Bruichladdich: Octomore 14.3 (Scottish Islay Single Malt Whisky: 5 Year: 61.4% ABV)
Visual: Pale gold. Slow thick streaks from the spirit.
Nose: Light menthol. Clean soot. Green grapes. Water adds slight sulfur. Natural wine. More green grapes.
Body: Green grapes. Oily. Smoked beef. Honey to honeysuckle. Water adds lot of green fruit. Buttery . Soot.
Finish: Oily soot. Vanilla. Green grapes. Numbing. Honeysuckle. Menthol. Creamy. Water makes buttery.
Ok this is the kind of Octomore that is not the stripped down clean peat expression take, nor the overwhelmingly showy take, so I had to take a while to work out what it was that made this Octomore stand out. It does have quite a clean peaty style, slightly oily but it doesn’t feel limited to that. The enhancement to it are seen in green fruit and creamy notes that add to the experience but are still very much in line with it. They are all enhancements rather than contrasts or new threads. It is sweet but not overwhelmingly so, fruity but the green fruit is very much something that gives the main Octomore a lot of room to work.
If the 14.1 Octomore is the stripped down peat bomb, and the 14.2 is the showy circus act of the range, this feels like the besuited posh take on the spirit. It is not revolutionary, just everything is polished up more and more distinguished, set to emphasize the best quality and play down the weaker ones.
Without water it is still intense, as might be expected for the abv and ppm. Water really smooths it out, and really lets the honey notes show themselves making it feel more gentle despite the intensity of the peat. This, if you want to try Octomore is the polished take that is still clearly an Octomore – and you have to decide if that mean sit is worth the extra cost, but taken just as what it is it is a very distinguished dram.
Background: Ok this was the final of the whiskies at Independent Spirit’s Bruichladdich whisky tasting night. By this point I had drunk many high peat and high abv drams, so forgive me if these are not up to my usual standard, but I did my best to bring home some notes that could at least be comprehended. This was both the strongest of the whiskies of the night and the most peated, coming it at a scary 214.2ppm. It was aged in a mix of second fill wine casks and first fill bourbon, but what makes the *.3 Octomores special is that they are not just made with all Scottish Concerto barley, but all grown on Islay itself for a bit of the old terroir. Three Octomores in one night was a tad intense but we made it though it. Just about.
