Tastes

Nose: Plum jam, ripe strawberry, grape jelly, brown sugar, vanilla, nutmeg and honey. It almost smells like a port wine trifle! Yum! Palate: Sweet, waxy and bursting with red berries on the entry. Apple crumble, cherry clafoutis (drool!), milk chocolate, sweet orange sauce, plums preserved in cognac and a hint of baking spices. Excellent chewy texture with huge heft. A very good palate. Finish: Medium/Long. Christmas cake, milk chocolate and sultanas. Towards the finale the finish is drying (dark chocolate) as oak is finally dominant. A lovely, luscious, relatively young GlenDronach that fairly oozes port wine, Christmas cake and pudding spices. This would be a perfect whisky to bring out following Christmas dinner. The youth of the distillate is not awkward at all but simply adds energy and verve to the profile, while the PX sherry and port cask maturation (which could be a disaster if done badly) contributes a blanketing warmth and cosiness. The maturation was very well managed. At the price this is one NAS that can be highly recommended, I think even for those who do not ordinarily enjoy heavily port-influenced whisky. It’s simply delicious and at the price it represents sound value. Tasted from a 30ml sample. “Very Good” : 85/100 (4 stars)

Nose: Light apple and pear, peach, malted milk powder, lots of vanilla and a floral note with solvent overtones. Palate: Soft but bright and shimmering on the arrival with apple, melon, gristy barley and a touch of ginger. It suddenly develops notes of apricot and a honeyed sweetness in the mid palate and then just as quickly it transitions to the late palate where some ash shows up. The texture is fine and it has a little weight. Finish: Medium/Short. The palate falls off quickly leaving residual fruity sweetness marred only by a distinct ethanol intrusion. Summer whisky. Light, breezy and uncluttered. If you don’t like it you’d call it simplistic but it does have a bright, unassuming charm. It reminds me a little of The Deveron, Glen Grant and several other affordable fruity Speyside single malts, but notably when they are young. It also reminds me a little of some young Australian NAS whiskies aged exclusively in bourbon casks. This malt does not try to hide its youth but instead celebrates it, which is fine, and the blender has filled it out with heaps of fragrant vanilla derived from what I think were pretty good casks, including some first fill. Adding water makes it almost absurdly soft and easy to drink while also amplifying the ginger spice note a touch and bringing the ashy quality more to the front. I did not try it in a highball but I think it would be perfectly suited to mixing in long, cooling drinks. Overall I enjoyed this malt and I would not turn down a free pour (thanks @DrRHCMadden for the sample) but I would not buy it and I can’t justify giving it 3 stars. It’s an acceptable “average” grade whisky, but not a recommendation at the price. Tasted from a 30ml sample “Average” : 79/100 (2.75 stars)

Octomore 14 Series Tasting, The Oak Barrel, Sydney, 21 February 2024. Whisky #6 Nose: A huge, expansive, buttery, floral (vanilla) nose with acres of warm, rich peat smoke hanging like black velvet drapes in the background. Lemon and orange peel, pineapple chunks grilled on a barbecue. The expressions we tasted before this elicited a feeling of “hmm, yes that’s nice” but this one instantly made me say out loud “oh yes! – that’s it!” Palate: Full, sweet cereal arrival. Malted milk, caramel sauce, soft peat smoke, apricots, peaches, sweet nectarines and plums. The texture is genuinely creamy and lip-smacking. Adding a little water expands the cereal qualities and develops flavours of popcorn and puffed wheat flakes. Finish: Long. Soft and sweet, trailing into an immense smoky blanket. This whisky has excellent persistence. This was without question my favourite whisky of the evening. Until we tried it, I had thought the 14.3 to be the best of this year’s releases, but this is in a whole different class. It is “big” in the same way a well matured fine Châteauneuf-du-Pape is “big”. It has authority and enormous presence but the distillate shines through with crystal clarity. The experiment with Colombian virgin oak casks has paid off in spades and I would love to try more examples of Octomore matured in such a manner. It did not require any water and is soft and drinkable neat (at 59.2%). Water does, however, release greater smoke and improves the already excellent texture, making it like fine satin. This is the closest thing I’ve tasted to the magisterial Octomore 10 year old 2nd Edition. It is only available directly from the distillery, but at £175.00 it is a steal. Bottles are still available and I would heartily recommend it to any Octomore or Port Charlotte enthusiast. It is very close to 5 stars. “Excellent” : 89/100 (4.75 stars)

Octomore 14 Series Tasting, The Oak Barrel, Sydney, 21 February 2024. Whisky #5 Nose: Honey (beeswax?), wine, barley grist, vanilla and rich earthy peat smoke. A dense floral quality (apple blossom?) but there is also a hint of sulphur in the background. Palate: Big, honeyed peat on the arrival veering towards a meaty barbecue type of smoke. Sweet beef jerky. Creamy and buttery in texture and flavour like porridge with butter and salt. Caramel-coated apple and salt-water taffy. It’s a big sweet palate but the sweetness is moderated by salt, pepper and a strong umami presence that gives it heft and authority sufficient to balance the sweetness. Finish: Long. Soft but dry (?) and trailing into savory smoke, brine and diesel oil. This was my favourite whisky of the evening until I tasted the 14.4 which is in a whole different league. This has the sweetness of the 14.2 but here the wine influence is under control and does not overshadow the distillate, which is rich, oily and huge in profile. It also reacts very well to water, the aromas fading just a pinch but the palate gains integration, complexity and accessibility without losing any impact. It's a fine example of a contemporary Octomore and even though it is significantly more expensive than the ".1" and ".2" expressions it it worth the extra cost. “Very Good : 85/100 (4 stars)

Octomore 14 Series Tasting, The Oak Barrel, Sydney, 21 February 2024. Whisky #4 Nose: A surprisingly soft nose for an Octomore with intrusive wine aromas overtaking the core cereal and citrus presence, and even overshadowing the peat-reek. The wine is almost reminiscent of port or PX sherry and has a dried fruit quality that is a bit odd. Not unpleasant, but … odd. There’s a grape marc or rosewater presence, too. Dilution dials back the red wine notes and lets the cereal through but also reveals a whiff of gunpowder (sulphur!) and cold ash. Palate: Very winey on the arrival – grotesquely so. Amarone wine all over the place, masking everything relating to the distillate. This has way too much cask character for my liking. Adding water develops cardboard notes along with some hard spices initially, with an amplification of the smoke notes and some sweetness later. Finish: Medium/Long. Red berries, red wine trailing into mud. Hmm, this is probably my least favourite Octomore. The “.2” expressions have always been inconsistent and this one is just a mess. I have had had some pleasant “.2”s but generally it’s the bourbon cask expressions or the Islay barley “.3” experiments that capture my attention. I’m giving this the lowest rating I’ve ever given to an Octomore, and I think I’m being a bit too generous. It is still just barely identifiable as Octomore, but it’s a close thing and in a blind tasting I would likely not recognise it at all. Give this one a miss. “Above Average (just)” : 82/100 (3.25 stars)