White Peak Wire Works Full Port

@whitepeakwhisky's latest release is a Full Port maturation - four years in Tawny Port!

I've always been a sucker for Tawny Port if it's done right, let's have a look...

Situated just South of the  Peak District, near the town of Ambergate, White Peak Distillery have been producing whisky since 2016

There latest release is Full Port:

"Full Port is our very first release of Wire Works whisky matured fully in port casks. The casks are all made at family-owned Dias Cooperage in Porto. Each cask is made at the cooperage by local, high-skilled craftsmen using traditional techniques, knowledge built up and passed down over many years from generation to generation. 

Once the casks have been used in the Port sector they make their way back to the cooperage before embarking on a second career in whisky. The ultimate in refill and reuse. We filled these casks in 2019 and they’ve been laid down in our lower dunnage ever since."

Max nosing the casks at the Dias Cooperage in Porto.

Bottler info:

Full Port

Distilled 2019

Lightly Peated
6 Tawny Port Barriques.
Bottled at Cask Strength 52.4%
1995 Bottles.

Tasting notes:

Nose: Bakewell pudding, milk chocolate, cinder toffee, burnt sugar, cinnamon buns, liquorice all sorts, cherry lozenges, toasted almond, candied ginger, strawberry jam.

Palate: Marzipan, strawberries and cream, tinned peaches, lemon curd, vanilla fudge, spearmint, dark chocolate, grapefruit zest and iced buns.

Finish: Cherry pie filling, bonfire toffee, hibiscus, biltong, and eucalyptus.

My thoughts:

Appearance: mid gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, take some time to bead up and fall as slow thin legs.

Nose: Hedgerow berries to start, some cinder toffee and burnt coffee. The berries come through as strawberries, raspberries and blackberries - typical port notes. Fudge and dark chocolate add a lovely layer of complexity. There's a marzipan note hinting towards Christmas!

Palate: Thick sweet arrival, berries to the fore with a lovely black cherry jam note. The marzipan from the nose is back, sweet, sugary and nutty along with the dark chocolate. There's a lovely cinnamon spice as the liquid disappears leaving the mouth dry and slightly ashy - the first hint of smoke from this lightly peated dram. A few more sips increases the complexity: vanilla ice cream, cocoa nibs, a little salinity - salted lemons? and a hint of liquorice.

Finish: long and fruity, a bite of spice and drying.

Overall: I've been a fan of White Peak for a while, reasonably priced cask strength bottles which are very drinkable. This was was bought at Kendal Whisky Festival in December and won't last the end of the month. It's only 4 years old but there's a complexity here you don't find in many of the same age. The Necessary Evil beer cask finished bottle is the the same (why haven't you reviewed that one yet? Ed.) and the only beer cask finished dram I really like (it was in my Top Ten for 2023). I think the Full Port has been bottled at just the right time - I really didn't like the 8yo from Kilkerran last year - just too much port. White Peak still have this one on their website - I might need to get another!

 

Trying the dram with Tom at Kendal Whisky Festival