New Octomores and Glen Morays; New Ardbeg Manager

Hello everyone

Here we are three quarters of the way through the year and how did we get this far in so soon?! We‘ll be getting news of bottlings available for Christmas soon, on top of those few already received.

Just in time for the festive season we have the three new Octomores from Bruichladdich. They kindly sent samples and I‘ve spent time nosing and tasting all three. I won‘t show notes for all of them here but just cover my favourite.

On a general note, all Octomores are at cask strength, not chill-filtered and have no added colour. All the first three are 5 years old. Octomore 16.1 is the start or base point for the others. It used 100 Scottish barley (Concerto from the mainland) and is malted to 101.4ppm with a strength of 59.3%. It was matured in first fill bourbon barrels with no other cask finishing. Price is £140 per bottle in the UK.

Octomore 16.2 is 58.1% abv and is from the same distillation (so also 101.4ppm)but cask types for maturation were a mix of oloroso sherry and Bordeaux (no more detail) casks before finishing in madeira and Portuguese moscatel wood. This has made quite the difference to colour, not to mention character and flavour and is the first time this cask combination has been used for Octomore. The distillery‘s ability to play variations with all „instruments“ at its disposal continues to impress. Price for this one is £155/bottle.

Lastly, in this year‘s series comes Octomore 16.3 showing off a single farm (Octomore) and indeed, single field (Church field) and single vintage. Maturation for its 5 years was full term in each of bourbon, sauternes and PX sherry casks so the distillate was divided amongst these three cask types and brought together in proportions Adam Hannett deemed correct after the 5 years. It‘s bottled at 61.6% abv and was peated to 189.5ppm. This is the priciest of the three at £195.

There are usually 4 expressions with one coming along a little later and this year is the same. Octomore 16.4 will be out in November and has been matured in French virgin oak, also at 189.5ppm and bottled at 62.6% abv. That one will be online only.

So which one would I choose to buy for myself? Well, this is a tough one. I really can‘t choose between 16.2 and 16.3. 16.2 had nicer aromas initially including sweet and aromatic vine fruits but was very mouth-drying and the flavour didn‘t quite live up to nose for me. I‘m going to share my notes for 16.3.

Appearance: White burgundy with lemon juice highlights. Tears very slow and fine.

Nose: Initially quite gentle smokiness but smokier as it opens; potato cooking water; some wood caramelization and slight tar. Less overt fruit than 1 and 2. Baked honey and more young spirit note than the others. Toasted and creamy/buttery from the oak. Even a fleeting wisp of attar of roses. Wax. With water, some salt and then more sugar sweetness; more vine fruit and fruitier notes than without water; griddled tropical fruit.

Palate: Medium mouth feel – not particularly viscous. Very mouth drying + heavily peat-smoked; a rear sweetness with richly roasted barley. Peppery spice and some salted nuts. Coffee ground bitterness.

Finish: Very long, smoky and peaty; dry but rear wood notes both sweet and bitter.

The other samples I received recently were for Glen Moray‘s new expressions Glen Moray Tequila Cask Finish (55.2% abv) and Glen Moray Peated Tequila Cask Finish (58.5% abv). Both are from their Warehouse 1 series and are £85 and £95 per bottle respectively. Only 474 bottles of each one are available from UK specialist retailers. Now, I do love a Glen Moray but don‘t always enjoy the peated ones quite so much. However, this one is one I would drink again and I liked the burnt herb notes in the finish as well as the roast chestnut and barbecued fruit on the nose. My preference, though, was still the unpeated and my notes are:

Appearance: Rich, warm gold/light amber with old gold highlights. Tears slow and clingy and run close at first then much a swifter run but still close together.

Nose: Warm orchard fruits; honey; dark milk chocolate; vanilla; some toasty nuttiness; a flash of floral; creamy notes. With water it goes very cloudy (they both do) which must be the tequila influence when whisky goes into a cask that has contained high strength tequila. Plus, I used tap water to reduce the strength. There‘s a bit less fruit at first but more creamy notes then the sweet fruit returns more strongly.

Palate: Medium mouth feel. Less fruity than on the nose; herbal; wood tannin notes; lighter than expected.

Finish: Fairly long and warming with a warmly spicy finish. Some residual wood sweetness.  

Now, last but very definitely not least came news yesterday that the new manager at Ardbeg Distillery is….(drum roll) Bryony McNiven. Cracking news. As well as being an Ileach (Islay native) and a chemistry graduate, Bryony has been at the distillery for some seven years but with the company even longer having worked alongside Doctor Bill Lumsden (Head of Whisky Creation) and been brand ambassador in Sweden too, despite looking no more than 20. Her Dad worked at Ardbeg for many years. Like many distilleries from the 19th century, women have been in charge of distilling here before but not since the mid 19th century in this case. Many will think women being in charge of whisky production and blending is a relatively new thing since fantastic female distillers and blenders have been more publicly visible in the last maybe 20 -25 years but they go back way farther than that. We‘re kind of getting back to where things should be which is that we just want brilliant people and Bryony will surely lead Ardbeg to even greater heights.

That‘s all from me for September. If all goes to plan I‘ll be on Raasay mid-October and hope to chat to some of the team there. I‘m also promised a bottle of a new Cutty Sark that is for travel retail but it hasn‘t arrived yet. Seems to be stuck in transit. Hopefully not too much longer to wait.

Till next time, happy dramming.

Slainte mhath,

Caroline