Ardmore 20 Year Old Whisky Review!

Quite possibly the best Ardmore I've ever tasted, either from an official or independent bottling, and it certainly helps that it's an absolute bargain!

Ardmore is part of Beam Suntory's Scotch whisky empire, along with heavyweights like Laphroaig and Bowmore. But unlike those two brands you won't find many official bottlings of Ardmore single malt out there, mainly because most of the distillery's substantial 5.5-million litre production capacity goes into the parent company's main blended Scotch whisky brand, Teachers. Located in the Eastern Highlands around an hour's drive west of Aberdeen, Ardmore was founded in 1898. The distillery was purchased by Allied Distillers in 1976, itself sold to Beam Suntory in 2004, and the distillery has pretty much sailed under most people's radars ever since. The distillery's main claim to fame is the fact that its eight copper pot stills were direct-fired using coal, but they were converted to indirect steam-heating back in 2001, so aside from this limited release 20-year old and the even-rarer and also discontinued 25-year old, you won't find any of the spirit from those direct-fired days in the distillery's current range. Another major and less-publicised change happened in 2001, when the distillery switched from almost 100% peated (to roughly 15 ppm) spirit production to producing mostly un-peated spirit, officially known as Ardlair, and unofficially known as "Ardless". You won't find any official bottlings labelled as Ardlair, since it's strictly sold to blenders and independent bottlers, but it's also blended/vatted into some of the distillery's expressions, including the entry-level Ardmore Legacy. Which at the minimum strength of 40% ABV, plus NAS, chill filtered, artificially coloured and almost completely un-peated, isn't much of a legacy. It is priced quite well, though, at around $65 AUD.       

We don't see a lot of other Ardmore official bottlings in Australia. In fact, aside from that mediocre 'Legacy', you'll be hard-pressed to find anything at all. A few years ago we had the rather decent 'Traditional' expression (reviewed here) which was bottled at 46% and finished in ex-Laphroaig quarter casks. But that was discontinued, only to then reappear in both 40% and 46% ABV guises labelled as 'Traditional Peated' which for some reason is now travel / duty-free exclusive. But duty-free exclusive doesn't mean available in my book, so we won't count that one - particularly since almost nobody will be buying anything from an airport duty-free store anytime soon. Elsewhere in the world there's also a 12-year old Port Wood Finish, which is the only core range Ardmore to carry an age statement, and another travel-exclusive named Triple Wood, which is matured in three different sizes of American oak casks rather than the sherry cask finish that you'd expect from sister distillery Laphroaig's whisky of the same name. Why a large malt distillery with only four regular bottlings would choose to make two of those exclusive to airports and cruise ships, I can't say. But it's a shame, because there still aren't a huge number of peated mainland Scotch whiskies on the shelves, and some independent bottlings of Ardmore have shown that the distillery is capable of making very good whisky. As is the case with most of these quiet workhorse distilleries that mostly produce spirit for their owner's blends, this is where the independent bottlers come to the rescue. If you want a non-chill filtered, higher strength Ardmore, particularly with a bit of age (and age statement) to it, you'll need to turn to bottlers like Gordon & MacPhail or the SMWS. But this particular official bottling is certainly an exception to that rule!  

What we have here is actually rather exciting. This is a 20-year old official bottling of 100% peated Ardmore, bottled at a probably-cask strength 49.3% ABV, without chill filtration. Predictably, despite being released back in 2017 it was never officially imported into Australia, but it recently turned up at one Australian retailer (Nicks Wine Merchants) who do quite a lot of their own parallel importing, which means they source from overseas for their own store and bypass the official importers. That's helpful when an official importer passes on a particular whisky, as is the case here - because I think this Ardmore would completely change many whisky fan's views on the distillery. Nicks recently did a similar thing with a cask strength Glen Garioch (pronounced "Glen-geerie"), another Beam Suntory distillery that inexplicably isn't officially imported into Australia at all. Thankfully this retailer also keeps the pricing on these parallel imports at a reasonable level, and the stock doesn't tend to last very long! In this case, that reasonable price was $165 AUD, which is an absolute bargain compared to basically every other whisky of comparable age and strength. 

I first came across this whisky on my first trip to the British Isles back in 2018, where I found it on the shelves at The Whisky Exchange, for a total of 65 pounds. At the time, that was equivalent to around $110-115 AUD - for a (probably) cask strength, 20-year old official bottling of Ardmore single malt. Even untested, that is a very tempting impulse purchase, but I had tried it in a bar a few days prior so I knew it was actually an absolute steal, and I had to have one! I'm yet to open that bottle though, so when I spotted this whisky on Nicks' website, it was a light bulb moment. After a brief chat with two mates - not that they needed much convincing - we decided to split a bottle between us. And I'm very glad we did! This 100% peated 20-year old Ardmore has been fully matured in both first-fill ex-bourbon casks and refill ex-Islay whisky casks - given the distillery's ownership and past practices, that'll be ex-Laphroaig casks! And given that this single malt was distilled back in 1996, that means it was made when Ardmore's stills were still direct-fired using coal - and it's probably one of the last opportunities we'll get to taste that direct-fired spirit. Now being relatively lightly peated, and being a mainland peated malt, and being twenty years of age, we shouldn't expect an Islay or Island-style peat influence here. That's the case with Ardmore in general, and even in younger & higher strength independent bottlings I find it to be more leathery & earthy, sometimes with some dry wood smoke, rather than overtly peaty. Let's see how that's gone at twenty years of age, shall we?

Ardmore 20 Year Old, 49.3%. Highlands, Scotland.

Distilled 1996, matured in both first-fill ex-bourbon and refill ex-Islay (Laphroaig) casks. Non-chill filtered, possibly natural colour.  

Colour: Gold. Probably natural - probably.

Nose: Dusty, sweet red apple skins, old leather armchairs & creamy vanilla icing. White pepper, a little dry honey, sandalwood & clove spice. A subtle earthy peat smoke in the background, plus a little vanilla sugar.

Texture: Light-medium weight. Fruity & spicy (pepper), slightly waxy. No harsh spirit-y heat.

Taste: Waxy red apple skins, far less sweet here though, edging on dry. More creamy vanilla cake icing / frosting, ground white pepper, dry old leather & sandalwood. Something reminiscent of tarragon further in, with some dusty old charred oak & a slight spicy peat.

Finish: Short-medium length. More white pepper, dusty charred oak and old leather. Then red apple skins again, plus some dried lemon and vanilla paste - almost marzipan. Some smoked paprika & hint of whole peaches, dusted with that white pepper, to finish.

Score: 3.5 out of 5.

Notes: It's not going to set the world on fire with any crazy tasting notes, but it's a delicious fruity & dusty / leathery dram that is certainly the best Ardmore official bottling that I've tasted. That leathery note is how I find that Ardmore's peat influence shows itself, I'd even pin it as their calling card, while the drying dusty-ness and white pepper are very nice additions, probably brought on by the extra age. That pepper nosing & tasting note by the way is not to be confused with alcohol heat - sometimes referred to as 'prickle'. There's not much overt peatiness to be found here, and what is there is soft, subtle & spicy. Can't say that I find much influence from the Islay casks either, they were probably a little tired, but that't no bad thing - the balance here works nicely and any overt Islay-ness probably would've stolen the show.

What is certainly easy to find here though is the value for money. This whisky is an absolute bargain for the ABV, age statement and flavour that is on offer. It's most likely sold out everywhere now, but if you do come across it - for a reasonable price - don't be afraid to grab it immediately. It'll also do nicely if you're yet to try an Ardmore, since it would have to be one of their best efforts!

Cheers!

Octomore 10.4 Whisky Review!

The fourth & final instalment in my Octomore 10 review mini-series. Click here for Part 1, here for Part 2, and here for Part 3! The sample for this review was provided by Mark Hickey from Spirits Platform, the Australian distributors for Bruichladdich.

This is the youngest Octomore ever bottled, and the first to be fully-matured in 100% virgin oak. Very interesting, and very exciting!

While 10.4 is the third Octomore to be labelled / named as a Virgin Oak expression under the _.4 designation, it's actually the first to be fully-matured in virgin oak casks. As brilliant as the original 7.4 (reviewed here) was, followed by the slightly-tamer & less extreme 8.4 (briefly reviewed here), this new release promises to take the concept to a new & simpler level, with its young age of just three years, spent entirely in heavily-toasted (not charred) virgin French oak. That of course is the minimum age permitted for Scotch whisky, and as a matter of fact this is the first Octomore to be bottled at less than five years of age. For the record, 7.4 was a 7-year old Octomore, and while 25% of that vatting was fully-matured in virgin French oak, the remaining 75% took a leaf out of Amrut's book with sandwich/intermediate maturation rather than a basic finish / double-maturation, spending its first three years in ex-bourbon casks, then two years in virgin French oak casks, before going back to ex-bourbon casks for another two years. 8.4 on the other hand was an 8-year old Octomore where 20% was fully matured in virgin oak casks, but made from American Oak this time, with the remaining 80% being initially matured in ex-bourbon casks and then moved to the European oak casks that had been used for 7.4, making them second-fill virgin oak that had already been used once for Octomore maturation. See, I told you 10.4 was a simpler dram!

This 3-year old whisky promises to be quite divisive and quite different, even for an Octomore, with four main factors, that almost seem to contradict each other, making it difficult to know what to expect. On one hand is the minimum 3-years of maturation, promising a young & spirit-driven whisky, particularly at the high strength of 63.5% ABV. On the flip-side is a relatively low ppm figure for that super-heavily peated malted barley, measured at just 88 ppm - the second-lowest of any Octomore to date, only beaten by the first release Octomore 10-year old - which while still a relatively high number promises a softer smoke and peat level compared to some of the legendary 'peat monsters' such as 6.3 and 8.3. Then out of left-field we have the virgin oak maturation, promising a high level of cask / wood influence, and possibly taming that peat level even further. And then, getting geeky here, we have the fact that those casks were made from French oak, which would normally offer a spicy, tannic and very assertive wood influence. But here they've been heavily toasted, which is going to tame that wood influence, but having a different effect to the higher temperature and more intense charring procedure that is more commonly used when dealing with virgin oak - particularly in the bourbon industry, of course. See, I told you this was going to be an interesting whisky!

One quick note on the strength of this Octomore. You'll probably recognise the figure of 63.5% as the common filling strength for Scottish new make spirit that is being filled into casks, generally reduced (watered down) from the natural strength that resulted straight from the still. That designated filling strength is down to a couple of factors, but the main one is accounting purposes - it's easier to calculate duties & taxes, and easier to swap casks & sell spirit to other companies and other distilleries, when one spirit is the same strength as the other. But like only a few Scottish distilleries Bruichladdich choose not to do this, instead filling their casks at the natural distillation strength which obviously varies based on quite a few factors. This is why many cask strength bottlings of Bruichladdich come in at a higher ABV than similar bottlings from other distilleries, and also means that like the majority of Octomores, 10.4's bottling strength of 63.5% will not be the full / natural cask strength. But something tells me there won't be any lack of punch or lack of flavour here!

So what we have here is a 3-year old Octomore, distilled in 2016 from malted barley sourced from the Scottish mainland and peated to 88 ppm (using mainland peat, remember), fully-matured in heavily-toasted virgin French oak casks, before being bottled at 63.5% with no chill filtration or added colouring. 12,000 bottles were released of this one, and there's still a bit around in Australia - although unfortunately the pricing doesn't deviate from its older stable-mates. But virgin oak is an expensive exercise for a distiller, and crazy bottlings like this aren't easy to get across the line, nor are they seen on the shelves everyday - so it's going to sell regardless, and most Bruichladdich & Octomore geeks won't be able to resist, much like myself. Speaking of which, I can't wait any longer - time to taste what could well be the craziest Octomore bottling to date!

Octomore 10.4, 3-years old, 63.5%. Bruichladdich Distillery, Islay, Scotland.
Distilled in 2016 from Scottish barley peated to 88 ppm, matured full-term in heavily-toasted virgin oak casks made from French oak. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 12,000 bottles.

Colour: Very dark amber. The power of virgin oak!

Nose: Whoa, this is a big, powerful dram. Hides it's strength and youth quite well on the nose, though. But it's a crazy one! Aged balsamic vinegar (good quality), burnt treacle, currants, and spicy but also syrupy oak. Some dank earthy peat and a little sea salt. Fruity BBQ sauce, dried strawberries dusted with sugar, and dusty old leather.

Texture: Medium-heavy weight, big, syrupy and full-flavoured. A little aggressive heat, but not harsh or unpleasant.

Taste: Syrupy & soft entry, then a massive explosion of sweet & spicy oak, more aged balsamic vinegar, dark & salty soy sauce, a little tar and a fleeting flash of thick smoke. Then a big hit of fresh chilli-heat, like fresh chipotles (smoked red jalapeno), followed by more fruity BBQ sauce - think peach, apricot & strawberry in a thick, sweet & spicy sauce. Still a crazy one, then!

Finish: Long length. The chipotle chilli spice is still there, alongside the dank muddy peat and some salted treacle, plus the balsamic and fruity BBQ sauce. Then there's something reminiscent of a dark rum that I can't quite put my finger on, like a funky & estery tang. That's followed by some flat cola, tobacco & fruit leather (dehydrated fruit roll-ups).

Score: 3.5 out of 5. A tough one to score!

Notes: Well it's certainly not the brutish peat & smoke monster that you'd expect from a 3-year old Octomore. There's a little peat, salt & tar to it, but otherwise it's quite a different beast, and is quite unique. Actually, no, that's putting it too lightly. It's absolutely crazy! A madhouse dram, this 10.4. An extra-crazy version of an already crazy whisky. There's something almost meaty about it too, almost savoury, plus the big oak-forward style that won't be too alien to a drinker of Australian whisky, but will certainly rub some Scotch whisky die-hards the wrong way. There's also a sugary sweetness, which I'm thinking must the spirit fighting back, and the whole shebang could easily pass for a significantly older whisky - aside from that high ABV aggression, anyway.

If you thought 10.2 was pushing the boundaries of what Octomore is, then 10.4 would like to have a word with you. It's taking that boundary-pushing and envelope-stretching to a whole other level. It's fascinating, and almost mind-bending, and it certainly won't be everyone's cup of Octomore. Personally I'm looking at it like I did the 10.2 - don't directly compare 10.4 to other Octomores, just judge it on its own merits, and realise that it doesn't fit the mould. You've got to embrace the crazy ones!

So that's it for the Octomore 10 review mini-series! Thanks again to Mark Hickey from Spirits Platform for the samples of 10.1, 10.3 and 10.4, and to my own bottle of 10.2 for making the sacrifice. And thanks to you all for reading! I hope you've enjoyed the reviews as much as I've enjoyed tasting these delicious whiskies - and I suggest you get around to trying them yourselves!

Cheers!

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!

Octomore 10.2 Whisky Review!

Part 2 of my Octomore 10 mini-series! Click here for Part 1 (Octomore 10.1).

Another (sadly) travel exclusive exotic Octomore that has been finished in wine casks - but this one might just have echoes of the legendary 4.2 Comus! I was very lucky to get my hands on a bottle of this one, not long before the Covid crisis really hit its stride.

While Octomore has always been something of a numbers game and a lesson in excess - from high strengths and low ages, to massively high ppm measurements, the 10-series has diverged from that M.O. The ages are still relatively low, and the strengths are still high, but those ppm measurements are down - way down. The most heavily-peated malt used in this series was just 114 ppm with the 10.3 Islay Barley, and the lowest was 88 with the 10.4 Virgin Oak - that's very nearly the lowest number used in any Octomore to date, only beaten by 2012's first 10-year old release which weighed in at 80.5. They're still high numbers of course, but they're starkly different from the days of the legendary 309.1 ppm 8.3 and the incredible 258 ppm 6.3. The distillery has acknowledged this difference by declaring that this series "explores a realm of softer smoke", and then basically asking us to ignore the numbers this time around - which is certainly a change in approach from the past releases of Octomore, and when discussing this particular whisky in general. But we know that the numbers don't always mean a great deal - particularly those ppm measurements - and are really only indicators. The proof is in the pudding! It's also important to remember that the distillery doesn't dictate these measurements to the maltsters (Bairds in Inverness), and this process can only be controlled to a certain extent before nature takes over and has the final say. The entire Octomore concept started by letting the maltsters loose and cold-smoking the malting barley for as long as possible to absorb as much peat smoke as possible, to the point when the barley just refuses to absorb any more, which is why the figures have varied so much over the years. The fact that these new bottlings are lower in those figures is nothing to worry about, if anything they'll just be a slightly different style of the Octomore that we know & love.

This travel-exclusive 10.2 release is a first for Octomore. It follows on from 9.2, which was a 156-ppm 5-year old release that had been matured in first-fill bourbon casks for four years and finished in second-fill Bordeaux red wine casks for a fifth year. This new release is almost a polar opposite, using 'only' 96.9 ppm malt, and being eight years old - which is actually middle-aged in Octomore terms. The main difference though is in how it has spent those eight years of maturation. 10.2 was matured in ex-bourbon casks for the first half of its life, and then moved into Sauternes sweet wine casks for another four years. Sauternes is a very highly-regarded sweet dessert-style wine, produced in the Bordeaux region in the south-west of France, where the grapes are affected by the Botrytis fungus (a.k.a. 'noble rot'), causing high levels of concentrated sweetness in the fruit. Longer-term Octomore followers will recognise the term from a legendary older release - Octomore 4.2 'Comus', which makes this new release a very exciting proposition! 4.2 was a 5-year old 167 ppm Octomore that was finished in Sauternes casks from Chateau d'Yquem (pronounced "de-kem"), from the days of private ownership where Bruichladdich directly named most of the vineyards that their casks came from. It's entirely possible that the Sauternes casks used for this 10.2 release were at least partially sourced from the same vineyard, but the distillery is no longer allowed to mention specifics or point fingers. What they have mentioned though is that the vineyard used these casks three times (for three separate fillings of Sauternes), meaning that the impact of the oak itself has been softened by the three cycles of wine maturation - but they're still first-fill casks as far as whisky is concerned. Octomore 10.2 was bottled at 56.9% after those eight years of maturation, and being a Bruichladdich single malt it is of course non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. Let's do this!

Octomore 10.2, 8-years old, 56.9%. Bruichladdich Distillery, Islay, Scotland.
Distilled in 2010 from Scottish barley peated to 96.9 ppm, matured in first-fill bourbon casks for 4 years, moved to first-fill Sauternes dessert wine casks for another 4 years. Non-chill filtered, naturally coloured. Travel exclusive of 24,000 bottles.

Colour: Golden copper.

Nose: Ooh. Yes please. This is not one to rush. Malty, sweet & fruity. Very Bruichladdich. Golden malted barley, sweet tropical fruit - lychee, banana, cantaloupe/rockmelon & peach. Icing sugar and sweet lemons in syrup. Smoked honeycomb. Gets deeper with more breathing time, adding a light bonfire smoke, dark loose-leaf tea, some fresh oily putty and that trademark laddie lactic funk (think sweet cream cheese / yoghurt / baby vomit - but in a good way) . What a nose!

Texture: Medium-heavy weight, rich & oily. Decadent is the word. No heat at all.

Taste: Less sweet, but still rich and yes, decadent is definitely the word. More laddie lactic sweetness, some tinned peaches, more icing sugar and smoked honeycomb, lime juice, some ground ginger and creme brulee, and a little soft puff of dry, almost ashy peat smoke.

Finish: Long length. That soft dry peat smoke carries through, and doesn't go away, but it's certainly a lighter smoke than you may expect. Black pepper and sugared almonds - maybe marzipan. Then the smoked honeycomb and rich tropical fruit comes back - more melon and peach, and some more lime juice.

Score: 4 out of 5. Very close to a 4.5 though.

Notes: The nose on this Octomore is just amazing. Rich & full, sweet & decadent, it's a real treat for the senses! The palate doesn't disappoint either, but it could never have matched that nose for sheer complexity and depth. This is not your typical Octomore, and there isn't a massive amount of peat or smoke to be found, and it's far removed from the 10.1 that we looked at in the previous review. That lighter & softer style of peat influence doesn't hurt this whisky though, and even devout peat heads will surely appreciate the level of character & quality on offer here. Is it an Octomore though? Of course it is, it's written in big bold letters right there on the tin! The (natural) variance in peat level in both the measured malted barley and the subjective level of peat influence in the finished product are just part of the fun, and to my palate 10.2 doesn't smell or taste like there's anything missing. Besides, a (relatively) lightly peated Octomore is nothing new - from the outstanding OBA to the quad-distilled X4 concept bottling that followed it, and also the first 10-year old bottling for that matter, it's happened before.

The Sauternes casks here have added more tropical fruit & richness and have upped the sweetness, but they haven't overshadowed the spirit - the Bruichladdich trademarks of barley character, lactic funk and citrus are still very much intact. Sauternes casks really seem to work well for this distillery! There are little shades of the legendary 4.2 Comus here in this older but more recent Octomore, just not in terms of peat or smoke - more in sweetness and richness. 10.2 is not your everyday Octomore - in more ways than one - but it's no less fantastic because of that. And that nose is to die for. If you're a Bruichladdich fan, this is certainly one you'll want to tick off your list. Unfortunately it looks like you'll have to wait for the airports to re-open, but it's worth the wait. Maybe this crisis will make a few brands reconsider their reliance on travel retail exclusives?

Cheers!

Octomore 10.1 Whisky Review!

Part 1 of 4 in my in-depth look at the recently arrived Octomore 10-series!

The tenth series of Octomore arrived in Australia with relatively little fanfare. For such a major & exciting milestone, the new arrivals were relatively quiet until the bottles started hitting the shelves, followed by the happy punter's glamour shots inevitably being posted on social media - and I'm just as guilty there! The preceding 9-series seemed to be a bit intermittent in terms of its release & availability down under, and many of the major whisky bars, at least where I am, don't have any of those on their shelves, let alone the 10-series. Likewise quite a few retailers didn't seem to get stock of the 9-series at all, and yet here we are now with the 10th series out in full force! Sometimes that's just what happens when you're sitting on the opposite side of the planet to the (geographical and spiritual) home of peated whisky, no doubt compounded with the fact that the last few months have been absolutely devastating for the hospitality industry - there were bigger fish to fry. But the whiskies are here now, and I''m lucky enough to be reviewing all four expressions in series! The reviews of 10.1, 10.3 and 10.4 are coming to you courtesy of samples provided for review by Mark Hickey, Brand Ambassador from Bruichladdich's Australian distributor, Spirits Platform, and with the 10.2 review coming from my own bottle. I'll post each review separately in numerical order, and then sum up my thoughts on the entire series in the 10.4 review. I've been looking forward to trying these since they were first announced by the distillery in late 2019, so getting to finally scratch this itch is going to feel pretty good!

The 10th series of Octomore still carries the name 'Dialogos', which started with the 9-series and is also adorning the recently-leaked and soon to be announced 11-series, so it's probably here to stay. Dialogos is a Greek word that obviously translates to dialogue, and in Bruichladdich's usage it refers to the conversation-inspiring and debate-provoking / divisive nature of Octomore, which is hard to argue with. While the 9-series featured the usual bourbon cask-matured _.1 bottling, the travel exclusive & wine cask-influenced _.2, and the Islay barley _.3 release, it deviated from the preceding 7- and 8-series that also featured Octomore _.4 expressions that were partially matured in virgin oak. Instead the fourth bottling in the 9-series was a 10-year old Octomore, making it the third iteration of a 10-year old Octomore to date. Arguably the 10-series would've been more suited to have a 10-year old bottling in the line-up, but they've instead gone in a different direction - in typical Bruichladdich style! This time around there's the usual 5-year old and bourbon cask-matured 10.1, the travel-exclusive wine cask-finished 10.2 that we're looking at next, then the Islay Barley 10.3 which for the first time is now six years old rather than five, and the 10.4 Virgin Oak release - but with a major difference over the previous two virgin oak bottlings. While both very delicious, neither 7.4 nor 8.4 were 100% fully-matured in virgin oak casks, while the new Octomore 10.4 is now a 3-year old whisky, the youngest Octomore ever released (but with no reduction in pricing, unfortunately), and it has been fully-matured in casks made from heavily-toasted virgin French oak. From what I've read so far it seems to be quite a polarising whisky, more so than Octomore always is, so it promises to be very interesting!

We'll naturally start these reviews with the _.1 expression, which is also where any Octomore newcomers should start before they dive in to the deeper end of the super-heavily peated pool. These are essentially the entry-level Octomores, the baseline bottlings for each series, and they always follow the same recipe - distilled from super-heavily peated Scottish barley, usually bottled at 5-years of age - the excellent 8.1 being the only exception so far at 8-years old - and matured in first-fill American oak ex-bourbon casks. The variables are in the bottling strength, the ppm measurement on the malted barley (always using mainland peat), the distilleries those ex-bourbon casks were sourced from, and occasionally the barley variety/varieties, although that's a more recent development / evolution in the distillery's aim for utmost transparency. The _.1 bottlings are always the most numerous in numbers, a huge 42,000 bottles in the case of 10.1, and while you wouldn't exactly call any Octomore expression cheap, they are the lowest priced of each series and in my opinion always offer good value for the quality of whisky that you get in return.

In the case of Octomore 10.1, it was distilled in 2013 from Scottish Concerto barley that was peated to 107 ppm at Bairds in Inverness, which is the lowest measurement on any _.1 Octomore to date, but don't go upending your desks & tables just yet - that doesn't mean all is lost. Octomores have always been about more than the numbers, with the use of mainland peat, plus Bruichladdich's long fermentation, tall stills and slow distillation, among other things, all affecting just how peaty the final whisky is - and if you only look at the numbers in comparison to some other whiskies, Octomores are often something of a contradiction. Yes, the tenth series is probably going to be lighter in peat & smoke than some of those that came before it, but that's OK - it's really all down to natural variation, and there'll still be plenty of phenolics to enjoy in these unmistakable opaque bottles. Even the distillery's own marketing materials on the 10-series states "...our new iterations explore a different realm of 'softer smoke'. We ask you to dismiss the numbers, and forget everything you think you know." Which is both really asking something and really saying something, because the Octomore line-up has always been marked by some stratospherically high numbers, and that's helped it stand out and helped this whisky get to where it is today! Octomore 10.1 was matured for those five years in first-fill ex-bourbon casks from Heaven Hill, Jim Beam, Buffalo Trace & Jack Daniels, and was bottled at a considerable 59.8%. Being a Bruichladdich single malt it is of course non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. Let's get this started!

Octomore 10.1, 5-years old, 59.8%. Islay, Scotland.
Distilled in 2013 from Scottish barley peated to 107 ppm, matured in first-fill ex-bourbon casks for five years, bottled 2019. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Pale gold.

Nose: Sweet, peaty & surprisingly medicinal! Tar, ink, iodine, aniseed and a deep, dank muddy peat. Over-smoked bacon with rinds, some dirty wet putty, salt-crusted oily smoked salmon, some distant pine needles with vanilla sugar syrup and fruit jube lollies.

Texture: Medium weight. Soft entry which then explodes! Very little heat for the age & strength.

Taste: Syrupy sweet entry with those sugary fruit jube lollies, then a big burst of dry chilli spice and pepper charred oak alongside a chunk of muddy, earthy peat. More of that smoked fish, iodine, and some charred lemon, plus a slight rubbery note with more aniseed and some old-style cough drops.

Finish: Long length. Spicy initially with black pepper, clove and dried chilli, then more chunky muddy peat and iodine, and a little more lemon. Then more distant pine needles, gingery charred oak and permanent marker pen (nikko pen).

Score: 4 out of 5.

Notes: Yet another great _.1 Octomore, with one hell of a nose! It's really surprisingly medicinal and all very Islay - and it's made with mainland peat, remember! One of the many surprising contradictions in whisky, the natural alchemy side of things, that is all part of the fun and helps to always keep things interesting. Octomore 10.1 will easily sit alongside the biggest, boldest whiskies that Southern Islay can muster - but as always it'll also stand apart. It certainly doesn't feel like the lowest ppm Octomore to date - which shows exactly how much weight those ppm figures carry: not much at all! It's quite a complex whisky overall, but it's also a drier, more medicinal and spicy (but not harsh or hot) style that is more 'Islay' than I remember the last few _.1 Octomores being. Which is of course no bad thing - this really rocks my boat!

These _.1 Octomores really are dependably great quality whiskies that always offer plenty of peat, plenty of flavour and plenty of power, and no two are really alike. You really do 'gotta catch (and taste) them all! This is a must-try for any Islay lover, as with all Octomore in my book. And if you're just settling in to higher strength peated whiskies and are looking to level up, 10.1 will certainly scratch that itch!

Cheers!

Ardbeg Blaaack Committee Release Whisky Review!

Yes, it's finally here... And it's almost Ardbeg Day, so let's not waste any time!

Ardbeg Day is less than a week away now (May 30), and while there won't be any major physical events or festivals happening anywhere due to some idiot taking an Ozzy Osbourne impression too far, it still seems like a good occasion (excuse) to enjoy some Ardbeg. The distillery will be doing some virtual tastings and other events online, but that's as close as we'll get for 2020, which also happens to be the 20th anniversary of the Ardbeg Committee. The Ardbeg Committee was formed on New Year's Day in 2000, when these fan club-types of groups - a cynic might call them mailing lists or loyalty programs - were far less common. In fact you'll now be hard-pressed to find a mainstream distillery that doesn't have some sort of member's "inner circle". Ardbeg have done a good job of it though, back in the earlier years you'd receive a booklet on joining that contained the tongue-in-cheek rules & regulations of the committee, plus good information on some of the distillery quirks, and tasting notes on the core range of whiskies, and even a temporary Ardbeg tattoo! And although it's not really the case these days, the early Committee Release bottlings were much more limited in numbers, were actually limited to committee members, and were very difficult to source otherwise. Still, it's a shame that the 20th year of this international assembly of Ardbeg-heads will largely go uncelebrated - at least in any large format. But that doesn't mean that they've pulled their punches on this year's Ardbeg Day special release!

Ardbeg & team have never shied away from experimentation and breaking new ground. And Ardbeg Blaaack is the first Ardbeg release to be fully-matured in wine casks - 2018's Ardbeg Grooves was a mix/marriage/vatting of charred wine casks & ex-bourbon casks. This time they've gone a little further afield - to New Zealand, in fact, about as far from Islay as you can get, where they sourced Pinot Noir red wine casks. The name of this release is both a nod to the grapes that said wine was made from - 'Noir' being French for 'Black' - and also the fact that New Zealand has more than it's fair share of sheep, hence the 'Blaaack'. The glass bottle itself is also black, which I believe is the first time that contemporary Ardbeg has strayed from the usual green - or the occasional clear - bottle for an official release. Pinot Noir is a dry red wine that is prevalent in the Burgundy region of southern France, but is now produced all over the world - although mainly in cooler climates like South Australia, Tasmania and southern New Zealand. It's considered a medium-bodied wine that is lighter in colour and tannins than the heavier red wines like Shiraz / Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. The use of ex-Pinot Noir casks is commonplace in Australia, and does seem to be slowly on the rise in Scotch whisky, with Springbank's Burgundy cask and a couple of the Longrow Red bottlings being the more visible examples to date. While Australian whisky drinkers have come to expect a dark colour and aggressive cask influence when dealing with wine casks, it's a little different in Scotland, since unlike the vast majority of Australian distilleries they're using full-sized (225-250 litre) casks and also enjoy a cooler and more stable climate, which along with other factors contributes to slower, steadier and more balanced maturation. So this Ardbeg is far from black in colour, in fact it's visually not too dissimilar from Uigeadail or Corryvreckan, and while certainly present the wine cask influence is not dominant or aggressive - and this whisky is all the better for it, if you ask me.

Ardbeg's special releases always receive their fair share of hate, usually from the 'old guard', and the 'Day' releases often take the lion's share of that negativity. Yes, there are no age statements, the marketing is heavy and can border on annoying, and the bottling strengths are consistently getting lower with each new expression - even in the committee releases. In fact the standard versions of the Ardbeg Day bottlings seem to have settled on 46% ABV, while the committee releases are now in the low-50s - 50.7%, in this case. There's nothing wrong with that in terms of flavour of course, and I understand the economics - lower strength equals more bottles and lower excise & duties - but you could certainly argue that we're now getting less for our money with each year that passes, while the pricing continues to rise. That said, the Committee Releases are still very reasonably priced, in fact they're often priced the same as the standard version at its lower bottling strength - but you do get a box with that one. If you're lucky enough to live in a country where these Committee Releases are made available at all, and are quick enough to beat the resellers & flippers to nab your bottle before they sell out, then you're getting a good deal. Thankfully Australia is one of these lucky countries, and Moet Hennessy Australia do a commendable job of bringing these special releases to the waiting hordes of local Ardbeg fans, unlike many other Scottish distilleries who don't bother at all. As usual the Committee Release of Blaaack sold out very quickly, although there are now listings on plenty of reseller and flipper websites, while the standard version with full packaging & box and lower bottling strength will be released on Ardbeg Day.

So, Ardbeg Blaaack Committee Release, fully matured in ex-New Zealand Pinot Noir casks, is bottled at 50.7%, is non-chill filtered, and as far as I'm aware is naturally coloured - there's no obvious fake tan here, and if I recall correctly Ardbeg do not add & have never added E150a artificial colouring to their single malts, but it's not stated on the packaging. As with every year of these Ardbegs there's no information on the number of bottles in the release, of either this committee release or the standard version. Time for a dram!

Ardbeg Blaaack Committee Release, NAS, 50.7%. Islay, Scotland.
Ardbeg Day 2020 release. Fully matured in ex-New Zealand Pinot Noir wine casks. Non-chill filtered, presumed natural colour.

Colour: Amber.

Nose: Tar, aniseed & red fruits - dried raspberry, black cherry & blackberry jam. Soft warm wood smoke, rich vanilla ice cream and fresh sea salt. Drying kelp, black pepper & hessian sacking (unused bung cloth) with a little earthy peat. More time adds some sandalwood and liquorice.

Texture: Medium weight. Simultaneously rich & creamy and dirty & peaty. No heat at all.

Taste: Creamy rich vanilla ice cream, with a cherry & blackberry swirl, with a few flakes of sea salt. Delicious. Some dried red chilli, warm fresh tar and a drying ashy & spicy peat - much more present here than it was on the nose. A touch of dark chocolate mousse as well.

Finish: Long length. The peat & tar come first, plus the dried red chilli and some black pepper. It's a dirty, ashy & spicy peat here, before it fades and the dram becomes cleaner with that cherry & blackberry ice cream, some liquorice and soft wood smoke. But the tar & spicy peat are the players here.

Score: 4 out of 5.

Notes: It may not be the most complex or peaty/smoky Ardbeg ever, but it's a delicious dram nonetheless. If memory serves it's also the most berry & cherry-forward Ardbeg that I've tasted to date, which is unusual but does make sense given those wine casks are a first. The Ardbeg backbone is still there though, at least on the palate - with the dirty peat, wood smoke and tar never far away - which is a good thing. On the nose they're a little more restrained, but they're still there, although it's a brighter, fruitier Ardbeg overall. Which makes for a refreshing change really - if all of the special releases followed the same script as the core range, what would be the point? The distillery comes up with something different, which can't be easy considering it was actually in the works years prior. And this one is certainly different, but without going as far afield as some of the previous releases.

As far as rankings with the other Ardbeg Day releases, I'd have to put Blaaack somewhere around the middle. For my tastes it can't match the beauty of the Ardbog and the original Ardbeg Day bottling, and is slightly behind Grooves, but equal with Dark Cove. Which also means that it wipes the floor with Drum, Kelpie, Perpetuum and Auriverdes in my book. It's good, and it's certainly worth picking up - at close to the original pricing. As for the 46% version that lands next week, we'll have to wait and see - but based on this Committee Release, I look forward to trying it! Here's to Ardbeg day!

Cheers!

SMWS 29.143 (18 Year Old Laphroaig) Whisky Review!

I don't generally come across many "Society" bottlings, particularly for my regular whisky reviews, but an 18-year old cask strength Laphroaig was always going to get my attention!

I've tasted some impressive bottlings from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) over the years, and while major milestones like a 22-year old refill sherry cask Karuizawa (reviewed here) and a peated BBQ-sauce like Glen Scotia are memorable, there's really only one that sticks out in my mind: 33.133, an outstanding second-fill sherry cask Ardbeg that I tasted and reviewed over four years ago. Since then, and this is partly due to the lack of an active SMWS 'partner bar' here in Brisbane, I haven't stumbled across many memorable examples. That's not to say that they haven't been out there of course, they just haven't passed under my nose! But this particular dram shows all the hallmarks of being another very memorable single cask bottling. Because this is a single cask 18-year old Laphroaig, fully-matured in a refill ex-bourbon barrel, and bottled at cask strength without chill filtration or added colouring. That's virtually every box ticked on most Islay fan's wishlists. That refill ex-bourbon barrel is particularly eyebrow-raising, because the vast majority of Laphroaig's official bottlings spend most of their time in first-fill ex-Maker's Mark bourbon barrels. So this one being a refill bourbon cask promises to show more of the distillery character, but with the added point of interest of it being aged for eighteen years prior to bottling. The distillery's official bottling of 18-year old was discontinued years ago, but while a tasty dram it was bottled at 48% and was matured in first-fill bourbon casks, so this promises to be a different kettle of fish, and I don't expect that there'll be any valid comparison between the two.

I must admit that I'm not a huge fan of the SMWS distillery code system, where the first number represents the distillery (29 in this case) and the second represents the number of casks that the Society has bottled from that distillery - 143 in this case, meaning that this was the 143rd bottling of Laphroaig that the SMWS has released. I understand the basic principle behind it, since back in the day many distilleries would not allow the distillery name to appear on independent bottlings, but only a handful still feel that way. The SMWSs' - and quite a few other independent single cask bottlers' - way of thinking is that they don't want you to judge a whisky by what you usually expect from the distillery, since most of their products are single cask bottlings which naturally can vary widely and which may not follow that usual style, so they want to avoid direct comparisons and presumptive judgement by avoiding the outright naming of the distillery. Personally though I find it more fascinating if a bottling from a certain distillery is so different from the norm, compared to that distillery's official bottlings, and I'll often enjoy the challenge of trying to discern why it's so different to the typical profile. But such information is only a quick Google away, and if you're like most of us whisky geeks you'll probably end up remembering the distillery codes that are closest to your heart - which I suppose defeats the purpose of the codes in the first place!

An independent bottling of Laphroaig isn't a particularly common thing, although there now seem to be a growing number of thinly-veiled 'secret distillery' bottlings coming from more obscure independent bottlers - many possibly coming from privately owned casks - that are rumoured to be Laphroaig. The good independent bottlers will fill holes that the distillery doesn't (or can't) fill itself, whether that means bottling at cask strength, or without chill filtration or added colouring, or all three, or maturing in a different or exotic cask type, or bottling single casks rather than large batches. And in this case, all the above! As mentioned above, a refill cask-matured Laphroaig isn't something that the distillery does very often for its official bottlings, unless they're going to then use a finishing cask of another type before bottling. But from the few examples that I've tasted to date, they can be fantastic, letting that medicinal, salty & peaty powerful spirit shine - especially when served up unadulterated and at cask strength. This particular example, SMWS 29.143 was actually bottled way back in 2013, so obviously all 226 bottles from this single barrel are long sold out, and the sample for this review came from a fellow whisky nerd who picked one up from a European auction site.

The SMWS name for this bottling is a little less extravagant than some, and if I'm not mistaken it's also a typo - 'Finish Tar Syrup', which actually should be 'Finnish Tar Syrup', as in coming from Finland. Those slightly mad Fins use the edible type of tar (not the road-making type) for a number of different things, including medicinal tonics, or like in this case, as flavouring for food - even including ice cream. It's actually made from the sap & resin collected from burning pine trees, and is said to have a smoky, strongly tarry flavour. No wonder that Scandinavia goes bonkers for Laphroaig and Islay in general, then! Did this little typo make this bottling more collectable, back when it was available? Hopefully even the most die-hard collectors haven't gone to those extreme lows just yet. Let's just let the whisky do the rest of the talking, shall we?

SMWS 29.143 (Laphroaig) 'Finish Tar Syrup', 18-Year Old, 58.3%. Islay, Scotland.
Distilled April 1995, fully matured in a single refill ex-bourbon barrel, bottled 2013. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 226 bottles. And 'Finish' should be 'Finnish'.

Colour: Pale gold.

Nose: Well it's certainly Laphroaig, but it's also warm, soft & inviting. Yes, it's tarry, and herbal too. Smoked oily fish, dried leafy herbs - alternates between oregano, rosemary, even basil? Salted butter, black pepper and freshly dried lemon slices. Salted liquorice and damp seaside rock pools further in.

Texture: Medium weight, soft and mellow - at 58%, remember! No spirit-y heat at all.

Taste: And there's the peat - dry and earthy, with a fistful of ash. A dry, warm (not hot) chilli flake spice, mixed in with some black pepper. Some iodine and soft old leather. More dried lemon wedges with the rind still in tact. Over-salted smoked pork, more oily smoked fish and more dried herbs behind.

Finish: Long length. The chilli flakes, black pepper and dried lemon again initially, then a muddy, earthy peat that then turns dry & ashy. Then shifting towards coastal - muddy damp rock pools, drying kelp, hot sand & salt spray from the shore. Oily putty, old bandages, smoked dried chilli (chipotle) and dried lemon to finish.

Score: 4 out of 5. Nudging 4.5 though.

Notes: Very good stuff! The most herbal Laphroaig I've tasted to date, and certainly one of the more mellow in character, without sacrificing any flavour. In fact this 18-year old drinks more like a 25+ year old, if you ask me - and you'd never guess it was over 58% ABV. The refill cask has worked brilliantly - textbook subtractive & oxidative maturation, in my relatively amateur opinion. Not adding too much at all, but doing its job well - mellowing and balancing, keeping an eye on things without getting in the way. It's definitely tarry, and there's plenty of smoked fish & dried herbs, so it's certainly quite Scandinavian in feel - but that's Finnish rather than finish! This does remind me of an old fishing boat, with the old crab pots, neglected rope & nets, never fully maintained or cleaned, that sort of thing. All very old-school Islay whisky, then!

This SMWS Laphroaig is something that I can see Mr. Serge Valentine going nuts over - and for good reason! A different, older, mellower style of Laphroaig, but with no dilution (pun intended) of character.

Cheers!