Port Askaig 10th Anniversary
Sometimes a bottle of whisky hits me just the right way. Sometimes a dram simply connects with my palate in a way that perfectly encapsulates my mood and makes me want to dance alone in my living room, Glencairn in hand. Sometimes it’s immediate. Sometimes it takes several tastings. It can be an inexpensive, easy to find bottle, or it can be an impossible to get, have to sell a kidney to afford it bottle. It’s a bit unpredictable and certainly rare. But when it happens, it just makes me fall in love with single malt whisky all over again. The last time I wrote a review about a bottle like that, it was Port Charlotte 10 (one of my favorite value for money whiskies). Today, it’s another Islay whisky, but this time from an independent bottler. It’s Port Askaig 10th Anniversary, a 10 year old, cask strength single malt from an undisclosed Islay distillery (cough, cough, Caol Ila, cough).
For some reason, every year around the holiday season, I tend to go through a bit of palate fatigue, where whisky just doesn’t taste quite as enjoyable to me. It doesn’t happen every year, but it’s happened each of the last two years. Last month I got together with my local whisky group for our first tasting of 2021, and it was an epic one. We sampled a 30 year old Caol Ila, a 22 year old Lagavulin, and a Port Ellen, amongst many other excellent drams. It was an amazing lineup. I was hoping the tasting would break me out of my slump and reinvigorate my whisky palate. But it didn’t. I enjoyed the tasting, don’t get me wrong. I recognized the high quality of the drams we tasted. But even though I enjoyed it, I didn’t really love any of the whiskies we tasted.
Afterwards I decided I needed a break from whisky for a while, so I didn’t drink any single malts for a couple of weeks. After that break, I eased back into a dram or two cautiously. Taking a two week break from drinking whisky can do wonders to reset your palate, but for me it takes more than just a break—I needed a whisky that would revive my dormant whisky passion. And so I turned to a few bottles I had especially enjoyed throughout 2020 to see what might really get me excited to drink whisky again. It turned out to be Port Askaig 10th Anniversary that did the trick. And boy, did it ever do the trick. It was already one of my favorite bottles of 2020, but now… now this was a dram that made my taste buds sing.
Port Askaig is an independent bottler of Islay whisky, named after the port village of the same name on the east coast of Islay. They produce a number of Islay whiskies, with a range that includes an 8 year old, a high proof NAS, a 25 year old, and more. For their 10 year anniversary in 2019, they released this limited bottling 10 year old cask strength single malt from an unnamed Islay distillery. All of their releases are actually undisclosed, and supposedly they source casks from more than one Islay distillery, but it’s generally believed that much of their whisky comes from Caol Ila. In the case of this 10th Anniversary release, well, it’s almost certainly Caol Ila whisky. According to the back of the bottle:
“Bottled to commemorate the 10th anniversary of our Port Askaig series of single malts, this 10-year-old expression combines first-fill bourbon hogsheads (25%), refill hogsheads (60%) and sherry butts (15%) selected from a distillery close to the village of Port Askaig. Showing a careful balance of peat, fruit and oak, this whisky particularly shines with a higher ABV of 55.85% – which also happens to be the geographical latitude of the port itself.”
What distillery is “close to the village of Port Askaig”? Well if you take a look at a map of Islay, you’ll see that it’s Caol Ila. Of course, I suppose it depends on your definition of the word “close.” In the grand scheme of the world, every Islay distillery is close to Port Askaig. But come on, that’s just willfully overcomplicating things. I’m 98% sure that this whisky is indeed Caol Ila. Which is a good thing. I love Caol Ila, especially independent bottlings. Especially this bottle.
Port Askaig 10th Anniversary Review
Type: Single Malt Scotch
Region: Islay
Age: 10 years
ABV: 55.85%
Non chill-filtered
Natural color
Nose
Big and smoky, with notes of medicine, sea shells, and brine. Plenty of minerality. A bit vegetal. Vanilla and fruit syrup lurk behind the peat. Peaches and apples. Fresh pine needles. Sage. Classic, unadulterated Islay. Definitely smells like Caol Ila to me. A really fantastic Caol Ila.
Palate
Rich peat smoke. Briny. Sea spray. Smoked meats and shellfish. Bacon grease. Lighter fruits, plenty of apple. Woody. Spicy. Ginger. Vanilla. Earthy. Sage. Heather. Tobacco leaves. A touch of caramel. Pecan praline. Savory with just enough sweetness. Incredibly well balanced and nicely complex. The texture is nice and oily.
Finish
Very long and fairly dry. Crisp green apples. Lemon zest. Lingering peat smoke. Subtle oakiness. Pipe tobacco.
Overall
A classic and fantastic Islay whisky. Quintessential Islay whisky. There are no weak points here. The nose, the palate, the texture, the finish—all excellent. Even though I believe this is Caol Ila, there is also something about this dram that reminds me ever so slightly of Lagavulin. Specifically it makes me think of a really good release of Lagavulin 12 Cask Strength, such as the 2017 version (other years that I’ve had haven’t quite lived up to the 2017, especially the 2019, which was surprisingly poor). While the flavor profile isn’t exactly the same, there is something about this Port Askaig that carries on the same soul as that 2017 Lagavulin 12. Maybe some of the refill hogsheads that were used in this whisky originally held Lagavulin? Maybe, but who knows. What I do know is that if this bottle said Lagavulin on the label, people would have gone nuts over it. Luckily for those who care more about what’s in the bottle than what’s on the bottle, it doesn’t say Lagavulin or any other distillery name on it, making it easier and cheaper to acquire. It’s simply a great whisky that anyone who enjoys peat should give a try.
SCORE: 8/10
Final Thoughts
Unlike in some previous years, I didn’t put together any whisky awards for 2020, but if I had, there’s a pretty good chance I would have given single malt of the year to this whisky. Never mind the fact that it was actually released in 2019, not 2020. I enjoyed it throughout 2020, and now in 2021 my opinion of it has grown even higher. I dare you to find a more complex and well balanced 10 year old whisky. I dare you to find a better Islay whisky that’s $100 or less. If you find either, let me know. If this were the only Islay whisky on my shelf, I’d be perfectly content (well, mostly content, haha).
Buying Advice: If you see it, buy it. I’m on my second bottle and plan to buy a third soon. In my opinion, there is no better cask strength Islay whisky currently available at this price point ($100). It is, unfortunately, a limited release, but bottles are still out there if you hunt for them.
Questions about my scoring system? Refer to the Review Method & Scoring Scale page.
For more reviews, check out the Whisky Review Archive.
