Journey’s End Release 2 - Port Charlotte 2003, 18 year old

Journey’s End Release 2 - Port Charlotte 2003, 18 year old

When Jim announced his retirement in 2021 and we were in discussions with him over what bottling to release to mark the occasion it quickly became clear that it was not that simple! To mark a career with one bottling alone proved to much. The plan was hatched to sign off his career with one each of his ‘cherished children’, a Bruichladdich, Port Charlotte and an Octomore.

Following the pattern of the Signature Collection it seemed fitting Journeys End 2 was a Port Charlotte and an 18-year-old one at that! Indeed, this was the oldest cask in Jim’s collection so it is an honour to bottle it and share it with the world.

Distilled on 16th July 2003 this whisky spent its whole 18-year life maturing in cask #814. This maturation took place in a 1st fill bourbon barrel from an undisclosed American distillery.

Bottled in October 2021 as the second Journeys End release, like all bottlings within the collection, it was bottled un-chill filtered, with no added colour, and at natural cask strength of 58.3% (as ever, Jim would have it no other way!), it yielded only 231 bottles.

Tasting notes from Jim McEwan

Aromas - A beautiful combination of marine flora & fauna encapsulated in a halo of peat smoke & charred oak. The sweet cereal notes of the malted barley arise slowly like walking beside a barley field in mid-August. Then hints of green apple & pear emerge leading into a riverbank bouquet of primrose, buttercup and lily!

Palate - Is rich and viscous due to the non-chill filtration and while very potent this Islay gem walks a different path. A fruitier, smoky cereal route with drifts of heather in bloom on a westerly breeze. A hint of sweet spiciness from the bourbon residue joins the travellers on their Islay odyssey. The balance between the alcohol fruitiness, the oak and the smoke is pure magic in a glass.

It’s Islay on a summer evening. Slow distillation, passion & skill, ancient oak and a team of dedicated Islanders committed by their DNA handed down by their Forefathers.