Octomore 10.3 Whisky Review!

Part 3 of 4 in my Octomore 10 mini-series! Click here for Part 1 (Octomore 10.1) and here for Part 2 (Octomore 10.2). The sample for this review was provided by Mark Hickey from Spirits Platform, the Australian distributors for Bruichladdich.

Any Islay Barley Octomore is always exciting. This one doesn't have the stratospherically high ppm figures of its massive predecessors, but does that really matter?

Islay is far from the ideal place to grow barley. This small Hebridean island off the west coast of Scotland is usually cold, windswept, salt-washed, rain-sodden and/or overcast, which aside from other problems & challenges results in lower yields, which means less income for the farmer, and less barley for the distillery. But the use of Islay-grown barley is a choice that goes beyond such considerations - remember that out of nine distilleries only Bruichladdich and Kilchoman are doing this - and is more about provenance and terroir, the use of local ingredients, a sense of place, and also a sense of community. It is easier, cheaper and more efficient to use barley sourced from the Scottish mainland, or even other countries, and that is far & away what the majority of Scottish distilleries are doing. The idea of using Islay-grown barley in heavily peated whiskies like Octomore gets even further away from that efficiency and financial pressure, since such high peating levels make it more difficult to detect any overt differences in the finished product that are (or may be) due to the barley itself. But there's no arguing with the provenance provided by the use of locally grown barley. While Islay barley varieties of both Bruichladdich and Port Charlotte use barley grown on a number of different farms on the island, the distillery takes this a step further with their Octomore Islay barley bottlings, sourcing the barley from a single field from one single Islay farm - James Brown's Octomore farm, once home to the Octomore Distillery that was the inspiration for the name of this super-heavily peated single malt.

Although there have only been five Islay barley Octomores to date, these _.3 (designating an Islay barley Octomore) bottlings have already attained legendary status. Starting in late 2014 with my favourite Octomore of all time, the incredible 6.3 (reviewed here), which was distilled from 258 ppm barley and matured for five years in ex-bourbon casks, there was then a bit of a change of direction in 2015 with the 169 ppm 7.3 (reviewed here), which was a marriage of ex-bourbon and ex-Spanish red wine casks, both five years of age. Bruichladdich then dropped a peat bomb on the world the following year, with the record-setting 309.1 ppm Octomore 8.3 (reviewed here), which was matured in roughly 50% ex-bourbon casks and four different types of red wine cask, all at five years of age. Things were a little quieter in comparison in the following year, with the 9.3 release dropping way down to 133 ppm, and again being five years old, but sporting a complicated mix of casks - 75% of which were second- or third-fill casks, which is unusual for any Octomore.

This new 10.3 release returns to the initial recipe in one way, being matured only in ex-bourbon casks, but deviates in another - this one is six years old, making it the oldest Islay barley Octomore bottling to date, which is a curious move. 10.3 is also down in peating levels, to 'just' 114 ppm, one of the lowest used in any Octomore to date, while the _.3 Islay barley bottlings tend to be the highest in each series. But as we know, once you get beyond a certain (or perhaps uncertain) level those numbers - measured on the malted barley itself - don't mean a great deal, and they're offset by many factors like where the peat itself was sourced, fermentation times, still shapes, sizes & fill levels, distillation speeds, and many others. Although the high numbers have always been a major focus point for these whiskies, Octomores have never been that simple, and they're much more than the sum of their parts. For 10.3 those six years of maturation were spent in first-fill ex-bourbon casks from Jim Beam, Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill and Jack Daniels, and 24,000 bottles were released at 61.3% ABV. Naturally it's non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. Let's get into it!

Octomore 10.3 Islay Barley, 6-years old, 61.3%. Islay, Scotland.
Distilled 2013 from 114 ppm Islay barley, matured in first-fill ex-bourbon casks from Jim Beam, Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill & Jack Daniels. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 24,000 bottles.

Colour: Pale gold. Not as dark as the above photo suggests.

Nose: Both light & fresh, and peaty & powerful. Reminds me very much of a Kilchoman 100% Islay bottling, actually! And that's not been the case with any other Octomore. Freshly steeped malt, fresh hay, buttery pastry, lemon zest and creamy vanilla. Fizzy lemonade and a light, soft, fresh, dry earthy peatiness with a hint of ashy smoke underneath.

Texture: Light-medium weight, warming. Fresh and barley-forward. A little heat but not harsh.

Taste: Fresh & zesty. Lemon zest & fresh fizzy lemonade, creamy vanilla and savoury / dry honey. A light & fresh saltiness, and some white pepper. The peat is definitely bigger here, dark, chunky and more muddy, especially on the exhale. Much more than you'll find in the aforementioned Kilchoman too. Cola bottle lollies (not the sour variety).

Finish: Medium length. Spicy & peaty to start with, then fresh & bright again. More lemonade, fresh hay, barley husks. Like eating a handful of the freshly ground grist straight from Bruichladdich's mill. More pastry, some drying sea shells and a little rubber to end.

Score: 3.5 out of 5.

Notes: Well that's the freshest, most barley-forward Octomore that I've ever tasted. There's plenty of flavour, but like the blurb for the 10-series says it's a different whisky to what we expect to find in those black metal tins and their opaque or frosted glass bottles. There's more peat here than in the 10.2 from last week, which is to be expected, but it doesn't have that level of depth and richness that I found in that outlying travel-exclusive sibling, and there's significantly less peatiness & overt 'Islay-ness' here than in the slightly younger 10.1. 10.3 though is very Bruichladdich, with that lemon, subtle saltiness and fresh barley character showing through nicely. It's a lesson in finding barley & malt character in a heavily-peated whisky, which is not something you see every day - only a few distilleries can claim that, actually, and Bruichladdich is right at the top of the list. While the peat level in 10.3 could easily pass for a Port Charlotte level, the peat character itself is very different - it doesn't have that tasty BBQ smoke or accompanying farmyard-y character, instead it's a heavier, deeper, more muddy peatiness that really only reveals its secrets on the palate and the initial hit on the finish.

Very different for an Octomore, and it's a different whisky to the other _.3 bottlings. Actually it's in a totally different realm of existence to the previous Islay barley bottlings. But variety is the spice of life after all, and of course 10.3 deserves its spot in the line-up.

Cheers!