| |
Home
Thousands of tastings,
all the music,
all the rambligs
and all the fun
(hopefully!)
Whiskyfun.com
Guaranteed ad-free
copyright 2002-2020
|
 |
|
| Hi, this is one of our (almost) daily tastings. Santé! |
| |
|
| |
| |
December 8, 2020 |
|
  |
Some say peat is now out of fashion and that no one’s talking about ‘ppms’ anymore (remember?) but I’m not really sure. What’s sure is that world champion Octomore is still with us, and well with us. Let’s have a quartet… |
|
Octomore 10 yo 2009/2020 ‘4th Edition’ (54.3%, OB, 12,000 bottles) 
208 hp… I mean ppm peat. This one’s nicknamed ‘dialogos’ – dialogos with whom and about what? Colour: straw. Nose: coal smoke, lemon, cut grass, brine. I repeat, coal smoke, lemon, cut grass, smoke. With water: Islay meadows, mud, wool, sheep dung, smoke… Mouth (neat): not that massive, once again we’ve tried some Port Charlottes that were smokier. All in all it is extremely grassy. Ham smoked with hay. With water: gets even easier, with fruits coming through, pink grapefruits, blood oranges, peaches, some salt and some brine, touch of leather… Finish: long, smoky, with some tobacco and coconut from freshish American oak. Comments: wondering which proportions of those ‘ppms’ (talking about ppms in the distillate) are lost over ten years in wood. A tad rustic but super good bottling for sure. And no syrah and whatnot in sight.
SGP:567 - 86 points. |
|
Octomore 5 yo 2014/2020 ‘Edition 11.1’ (59.4%, OB) 
139.6ppm phenols this time, and this time again purely bourbon/American wood. Colour: white wine. Nose: much more medicinal than the 10, with more roots, creosote, quinine, then lovage and soy sauce, antiseptic, iodine, bark… I enjoy this ten times more. With water: the other one was pretty petroly in comparison, while this one’s medicinal indeed. Mercurochrome. Mouth (neat): reminds of those cask samples that you would have ‘live’ at the distilleries. Brutally grassy but full of charms. Do I find rhubarb in the back? With water: excellent, fruitier, almost sweet, on lime and indeed, rhubarb. Please add sunflower oil and some kind of smoked crème brulée. I mean, crème that you would first ‘brûle’ and then ‘fume’. Who’s going to try that? Please update us… Finish: not eternal but fresh and balanced. Smoked almonds, tar and preserved peaches. Comments: excellent, kind of easy, clean, well-chiselled. And medicinal, while in this day and age…
SGP:556 - 88 points. |
|
Octomore 5 yo 2014/2020 ‘Edition 11.3’ (61.7%, OB) 
194 ppm phenols this time and 100% Islay barley, from Octomore Farm what is more. And 100% ex-first fill bourbon. Colour: white wine. Nose: it’s hard to get that out of your head, once you know that the barley came from a field that’s located 3 kms away from Bruichladdich. You feel the ocean! Quite. Anyway, this is ueber-clean and almost minimalist, on clementines, mint, sea breeze and lapsang souchong. With water: add a lady’s moisturiser and fresh almonds from the tree. Mouth (neat): perfect, even at, cough erm, ach, 61.7% vol. Big pepper but this shouldn’t stay. Big orange blossom honey too. With water: a little rusticity that you would expect from those fields, and oysters. Whenever oysters appear in any whisky, I pick up my trumpet. Finish: rather long, fresh, with superb soapy herbs. Saponin? No, it isn’t soapy, you’d find that too in, say mezcal. Comments: high-class Octomore. I suppose the barley goes to the continent for malting, but otherwise this is fully an Islay product. Splendid at only 5.
SGP:467 - 90 points. |
Perhaps a wee indie before we close the doors for today? |
|
Octomore 8 yo 2010-2011/2020 (58.3%, Maltbarn)
Bourbon and wine casks here – funny that the indies would do wine and the owners not. I mean, today. Colour: straw. Nose: forget about the wine cask, it’s not quite noticeable, at least not at 58.3% vol. We’re rather finding ethanol, coconut water, broken branches, fresh apricots, grist and mud… Hold on, those apricots, aren’t they from the wine? With water: no, this is rather classic muddy and smoky Octomore al natural, more or less in the style of the new 10. Mouth (neat): a feeling of deep-smoked peaches. Should be the wine, possibly some white wine, but it remains unobtrusive. Nice drop at full strength. By the way, could have been a cognac cask too. With water: no more peaches, rather oysters, beach sand, and something slightly acetic. Wine vinegar? Hold on… Finish: long, a tad sweeter again. Raw grains, peach liqueur, mud and pepper. Comments: a little less smoky than the OBs, and a little more rural shall we say. After all, the bottler’s named Malt Barn.
SGP:556 - 87 points. |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
