Country: Scotland – Islay Distillery: Bruichladdich Type: Single Malt
Age: 10
Cask: Virgin Oak, 1st & 2nd fill ex-Bourbon
ABV: 54.3%
Proof: 108.6
Price: $225
Nose: Char, toasted oak, apricots, earthy peat, roasted red peppers, dusty after a while, milk cereal with honey.
Palate: Orchard fruits, caramel, vanilla, elegant, white peppers, milk chocolate. As it opens up peat smoke takes over as a centered flavor, leaving salty notes around the tongue.
Finish: Long, lingering with mint chip chocolate. A touch of maritime (coastal) impact. Oak spices, malt notes with cereals.
Octomore has an alternating system for two of their releases. The Octomore 10 Years and Octomore .4. This year Bruichladdich released The Octomore 10 Years instead of 11.4. The .4's has a focus on virgin oak but 10 years has no set maturation profile. Instead, Octomore 10 Years of 2020 is aged in a combination of virgin oak & first and second fill ex-American whiskey barrels from Jim Beam, Heaven Hill, Buffalo Trace and Jack Daniel's.
Barley used for this whisky is 100% Scottish grown Optic barley from 2008 harvest and the whisky is distilled in 2009. The ppm level goes up to 208 ppm. (The first 10 Year Old released in 2012 had 80.5 ppm and following two releases were at 167 ppm). Octomore 10 Years is bottled at 54.3% abv and is limited to only 12000 bottles!
Octomore 10 Years
I was lucky to have some words with the Master Distiller, Adam Hannett started his introduction with the following sentence. "10 Years is all about time!"
It is a well known but not that well outspoken reality that some Islay distilleries are aging their barrels on Scottish mainland. Bruichladdich is not taking this approach and aging all the barrels entirely on Islay to give the Islay character to the whisky as much as possible.
I can just wrap up this whisky as 'Overly joyful!', finish this post and enjoy this. But, I love you all and I will continue. Palate is darker then I expected even though I had orchard fruits, apricots to start with. The char, cereal notes with roasted peppers is fun.
Palate is elegant and rich. Orchard fruits continue to dominate with caramel, white peppers. 208 ppm of peat attacks after some time in a flume to your palate and nose creating a centered focus on the tongue, leaving salty notes around it.
We will have a detailed video about this whisky with The Whiskey Jug and The Scotch Girl soon. About the finish, my words are "Finish, is not finishing". Long and lingering, with some menthol, touch of coastal character, oak spices, malty dominance in time with water.
Such a joyful, such a lovely whisky! It is a really close race with Octomore 11.3 and to be honest, I can't even state which one is better. There is no better. Both of them are great!
