(Port Charlotte cluster homepage)
Sadly, I cannot provide any consistency with my Port Charlotte + Wine Cask takes. Sometimes I want more cask variety, sometimes less. That's why I cannot be against all wine (or non-sherry fortified wine) cask releases. Sometimes, when a good blending team has the right casks and the right recipe, a balance is struck and a new complex whisky is born. Without those elements, the whisky results in one of those gruesome indie Murray McDavid single cask products.
Speaking of Murray McDavid (segue!), I'm hesitant to opine on who did Port Charlotte better: Mark Reynier's MMcD or Big Rémy. All of this cluster's whisky was distilled by Murray McDavid, while all but one of the non-PCs were bottled by Rémy, and all but one of the PCs were bottled by Murray McDavid. So there's a lot of crossover.
One thing has been consistent about these 13 whiskies; they were all official bottlings. It's time go older and off-road with the next 11 Port Charlottes. There will be indies, unique officials and a lot of teenage(!) single malt. I'm even opening up two of......hold on I'm getting the vapors......my bottles for the final week.
<10yo Port Charlotte was great, will >10yo be even better?