I reviewed Octomore 8.1 last week but I can’t really stop here so let’s head on to the next one in the series – Octomore 8.2.

Just like Octomore 8.1, it’s 100% Scottish barley peated to 167 ppm level and carries an 8 year old age statement.

The x.2 suffix in the series is reserved for wine maturation or finish, but this year it’s kind of extreme as the casks composition is complex. At first, the Octomore spirit spent six years in one of three different types of wine casks (all second fill casks):

• French Mourvedre
• Austrian sweet wines
• French Sauternes

And then finished (or as Bruichladdich call it: ACEd) in fresh Amarone casks for additional two years. From those Amarone casks, 36,000 were produced for the travel retail shops.

Octomore 8.2 Masterclass (58.4%, ~€159.90)

Nose: Sweet malt and sweet red wine, tannins, nuts, lactic, moss, big time leather- new shoe leather and smoked leather. Red gooseberry, freshly cut wet peat. After a few minutes, perfume, bay leaves, cloves, and more and more leather.

Palate: Complex sweetness with all those red wines casks fighting and clashing. BBQ meat, leather, dry meat a la biltong, pepper, peat smoke, gentle oakiness and pepper spiciness.

Finish: Long, sweet rich red fruit and wine, tannins, leathery dry meat, dry peat smoke, oak spices and bay leaves.

Thoughts: Phew this is a big bold whisky. All those red wines casks provides quite a roller coaster on the palate (in a good way). Bottom line It’s a good and complex Octomore and a bottle shall be on my shelf.