuilt.

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
A heap of peat to start with. Smoke, straw and somehow, onion. Quite vegetal. It gets a bit sharper after a few seconds with more vegetable scents. Butter, warm and farmy.

Sip:
The palate is sharp and dry. Coarse even. White pepper and chalk, as well as sawdust, peat. A farm yard with dirt and straw and animals. Also, fried onions.

Swallow:
The finish is slightly fatty, but also dry with quite some oak, peat, smoke, straw and dirt. Quite long.

It’s surprisingly sharp for a 50% dram. I expected it to be more mellow. And where it lacks some depth and layeredness I did get from other Port Charlottes, the scents and flavors include that farmy bit which I love.

The smoke is present, but it’s not so prominent that it punches you in the face. Especially not after you’ve already had some other drams. Quite well balanced, apart from the surprising sharpness.

It’s biggest boon is the fact that this went for only € 40!

86/100

Port Charlotte 10yo, 01/07/2004 – 23/04/2015 , 50%, Caskplan 1, cask 912, Fresh Bourbon Cask.