20 September 2009

Of clinical eels and PC drinks



It's looking probable that I'll have internet at home next week, so these blogs should appear more frequently rather than two or three at once - which is me writing at home and eventually getting around to bringing them into work to post.

So it's Friday night. It's been a very busy week - more on that in the less excitingly named blog to come.
But on the plus side my PC8 arrived. So I've been savouring the evening waiting for the right time to open it and imbibe. Regular readers will know my love of the Port Charlotte 6yo and Port Charlotte 7yo - and the surprise at the dramatic flavour change between the two years. The 8yo is now sitting next to me, as I've finished the flyer for a PC clinic I'm setting up at work. I was hoping the successful tender would do that, sadly the glacial speed of Uni's is worldwide and both the contractor and I are sitting there going, err well yeah I'd like you to start next week…the upshot being I'm covering and doing the poster.
That was done to No-Man, or rather Disk1 of the best-of No-man. Which all told is a reasonable introduction to them.

I've moved onto the Eels 'Blinking Lights and other revelations', which reminds me I must get his new one…

So the whisky: but before I do, it appears my love of the scottish nectar is getting around the department, one of the desktop lads wandered by having being given a bottle and said, is it any good? It was a smallish (375ml?) bottle of Bruichladdich and he looked quite happy when I said I hadn't had that one - Bruichladdich put out a ridiculous number of expressions. But they were a damn good distillery and I had a couple - oh and their other distillery is PC, and pulled the 8yo out of the bag.

PC8
Oh and bear in mind, this is being done in a long necked glass, not ideal for tastings - particular nosing !
Nose: caramel, sweet, not an islay, hint of vanilla, if i didn't know I'd say it was a midlands/highland whisky (or a springbank, since they are silly…)
Body: woody, salt/bacon, caramel, full bodied, honey, huge.
Finish: pepper,long, definitely grows.
Score: hard to judge as it's the only whisky I'm drinking tonight, but 9 or 10/10

That's not a typical Islay description at all. The nearest thing I can compare it to is the 14yo Edradour I had. It is incredibly complex, and has changed dramatically since the PC6 becoming far more subtle and nuanced. A late night contemplative whisky as compared to the give me your blue cheese and watch me smash it of the PC6.
Nick and I, when tasting the PC6 and PC7 next to each other, were commenting on the huge changes, and wondered if this whisky will manage to last to a PC10 as it may be in danger of losing 'it'.
The PC8 is a huge change from the 6 and 7, I could do a vertical of them…hmmm…
Having said that, Daniel over the years has flicked us the odd old Islay, and some of those were very very good. The tasting notes, and Jim McEwan's are worth reading - they make prog-rock look restrained, suggest he's looking forward to it's ageing, so maybe...

Like your complex whisky but don't necessary like the bulldozer approach of a typical Islay? Go buy this.

Eels have finished, time for some Coen brothers movies me thinks. Barton Fink in fact.

B

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