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
- Convalmore 24 yo 1978 /2003 Rare Malts 59.4% vs Convalmore 40 yo 1977 / 2017 Cadenhead 56.8%
- Lochside 29 yo 1981 / 2010 The Perfect Dram 51.1% vs Lochside 31 yo 1966 / 1998 Silent Stills #3910 57.7%
- Royal Brackla 16 yo Zenith 57% vs Royal Brackla 17 yo Intertrade 63.9%~bottled 1987
- Laphroaig 30 yo 43% ~ early 2000s vs Lagavulin 30 yo 1976 / 2006 52.6%
- Highland Park 13 yo 2006 for Simplywhisky Singapore #1646 64.7% vs Highland Park 30 yo 1989 / 2019 Gordon & Macphail 19/003 51.1%
- Pulteney 13 yo 1967 / 1980 Cadenhead 46% vs Laphroaig 21 yo Cadenhead for Sestante 52.1% ‘White Label’
- Ben Nevis 21 yo 1996 / 2018 Whisky Doris #2028 52.2% vs Ben Nevis 21 yo Private Bottling #1407 48.8%
- Glen Ord 40 yo 1965 Royal Mile Whiskies 40.1% vs Glenury Royal 24 yo 1973 / 1997 Signatory #6851 53.7%
- Lagavulin 12yo Special Release 2019 56.5% vs Pulteney 12yo 2008 / 2020 Nectar 57.5%
- Millburn 18 yo 1978 / 1997 Gordon & MacPhail #3166 65.6%
whiskyrific 