
March 22, 2016

Wacky Octomores, two of them

This won't be just about maximum peat, it's going to be about strange woods. Because while very active casks will often work a treat with 'shy' distillates, it's a whole different story when the spirit's shock-full of idiosyncrasies (omg)...

Octomore 7 yo 2008/2016 '07.4' (61.2%, OB, virgin oak, 12,000 bottles)

167 ppm smoke in the barley, and some virgin French oak from Allier - albeit not entirely, apparently. It's too complicated. Now what could go wrong? Colour: amber. Virgin oak indeed. Nose: it's the first Octomore that's so entirely 'craft', and indeed you could think this was made in Texas or in California. Starts with a very spicy oak, with plenty of ginger, green pepper, and caraway, and gets then progressively smoky, in a surprisingly smooth way. Fumes, new tyres, bitter oranges, and really a lot of myrtle. Didn't the oak overpower the bombastic peat? The jury's still out. With water: new planks, ginger, curry, cinnamon, leaven, bread dough, rubber. Mouth (neat): creamy and extremely oaky. Curry and honey coated fried bacon, cinnamon mints, salty fudge, rubber... Really not too sure. With water: no, the oak bites you. I think the Americans do it better. Finish: long, gingery, oddly sweet. Cheap lapsang souchong. Comments: lacks definition and 'a sense of the place' as they now say in the industry. So many Octomores have been much better in my book! Well, all of them - not to mention the Port Charlottes. I wouldn't swap one bottle of 7.3 (WF 91) for ten cases of this rather wacky 7.4. Quick, 7.5... SGP:467 - 70 points.

Wacky? How about Sauternes?

Octomore 6 yo 2007/2014 (64%, Rest and be Thankful Whisky Co., Sauternes, cask # R0000016746, 303 bottles)

They had an excellent ex-bourbon around the same time (WF 90). Colour: gold. Nose: fudge, more fudge, and even more fudge, and a rather moderate smokiness that would involve smoked almonds, bitter oranges, and quite some hay. No bomb so far, and a rather well-defined profile. Which is surprising. With water: farmyard, a pile of old tyres, some hay, and a beach at low tide. Kelp, a few crabs, shrimps, all that... Mouth (neat): you know what, I cannot not think of some Breton Kornog matured in Sauternes wood. Which means that I like this arrival quite a lot. No dissonances this time, and a peat/sweetness combo that works, with a zesty/fizzy side that's rather summery. But will it swim? With water: it does. The whole's relatively simple, but it works. Salted and smoked almonds, some paraffin, some putty. Finish: long, rather on smoked almonds and marzipan. Comments: doesn't feel like a total peat bomb. Very good, if not totally stellar in my opinion. Like the cleaner, sharper ones even better (ex-bourbon!) but it does, indeed, destroy the strange new official 7.4. SGP:568 - 86 points.

Check the index of all Octomore I've tasted so far

Pete McPeat and Jack Washback