I picked up the Port Charlotte after looking for something for a recent whisky weekend. We'd decided there would be a peaty theme to this one as we had some guests who we knew loved their peat. Needless to say when I saw the Port Charlotte 10 with its claim of "Heavily Peated" I figured I had to.

The bottle and presentation did worry me a bit, we're a group that love a traditional looking bottle. The Port Charlotte comes in a clean, modern presentation which had me worried it might be a whisky trying to sell to people that just want a hit of peat without much substance.

Needless to say I shouldn't have worried and had to eat some humble pie. Even though it followed after quite a few other strongly peated whiskies, the character and substance came though and showed off some very interesting flavours which the other whiskies hadn't shown. Since then I've been working though the bottle and really enjoying it as my current peaty whisky of choice.

Depending on what you've eaten before, how many whiskies you've had, and what phase the moon is in, you can look forward to some savoury BBQ flavours with a lovely tang to it which sets this whisky apart from others.

On a day to day bases this whisky will be lovely and sweet with caramel and wood smoke. Other times you'll try it and there's a real savoury sweet flavour reminiscent of a tangy BBQ sauce, the good kind where they haven't drowned it in sugar. As you open it up you'll find a lots of citrus on the nose and pine resin coming through as the sweetness and wood smoke are pushed back.

The after taste is juicy and complex. There is a lingering liquorish sweetness which sticks with you long after you swallow. As it dissipates a saltiness making a lovely salty sweet flavour like butterscotch. I think this is a really solid whisky. It punches really well for the price point of just over 40 pounds. If you're a fan of the Ardbeg core range I'd definitely recommend this as one to try.