Origin: Islay (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Chillfiltered: No
Added colouring: No
Owner: Rèmy Cointreau
Official website: www.bruichladdich.com
The 2024 appointment for the extra-peated series made annually by Bruichladdich, tasted in the classic three progressively numbered versions: the .1 which acts as a ‘base’ for the later ones, the .2 which plays on casks and the .3 with Islay barley only.
Five years of ageing for the whole trio, cask strength, different maturations and the usual stratospheric level (particularly for the .3) of peat.
Octomore 15.1
Strength: 59.1%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon 1st fill and ex-Bourbon recharred
Average price: € 160.00
At the base of this 108.2ppm peated whisky we find Concerto quality barley from the Scottish mainland (it’s always funny to call “mainland” what is still an island, but whatever), harvested in 2017 and distilled the following year, matured for 5 years in a mix of ex-Bourbon casks, between first-fill and re-charred barrels, which as we know is the starting point for the whole series.
Tasting Notes
It’s inevitable to talk immediately of the peat, which on the nose isn’t the punch that the numbers would lead you to imagine (as is always the case in the Octomore series). On the contrary, it’s all in all placid and arboreal, of brushwood and burnt leaves, embracing lots of nuts (peanuts, walnuts) combined with yellow fruit (baked apple, pear, peach, apricot), pineapple, lemon tart, buttercream, spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, a pinch of black pepper). A drizzle of balsamic along the length. Classic and all in all pleasing.
In the mouth, it begins with roasted coffee beans and dark chocolate, enveloped in the fumes of a bonfire in the pine forest (which may not be a very good idea, but so be it). Creamy, it confirms the sweet soul of fruit and tart (with minor citrus inflections), added to malt cream, sweet liquorice, nuts, spices, sandalwood incense. Cinerine in length.
Fairly long finish of incense, dull embers, spices, nuts, saline notes.
An agile and pleasant dram, without great complexity, exactly as it wants to be: perfect for peat lovers without a lot of frills.
Vote: 85/100
Octomore 15.2
Strength: 57.9%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon, ex-Red Wine and ex-Cognac
Average price: € 175.00
Same raw material base as its predecessor, including the peat level, but radically different casks: first maturation in ex-Bourbon (58%) and ex-Red Wine (42%) second-fill casks, finishing for about a year (out of a total of five) in ex-Cognac first-fill casks.
Tasting Notes
The nose is confirmed as amiable as the previous one, adding colour to the fruit component: still yellow fruit (peach, apple, pineapple) enriched by the pungency of red fruit (currant, gooseberry). Peat still vegetal without excesses, rather, softly linked to the sweet part of blackberry tart, apricot jam, walnuts, cinnamon. At the bottom, it brings out an impression of Bounty candybar filling. Lively.
On the palate, the peat retains the forest spirit but becomes distinctly sweeter, moving towards grilled fruit (peach, pineapple, granny smith apple), slipping into the mouth with pleasant creaminess. Triumph of red fruit jam, especially blackberries and raspberries, pressing on the pedal of spices (black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg) that sizzle on sultanas, chocolate, nuts (walnuts, peanut skin), sweet liquorice. Saline tip in length.
Quite long finish of burnt wood, red fruits, blood orange, fruit tart, nuts.
A clear step forward compared to the .1 with a broader aromatic richness, still remaining amiable and a little ruffian but with a certain elegance.
Vote: 87/100
Octomore 15.3
Strength: 61.3%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry 1st fill
Average price: € 370.00
And here is the latest in the series, the bottling ‘exaggerated’ in several respects: the alcohol content, clearly higher than its two brothers, and the peatiness, which reaches 307.2ppm, placing it as the second highest level ever produced by the distillery, behind the 8.3, which reached 309ppm.
Barley grown on the Octomore farm on Islay (still the Concerto variety), also harvested in 2017 and distilled in 2018, with the usual five years of maturation spent entirely between ex-Bourbon casks (69%) and hogshead ex-Sherry Oloroso (31%) from the Fernando de Castilla bodega, all first-fill.
Tasting Notes
Almost three times as much as in the previous versions, yet the peat confirms itself as the frame and not the protagonist of the olfactory notes, remaining in the vegetal and balsamic compartment with just a bit of a bituminous inflection, joining the fruit scattered on the grill already encountered in the other versions together with an important presence of plum, cherry in syrup, orange (red and candied) and kumquat peel. Nuts, spices (with a hint of aniseed), liquorice root, pink grapefruit and salted caramel play second fiddle. Structured.
Very important citrusy mouthfeel, blood and tarocco orange juice infused with sandalwood incense and smoke from maritime shrubs, along with a drizzle of blackberry and plum jam on pastry and baked cream. Here, the smoke is the protagonist but not loudy, working in harmony with the the co-stars in the role of spices (black pepper, sweet paprika, ginger, nutmeg), berries (currant, strawberry tree, gooseberry), ripe plum, sweet liquorice, nuts and boat keel. There is a lot of coastal influence, with medicinal (and oily) brush strokes, especially along the length.
The finish is long and saline, of spices, red fruits, ripe citrus, liquorice and a full-bodied smoke that fills the mouth.
As always, the trilogy ends in beauty with the fullest and most full-bodied dram, energetic and rich in island character, which in the full alcohol content (not at all perceived in any of the three bottles) finds exaltation and support. A series that is a certainty, a pity only for the price that remains very important and limits the attention it deserves.
Vote: 89/100