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.
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