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| Hi, this is one of our (almost) daily tastings. Santé! |
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March 28, 2024 |
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A couple of indie Octomore
There really aren't many independent Octomores, as I don't think they've sold many fillings, while PCs do abound. At any rate, we've only got two on the desk today. |
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The humble author between the Jagger and Richards of
malt whisky, Paris, 2002. (WF Archive) |
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Octomore 12 yo 2010/2023 (55.6%, A Few Barrels Company, Uniqueness of The Cask collection, bourbon barrel, cask #4524, 229 bottles) 
From some excellent wee Swiss bottler in Lausanne. We've already tried some excellent Wardhead of theirs, for example, they seem to rather like the uncommon. Just like us! Colour: white wine. Nose: pure crystalline peat smoke. Visiting a kiln after having toured a paint factory and had apéritif with one or three glasses of some very tight manzanilla, accompanied by a good hundred large and juicy green olives. Nice feeling. With water: porridge and raw wool, a very typical development. Also, even more olives and mezcal, which is quite spectacular. A tiny hint of chlorine, which definitely doesn't come from my water, I assure you. Mouth (neat): starts quite sharp, but then develops into sour apples and candied lemons to the most beautiful effect. The peat also blends with the varnish and the turpentine, all the while remaining tight and precise like a Swiss cuckoo clock. With water: a few sweeter touches, perhaps from the cask, especially a bit of coconut and orange blossom honey. Finish: long, a tad saltier, but it remains distinctly Octomore in style, quite different from the other major peated whiskies of the island, especially those from the south coast. A hint of Williams pear in the aftertaste. Comments: it's downright excellent, both fierce and tender.
SGP:567 - 89 points. |
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Octomore 10 yo 2013/2024 (62.4%, Dramfool's Jim McEwan Signature Collection 8.3, first fill bourbon barrel, cask #1871, 224 bottles) 
107ppm phenols here, so not the smokedmost Octomore ever. They regularly release new Bruichladdichs, Port Charlottes and Octomores within this series. Colour: straw. Nose: the beginning is much more marked by the cask here, with a strong presence of vanilla and shortbread, as well as a lot of marzipan, which isn't unusual for some peated whiskies aged in active wood. I think it will take quite a bit of water to rebalance all this, but at 62% ABV, that's normal. |
With water: it gets much closer to the 2010, but still with an added roundness. Olives emerge, a few notes of slightly wild pinot noir (where does that come from?), followed by fresh mastic, carbolineum, the infamous tarry ropes... Mouth (neat): huge and very marked by curry and pepper, in addition to the peat. Don't even think about tasting this beast without water. With water: some strong lemony, salty, and oily power. The woodiness has been overcome; it's the massively peated distillate that speaks. A lot of ash, a bit of chili and, always, curry. Segments of pink grapefruit roasted in butter and pine honey. Yum. Finish: long but not eternal, quite sweet in the end. Camphor and eucalyptus at the very end, with menthol cigarettes (is it still okay to mention that?). Comments: quite a journey. If you don't have good water (not too hard, not too soft), forget it. Otherwise…
SGP:657 - 90 points. |
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