North Port 15 yo 1974 / 1989 Sestante ‘Very Rare’ 66.1% vs North Port 14 yo 1974 / 1988 Intertrade 66.2%
North Port, or Brechin, distillery was one of those hit by the whisky downturn of the 80s and closed for good in 1983. Not particularly missed or lamented, one still finds old bottles on the secondary market at a comparable discount to other closed distilleries of the period. Neither have I met anyone who has had particularly positive things to say about North Port, not a surprise to me based on the couple of other North Ports I have tried elsewhere.
(photo – skanemalt.se)
North Port 15 yo 1974 / 1989 Sestante ‘Very Rare’ 66.1%
Not a great start but not terrible either: Porridge and boiled vegetables, frying oil, paraffin and flinty hot sand. Lots of tree sap and rubbed bark. Clear resinoid compounds. Withered grass and a touch of dunnage funk. Undoubtedly characterful if somewhat brusque and ungainly to behold. Beware – a raging torment on the tongue, don’t try without water. Ugh! Even with water its just purely alkaline, hot salty oil, some sort of biofuel and loaded with a masochistic amount of grapefuit pith. Certainly a character.
North Port 14 yo 1974 / 1988 Intertrade 66.2%
Remarkably similar, save that this one shows off a sunnier disposition with a caramel, apple sauce, empty jam tart box sweetness. Sherry casks it says but I only find echoes here. Instead it returns to hydrocarbons and paraffin, reused fry oil and sooty flecks. Vegetables and hot sand. Resin compounds and thick white sap again. A careful glace of grass and motor oil, yes very fine. The trepidation of tasting is justly deserved, though the disappointment is allayed by finding some syrup where expecting salt. Otherwise bitter pith, metallic oil, plasticky candy. A most cantankerous duo these twins make.
Whiskyrific RSS
- Wardhead 19 yo 1997 Impressive Cask Whisky-e Ltd 51.1% vs Wardhead 19 yo 1997 Big Fish Whisk-e Ltd 51.3%
- Brora 37 yo 2016 Special Release 48.6% vs Brora 37 yo 2015 Special Release 50.4%
- Bunnahabhain 1968 / 2010 Malts of Scotland #12291 40% vs Bunnahabhain 25 yo 1964 / 1990 Master of Malts #4852-4856 46%
- Glen Grant 8 yo Securo Cap 100 proof vs Glen Grant 15 yo Securo Cap 70 proof
- Bellevue 17 yo 1998 Duncan Taylor #94 52.2% vs Bellevue 18 yo 1998 Kill Devil Hunter Laing 58.2%
- Oban 27 yo 1963 James MacArthur 56% vs Oban 32 yo 1969 / 2002 55.1%
- Longmorn 21 yo 1973 / 1994 Signatory #9279 54.9% vs Longmorn 31 yo 1964 / 1996 Kingsbury #52 59%
- Ardbeg 12 yo 80 proof, white label bottled for the French Market in 1966 vs Ardbeg 18 yo 1975 / 1993 Signatory #2461-2463 43%
- Springbank 21 yo 1995 / 2017 #470 Copper Monument vs Springbank 15 yo 1992 / 2007 The Whisky Society 52.6%
- Dalmore 30 yo 1963 / 1993 Cadenhead 54.5% vs Dalmore 1977 Glenscoma #12147 ’20 Year Anniversary of SCOMA GmbH’ 60.4%
