I had drifted again but still there’s time for a review of the next Octomore trio. We reviewed the 9.1/10.1/11.1 trio and 9.2/10.2/11.2 trio and now it’s the x.3 series turn.

Octomore x.3 series is more similar to the x.1 series but it focus on local barley grown in the Octomore farm. Like x.1 series it’s all ex-bourbon casks with slightly different age and PPM:

• Octomore 9.3 is 5 Year Old, peated to 133ppm.
• Octomore 10.3 is 6 Year Old, peated to 114ppm.
• Octomore 11.3 is 5 Year Old and is peated to 194 ppm.

Octomore 9.3 5 Year Old (58.2%, 133ppm, €160)

Nose: Sweet smoke, perfume, farmy, hay, fields, cattle, honey, coals smoke, wildfire smoke, fumes, peaches and melon, vanilla. Continue reading →

Time for the next Octomore Trio. Last week we reviewed the 9.1/10.1/11.1 trio and we’re moving on to the x.2 series.

Octomore x.2 series incorporates wine casks usage and used to be available exclusively at Travel Retail stores . Due to Covid19 pandemic, the last one, Octomore 11.2, is available exclusively at Bruichladdich distillery webshop as TR venues weren’t a viable distribution channel. So what wine casks were used for this trio? Have a look at this list:

• Octomore 9.2 is 5 Year Old: 4 Years in American Oak and 1 Year in Bordeaux, peated to 156ppm.
• Octomore 10.2 is 8 Year Old: 4 Year in First Fill American oak and 4 Years in Sauternes wine casks, peated to a extremely lower level of ‘just’ 96.9ppm.
• Octomore 11.2 is peated to 139.6 ppm, part was fully matured in Pauillac  ex-red wine casks and part was matured in a combination of ex-American whiskey casks and St Julien ex-red wine casks.

Octomore 9.2 5 Year Old (58.2%, 156ppm,€139.50)

Nose: Started weird (for an Octomore), it’s smoky and not peated, at first at least. Chimney and cigar smoke, dry tannins. But then the Bordeaux takes over with peat smoke in the background, red berries, nuts, raspberry and strawberry – and staying gentle and airy all the time. One of the least intense Octomore noses I encountered.

Palate: Sour sweet red berries, cherries, hard candies, and then peat and smoke, honey, BBQ meat, brine, cigar smoke, long espresso, very creamy and harmonious, kind like everything is in backseat and not overpowering.

Finish: Medium long length, lingering sweet peat and red berries with cherries, smoke, again very laid back.

In a nutshell: Bordeaux casks tamed the smoke.

Octomore 10.2 8 Year Old (56.9%, 96.9ppm, €124.50)

Nose: Sweet, smoky, fruity with raspberries and cranberries, jammy and sugary, richer and thicker than 9.2. Purple plums, wood smoke, floral sweetness, sweet wood extracts (Because it’s 8 yo, reminds me rums). With a few drops of water it’s fruitier, less intense, more red berries (of the fresh kind) and less smoke, keep the floral tinge.

Palate: Sweet burnt wood, peat smoke paste, raspberries and cherries jam, oak spice. With water more or less the same but less intense, burnt wood, fresh red berries, sweet wood extracts and chocolate.

Finish: Medium long length, sweet, wood, smoke, paste, raspberry. With water, more smoke and more fresh berries and some chocolate.

In a nutshell: Good but comes with extra wood driven flavours due to the extra years.

Octomore 11.2 5 Year Old (58.6%, 139.6ppm, £140)

Nose: Winey with tannins, red berries, mostly strawberry with some raspberries, soft smoke, brine, cured meat, smoke/peat almost docile, soft nose with structure not far off 9.2 with the gentle and airy feeling. After a while there’s a fixture of smoked meat in strawberry and milk chocolate sauce – smells tasty.

Palate: Smoky and soft, then cured meat, ashes and tar, getting more intense by the second, strawberries with a spoon of black raspberry jam, honey, more meat and ashes.

Finish: Medium long length, soft ashes, honey, strawberries and raspberries, sweetened meat scraps.

In a nutshell: Truly an ex-red wine Octomore.

Thoughts: This time the differences were noticeable as expected from using different wine casks. Octomore 10.2 is also a bit aged comparing to the other two and the (sweet) wood  impact is strong, a bit strong for my taste, But if you like that kind of flavor, look no further as it’s a beast. The other two (9.2 and 11.2) are more similar, both sporting ex-red wine casks. The 9.2 with merely a year in Bordeaux casks while 11.2 spent more time in wine casks. Hard to decide which one is better but I think I’ll go with 9.2 due to the gentle and laid back approach but I may be splitting hairs here as tomorrow I may go with 11.2.

Working on the stockpile of bottles and notes I’ve accumulated and not published (mostly in the last year, “thanks” to Covid19) and noticed I’m seriously lagging behind with Bruichladdich – I have tons of them waiting to be published. So here’s to a few Laddie posts but to make it interesting, let’s start with some head to head (to head) Octomore comparisons while we’re at it – should be interesting to see the differences between them, no?

Let’s start with the Octomore x.1 series. A wee reminder: the x.1 series is the Scottish barley matured in American Oak casks (A.K.A bourbon casks). There could be differences between the releases as we don’t know the ratio between 1st fill and refill casks. Today we have the three to compare today but the only surefire difference we can gleam from the official data sheets is the PPM level:

• Octomore 9.1 is peated to 156ppm
• Octomore 10.1 is peated to a lower level of ‘just’ 107ppm
• Octomore 11.1 is peated to 139.6 ppm (seriously? not a rounded number?)

They are all 5 Year Old whiskies and the ABV is very similar between the releases, on the range between 59.1% and 59.8%. For Octomore 9.1 and Octomore 10.1 there were 42,000 bottles and for Octomore 11.1 “only” 30,000 bottles were produced.

OK, that’s enough foreplay, lets go ahead and try that trio:

Octomore 9.1 5 Year Old (59.1%, 156ppm, £125.95/€124.99)

Nose: It starts a bit on the spirity side, then explodes with sweet peat, honey and floral side, also some tar in the background, pears. smooth and very rich. After a while there’s a floral edge to the nose, initially a bit soapy but thankfully it went away, the floral edge become perfumed and there’s Lavender and Patchouli as well and eventually cured meat and smoked meat with green melon. Continue reading →

It’s a very slow Sunday here so I think it’s a good time to review a punchy whisky to wake up the spirit and eventually I settled on some heavily peated whisky. Yes you guessed right – an Octomore. I have a few of those ready to be published so let’s review Octomore 8.4 today. I know it’s not a recent release (we already have the 9.x series out there for a while and the 10.x series coming soon) but since it’s still available out there for purchase, why not?

It’s the x.4 designation and it means that Otomore 8.4 is matured in virgin oak casks. But it’s not so simple or straight forward. Pay attention: 20% were matured in virgin oak casks and 80% were matured in first-fill ex-bourbon casks and then finished in second-fill virgin oak but those second-fill casks are in fact the Octomore 7.4 virgin oak casks! So even if it’s 8 years old, it should retain some of the Phenols as the barley was peated to 170ppm and we don’t have 100% turbo charged casks to suck all the Phenols.

Octomore 8.4 (Masterclass) (58.7%, £150/€148)

Nose: Vanilla and lemon, very sweet. Coconut and sweet oak extracts, sweet peat, even a bit aggressive peat. seaside air and saltiness. After a few minutes there’s also sweet smoke, brine, vinegar and spiciness led by cloves and cinnamon. Continue reading →

It’s really been a long time without an Octomore review on here, ah? A whole month has passed! 🙂

Truthfully I didn’t think another Octomore review will come out so soon but we’re closing on Feis Ile 2018 and some interesting Islay whiskys pop out.

Today I’m checking out a new Octomore from Dramfool, a Scottish independent bottler, released for Islay Whisky Festival 2018 which is also known as Feis Ile 2018 but the ‘Feis Ile’ term is now trademarked so Islay Whisky Festival it is in our case.

It’s a 150 ppm 6 year old Octomore (2011 vintage) from ex-bourbon Hogshead #4552/2011 that was filled for Simon Coughlin, Bruichladdich CEO at the time. Total of 253 bottles were produced from that Hogshead at a whopping 62%.

Octomore 2011 6 Year Old Dramfool (Islay Festival 2018) (62%, £160)

Nose: Crisp and well defined, sweet vanilla, sweet peat, It’s sweet but it’s not cloying or a dominating sweetness. Instead it’s more like gentle cake sugar icing sweetness. No smoke so far, but it does gets fruity after a few minutes: apricots with hints of floral perfume . With a few drops of water it’s on a new level of fruitiness with more apricots, green mango and papaya and becomes more perfumey. Continue reading →

After being a bit distracted by the Old Pulteney 2004 we’re back at some more Octomores and today we’re checking Octomore 8.3.

Unlike Octomore 8.1 and Octomore 8.2, Octomore 8.3 is only 5 year old which is more or less in line with previous Octomore generations. The barley was grown in a single field at Octomore farm (Bruichladdich Distillery neighbors) and 56% of the whisky was matured in ex-Bourbon casks and 44% matured in European oak casks. 18,000 bottles at 61.2% were produced.

The 309 PPM (Phenols per million) figure for Octomore 8.3 is mightly impressive, and probably holds the unofficial Guinness world record for the peatiest barley, but we do know that the PPM level drops rapidly from the malted barley stage to the final product (depending on distillation, barrels, etc). Nevertheless, I guess we still should expect heavy influence in the whisky so let’s check it out.

Octomore 8.3 Masterclass (61.2%, £156.55/€189,95)

Source: http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com

Nose: Malt, damp peat bomb, thick and dense heather honey with little vanilla. Salt and meat. Vinegar (like pickles in vinegar), overripe pears and peaches, cream. With water: the intensity goes down and we get some wood smoke, chocolate and more pears and peaches. Continue reading →

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. Continue reading →

Currently we’re having here a short spell of rainy days and a bit colder weather (unfortunately just a bit) which is refreshing to have in April after yet another too dry winter. Let’s use the occasion to check out a heavily peated whisky, Bruichladdich Octomore 8.1.

This Octomore 8.1 is peated to 167 ppm level, was distilled in 2008 using only Scottish barley. The casks used for this expressions are all first fill american oak casks. According to Bruichladdich casks from Buffalo Trace, Clermont Springs, Four Roses, Heaven Hill & Jack Daniels were used here and the long list explains how 42,000 bottles were made.

Octomore 8.1 Masterclass (Scottish Barley) (59.3%, £109)

Nose: Soft smoke, creamy with vanilla and fruitiness, green melon (that weakens over time), orange orchard, pastry and almonds and more fruit sweetness after a few minutes. Continue reading →

It was confirmed earlier today that we will see some Octomores on the shelves here next month. Hurray! And while celebrating this piece of news, I’ve noticed that I had neglected to post notes for Octomore 7.1 while reviewing 7.2, 7.3 and 7.4, so it’s time to get it fixed.

Octomore 7.1 was the last Octomore that Jim McEwan did for Bruichladdich before he retired after more than 50 years in the industry. It was made using Scottish barley peated to a then high record of 208 ppm and then was matured for 5 years in American oak barrels.

Bruichladdich Octomore 7.1 (59.5%, £107/€128,05)

Nose: Sweet smoke, peat, honey, vanilla pods, half cured half raw meat. After a few minutes getting red fruit: plums and red apples and also peaches marmalade with a honeyed perfume. Continue reading →

Octomore OBA is not a normal Octomore release. In fact you could say it’s kind of a foster child of the family. It’s wasn’t released as a member of the annual series nor did it get any official numerical assignment (x.1 to x.4) but instead it was a separate release with irregular bottle size (which delayed the release).

It’s the Octomore version of the Black Art series (hence the OBA naming), 10 wine casks matured Octomore spirit with a secret recipe. Although Bruichladdich preaches transparency, when it comes to Black Art releases, the leaps are sealed. All we know that it’s a vatting of 10 casks from four different vintages with the youngest vintage hailing from 2008 so it’s a 8-9 years old whisky. What else do we know? that there are six different cask types and all from a single barley strain.

Octomore OBA Concept (59.7%)

Nose: Smoke and sweet honey at first, followed by vanilla and red wine, solid earthy peat, whole black pepper, red fruit, grapes, tannins but it’s pretty rich with dry smoke. After a while it’s smoky sweet red wine with some tannins, smoked meat, getting flatter with time and oxygen. Continue reading →