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
- Clynelish 90 yo 1972 / 2002 Scotch Malt Sales 58% vs Clynelish 23 yo 1974 / 1998 Rare Malts 59.1%
- Scapa 12 yo 40% ~2000 vs Scapa 8 yo Gordon & Macphail 57% ~ late 80s
- Bruichladdich 21 yo 1992 / 2014 Duncan Taylor #3987 49.7% vs Bruichladdich 22 yo 1991 / 2014 Gleann Mor #2270 55.9%
- Rosebank 26 yo 1967 / 1994 Signatory #4397 51.7% vs Rosebank 25 yo 1967 / 1993 Signatory #4393-4394 54.4%
- Macduff 40 yo 1968 / 2008 Duncan Taylor #8547 45.5% vs Deanston 23 yo 1967 / 1991 Signatory #1785 55.4%
- Highland Park 22 yo Cadenhead 80 proof vs Highland Park 14 yo 1978 / 1993 Cadenhead 55.2%
- Dailuaine 31 yo 1966 / 1997 Cadenhead 57.1% vs Dailuaine 22 yo 1973 / 1996 Rare Malts 60.92%
- Brora 1972 / 1996 Gordon & Macphail Connoisseurs Choice 40% vs Brora 24 yo 1977 / 2001 Rare Malts 56.1% vs Brora 19 yo 1982 / 2001 Chieftains #1189/1192 46%
- Clynelish 12 yo for Whiskyteca Edward & Edward long cap 56.9% vs Clynelish 12 yo for Whiskyteca Edward & Edward bicolour 56.9%
- Talisker 30 yo 1953 Gordon & Macphail 40% vs Talisker 1957 Gordon & Macphail 53.5%
