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Like the Intermediate Sherry release, Portonova is constructed using an involved process that Whisky Advocate editor John Hansell describes as a “port-pipe sandwich”: The single-malt spends approximately 3 years in a combination of new and ex-bourbon barrels, in the hot and humid Indian climate, followed by a dunk for several months in imported Portuguese port pipes. After picking up some port character (again, this is a tropical climate so the process is accelerated), the whisky is transferred back into ex-bourbon barrels to marry before bottling at cask-strength. On the nose, a thick pudding; fruit and caramel have merged into one slightly over-oaked soup; burnt apple pie. On the palate, this is essentially a port pipe sandwich…. and it shows. The spicy, jammy fruit is interwoven through any amount of caramel while the oaky saltiness gets the taste buds both salivating and puckering until you run dry. On the finish, long, massive oak with quite evident traces of the virgin barrels now detectable. And more of a cocoa hue as it progresses. At last some muscovado sugars arrive to supplant the berry fruits.