7.2 Port Charlotte 2012 1st Fill Bourbon Barrel, 10 years old, 60.6%
Distilled on 18th July 2012, this whisky spent its whole 10-year life maturing in cask #2554. This maturation took place in a 1st fill Bourbon barrel from the Jack Daniels distillery.
Bottled in February 2023 as Release 7.2 of the Jim McEwan Signature Collection, like all bottlings within the collection, it was bottled un-chill filtered, with no added colour, and at natural cask strength of 60.6% (as we always say, Jim would have it no other way!), it yielded only 232 bottles.
Tasting notes from Jim McEwan MBE
Aromas - Opens on a beautiful combination of peat smoked barley with tantalising hints of lemon & honey, then waves of heather in bloom drift by. Little notes of juniper and pine mingle beautifully with the spiciness of bourbon residue and sweetness of malt extract.
It’s Islay at its best, in the early summer with the warm winds from the Atlantic Ocean caressing the barley fields and depositing the salty moisture on the land that give the barley its unique flavour.
Palate - The sweetness of malt extract is in harmony with the smokiness from the peat and also the spicy residue from bourbon-soaked staves, it evolves slowly creating the flavour profile that makes this spirit unique.
The most important element of this spirit is that it is distilled by Islanders who simply walk in the footsteps of their forefathers; no computers, no chemists, no BS, just passion, pride and patience.