The Ultimate Octomore Experience - chapter 1
Bruichladdich Distillery
About a year ago I was throwing around ideas for special whisky tastings with my dear friend Tobias (aka the crazy Swede). We are both big fans of the über-peated Octomore whiskies from Bruichladdich Distillery on Islay. We agreed that it would be fantastic to do a massive Octomore tasting. Then time passed, and nothing more came of the idea.. Until March this year, when I was visiting Gothenburg for the Bruichladdich world record tasting (see report and interview with Adam Hannett).
I was at the festival in Gothenburg as the guest of Robert Prizelius AS, the Norwegian importer for Bruichladdich, and their brand manager Katrin Reitz-Moe. I also got to meet Adam Hannett, the Head Distiller at Bruichladdich, and of course Tobias. I pitched my idea for a massive Octomore tasting again and they all agreed we had to do this.
Farmer James Brown (“the Godfather of Soil”), owner of the Octomore farm.
Now, before I move on I have to say a few more words about Octomore. This is an insanely peated whisky produced at the Bruichladdich Distillery. At the distillery the nickname for Octomore is “the impossible equation”. Where other heavily peated whiskies are peated to a level of 40 to 55 ppm phenols, the Octomore are in the range from 80.5 ppm to 309.1 ppm! These are also very young whiskies, with most of them being mere 5 YO. Add to this the fact that they are also bottled at near cask strength, typically in the range between 57 % and 62 % ABV. They are never actual, cask strength, as that would be impractical when pre-ordering labels for 12000 - 30000 bottles. So they always add a little bit of local Octomore water. All in all this is one heck of an equation!
Another important note to make is that over last few years Bruichladdich have had way stricter requirements placed on them in terms of revealing the names of (especially wine) producers they have used casks from. This was made very clear during the tasting, and I respect that. As such any names of chateau this or that mentioned below is purely my own private speculation, and has in no way been confirmed or endorsed by Bruichladdich or their importer.
Adam Hannett, Head Distiller at Bruichladdich
Long story short, we brought the idea to Callum Berney, the Manager at The Whisky Bar in Oslo, and he immediately agreed to host the event. We then found we had about 20 Octomores we would like to share with fellow whisky lovers.
Now, doing 20 Octomores in one tasting would be close to deadly, so we agreed to split the tasting into two chapters, each consisting of two flights of five drams.
We got back in touch with Bruichladdich and they promptly sent over the very knowledgeable Joanne Boyd, Distillery Ambassador at Bruichladdich, as well as a mystery cask sample from Adam himself.
All set for the first flight!
Chapter 1 was held on Thursday October 24, and the drams on hand were the following:
Octomore 2.2 Orpheus (Chateau XYZ (?) Bordeaux casks) (see review)
Octomore 3.1 (see review)
Octomore 4.2 Comus (Chateau ZYX (?) Sauternes casks) (see review)
Octomore 5.1 (see review)
Octomore 6.2 (Eau-de-Vie Limousin Oak Cask of Aquitaine - cognac) (see review)
Octomore 7.1 Scottish Barley (see review)
Octomore 8.4 Virgin oak
Octomore 9.1
Octomore 10.1 διάλογος
Octomore cask sample from Adam Hannett
The tasting sold out in a few days, and on the day 35+ happy whisky lovers gathered at The Whisky Bar.
Joanne Boyd took us through the history of the distillery and the history of Octomore. It was great to try all the old expressions again, and also the final three that I had not tasted before.
Joanne Boyd from Bruichladdich, with the complete line-up of the evening.
The mystery cask sample turned out to be around 17 years old! Distilled back in 2002 (remember Octomore was first produced in April 2002!), and drawn in October 2019. It was a combination of two casks. Looking at the hand-written label I am guessing the casks were an Oloroso sherry cask (“olo”) and a wine cask. Tasting the dram I was certainly thinking white wine or dessert wine. Does anyone know what the “che” might mean? Anyways, it is peated to 131 ppm and with an ABV of 59.4 %. It was in a word delicious!
The fantastic cask sample from Adam Hannett.
Needless to say the tasting was a great success. Everyone had a great time and we are now all looking forward to chapter 2, on November 14. Stay tuned!
Tobias Johnsson aka the crazy Swede. My brother from another mother!
Myself, Joanne Boyd and Katrin Reitz-Moe. All very happy after the tasting!
Sláinte!
- Thomas
