I’ve just about drained my bottle of Port Charlotte 10. It was a full litre and it only lasted a few months That should you most of what you need to know up front.

But sitting next to it on the shelf is something rather special: a Kilchoman 13 Year Old Limited Edition. It is definitely one of the most interesting drams I’ve had in a long time.

I decided it was time to put these two heavily peated Islay single malts side by side and work out what separates them, beyond “they’re both smoky and I love them.”

I am not going to pretend I can tell you “buy this one, not that one.” I’d happily drink both, all day, every day. But I found there is a difference between them, and it’s not what I had expected.
For the record, they are both non chill filtered and do not have colouring added. And they are both giants from the home of peated whiskies, Islay.

Port Charlotte 10: The One That Hits You Hard

Port Charlotte is Bruichladdich’s heavily peated line, sitting between the unpeated core range and the utterly ridiculously expensive Octomore, also a favourite of mine The 10 Year Old is the flagship, bottled at a robust 50%.

The first thing you notice is the bottle itself: dark, almost opaque glass. You can barely see the whisky inside until you pour it. There’s possibly something dramatic about that.

Founded in 1881, what many people do not appreciate is that the distillery was revived as recently as 2001 by the brilliant Mark Reynier. Since 2012, it has been owned by Rémy Cointreau, the French spirits group

Open the bottle and the smoke arrives before you’ve even got the glass to your nose. Bold barbecue peat, near medicinal, wrapped in heavy summer fruits. It’s peated to 40 ppm, matured mostly in first and second fill American bourbon casks with a portion of second fill French wine casks in the mix,

On the  palate, you know immediately why it’s been named whisky of the year by so many aficionados over the years. Hard and heavy in the best possible sense. Baked pears and apples, bourbon biscuits with a hint of white pepper in the background. A sharp but lingering finish, it’s been a joy to share with friends.

Kilchoman 13: The One That Makes You Think

Kilchoman is a different beast entirely, and its history is part of the reason why. It was the first new distillery built on Islay in 124 years, founded in 2005 by Anthony Wills and his family. It remains proudly independent. What makes it genuinely unusual is that it’s a farm distillery: barley grown on site at Rockside Farm goes straight into the whisky, And demand has grown enough that they now bring in barley from other local farms.

I’m already a big fan of their Machir Bay, bottled at 46%, matured roughly for 7 or 8 years, with that lovely lemony sweetness that makes it dangerously easy to drink by the glassful. The 13 Year Old is a similar colour but a different level of intensity altogether, and bottled at 50%.

Full disclosure: My wife kindly bought me that bottle for my birthday, and she did not know at the time that I had been waiting to try this for ages. (It is the more expensive of the two opponents).

On the nose, it’s surprisingly light. Vanilla, carrot, even orange, nothing too dense. You could almost be fooled into thinking this is the gentler of the two whiskies. Then it hits your palate and the whole thing changes character; apricots, peaches, strawberries. It is an absolute basket of summer fruit, the sort of thing you want to eat with a dollop of clotted cream. The finish is slow, long, and quietly delightful.

Here’s the twist. I’d assumed this was a straightforward bourbon cask whisky. This limited edition is matured in a combination of ex-bourbon barrels, smaller bourbon “octave” casks, and Calvados apple brandy casks, That Calvados influence is possibly where those orchard fruit notes are coming from.

And another surprise: Kilchoman’s 13 Year Old is actually peated to 50 ppm, higher than the Port Charlotte’s 40 ppm, even though it noses far more gently. Is this proof that ppm on a spec sheet is not an indication about how a whisky is actually going to behave in the glass?

Which Is Better?

Do not misunderstand me. I’d replace both without hesitation.

However…..

The Kilchoman is a different kind of pleasure. It’s the one you pour when you want to sit with it, work out what you’re tasting today versus what you tasted yesterday, and argue about it with whoever’s next to you.

Is the difference simply those extra three years in the cask?  I genuinely don’t know.

What I do know is that if I had to choose just one to keep on the shelf, I’d choose the Kilchoman 13.

Two heavily peated Islay whiskies. Two completely different personalities. Both very much worth your money.

Slàinte mhath.