I know it’s been a while since my last post on the blog, but it’s not a paying gig and there were other things that were occupying my free time. I’ll try to get back to posting on a more regular basis and I’ll start with a recap and review of the #LaddieMP5 event held by Bruichladdich last Thursday.
In case you aren’t familiar with the MP term, MP means Micro Provenance as Bruichladdich are keen on testing and exploring the impact of terroir, barley and casks on the final result and last Thursday was the 5th public MP event (hence the #LaddieMP5 hashtag) where multitude of people around the world were tasting 3 whiskies chosen especially for the events. You can see the full live broadcast right here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDn5Q4zzYDY
This time it was all Port Charlotte whiskies, peated to 40 ppm (as is the usual rate for PC whiskies), all of the same age (+/- few months).
Here are the notes I gathered on the #LaddieMP5 drams:
Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 10 Year Old (Fresh Bourbon cask) (56.9%, cask #1999)
Nose: starts malty and intense with promises of spices with pepper and freshly sawed oak wood. Now the peat shows up and there’s a strong feel of freshness and sweetness despite strong note of salt. A few whiffs of fish sauce like being on the beach near the fishermen with their fresh haul, honey and vanilla pudding, I did say fresh, right? Getting sweeter over time, more vanilla pudding and the peat can’t rise farther and stays relaxed with a bit of perfume and peaches. Continue reading
Nose: Dry and fuzzy, peat, sweet wine, butterscotch, sticky toffee, hazelnut, burnt wood smoke (Which reminds me of the PC12).
Nose: Very malty at first with cereals porridge, whiffs of orange and tangerines at first, it’s salty beyond my expectations, dusty with limestone as well, honey and vanilla, cut ripe peaches and apricots , minuscule traces of peat smoke, With additional time it becomes cloudy way beyond dusty and deep inhales reveals the funky lactic laddie trademark, and lemon honey. 
Nose: Very closed and muted at first due to the high ABv but slowly heavy sweetness develops along with heavy flowered meadow, apricots and peaches grove, burnt toffee, a bit over-burnt caramel, coals and wood smoke, late night bonfire remnants, almost not peated after the active cask robbed the phenols for 7 years. 
Nose: Very restrained, showing lots of fruitiness on the front seat and some peat smoke in the background. I doesn’t smell like a very peated whisky (like Octomore) but I guess we can attribute it to the quadruple distillation (and casks selection). Citrus (oranges and lemon), creamy cereals, vanilla. on the back there’s the smoke, wood smoke and damp peat. 
Nose: Restrained and smooth peat, vanilla, sweet red berries that slowly develop into a formidable dry red wine impact but the it’s beautifully balanced with the peat. There’s a strong back-end of cereals and fruity notes supporting this all. Due to the high ABV I tried it with a few drops of water and it’s showing more cereal and barley, lighter peat and weaker wine impact. 
Nose: Starts with a strong peat note but without much bonfire smoke and then an attack of flavours. Cereal pudding, lemon, vanilla with moist fruits. After a few minutes, the peat is more refined and sharper with more smoke but it still keeps the cereal and fruity character. 
Whisky Gospel 