Another magnificent addition to Bruichladdich’s hyper-peated Octomore series.

This is the youngest Octomore Bruichladdich have released, but it confounds its age with complexity and depth.

The spirit was distilled in 2016 from the 2015 harvest of Concerto barley, and is made entirely with Scottish barley. Peated to 88ppm, this is much less smoky than previous Octomores have been, but still rather aggressively peaty.

The spirit was fully matured in virgin French oak casks from the forest of Limousin for three years. The casks were treated to a high char toast before filling, to offset their naturally high level of tannins. It is astounding to see the effect a virgin cask can have on a whisky in such a short period of time, the colour and depth of flavour in this dram match those of spirits much older.

The final result is an Octomore that serves up notes of tobacco, bonfire smoke, leather, rich peat, vanilla, forest fruits, cinnamon, anise, cloves, some balsamic, some smoked meats, damsons, espresso, coconut, barley sugar, burnt malt and rich charred oak.

Bottled at a fearsome cask strength of 63.5% ABV, and (as ever with Bruichladdich) free from colouration or chill filtration, this is an intense, full bodied Octomore.

Just 12,000 bottles were produced.

• Product type
  Single Malt
• Distillery / brand
  Octomore
• Country
  Scotland
• Region
  Islay
• Bottler
  Distillery Bottling
• Age
  3 years old
• Non-chillfiltered
  Yes
• Natural colour
  Yes
• SKU
  041826