Port Charlotte is of course Bruichladdich’s heavily peated whisky, peated to 40 ppm, sitting comfortably between the un-peated Bruichladdich and the super-heavily peated Octomore, which to date has gone as stratospherically high as 309 ppm. While Octomores are also higher in strength and generally bottled at a younger age, don’t take that to mean that Port Charlottes have a soft touch in comparison, particularly in their cask strength guises. They’re still deliciously peaty whiskies, even in their teenaged years. And let’s not forget that Octomore can be surprisingly refined despite its youth and the very high numbers. The name Port Charlotte refers to the village of the same name which is down the road from Bruichladdich on Islay, and was home to Loch Indaal Distillery, which closed in 1929. Bruichladdich’s Port Charlotte is a homage to that long dead distillery, the product of which was said to be quite peaty and heavy in character, and the warehouses which are the last remnants of Loch Indaal Distillery are now home to some of Bruichladdich’s maturing stock.