Reviews

It’s been about 3 years since I last sat on this patio (pictured) drinking whisky in the English late spring sunshine. Today though is marked by my daughter’s second birthday. Now that she is down for the night I figured it was apt to have something a little bit special to celebrate surviving two years of parenthood. I purchased this bottle two nights ago on a whim, mainly to enter a prize draw to get a trip to Orkney. But also because this seems like it may be one of the better non standard offerings from HP. I’m also pleased to see that HP have gone back to the plain glass bottles and done away with the gaudy Viking themed embossed glass. Grown ups have returned to the marketing department. This review is going to get long, there’s this whole whisky tasting experience promoted for this special bottling, and I’ve decided to give it a go below my main tasting notes here. What will be particularly interesting is to see what 16 years of virgin Swedish Oak does to the signature profiles of Highland Park. N: Wonderfully full yet delicate. Instantly oak spice brings warmth and depth of character. Fresh pears and peaches with an excellent floral bouquet lift everything to be bright and refreshing. At the back a thick almost sticky vanilla is rich and robust. Letting this have 10-minutes in the glass is a must, there is now a suggestion of smoked orange, a marmalade-peat medley; its wonderful P: There is a lot of toasted oak here, a lot. Sip one is just wood but give it time, there is an orchestra at work here - rich oak spice, toasty malt, plump raisins, floral honey, a wisp of ginger. Through it all a conductor threads gentle warm peat smoke. F: Long, it just keeps coming. Oak spice continues but it turns into a stony-metallic mineral laden exit with smoke becoming dry and maritime. It’s been some time since I had a HP to sit and consider (way back on review #199 I think). There are good HPs amongst the special releases, and there are some average and mundane ones. Between you and I, Between You and I is up there with the best of the bunch. I am vaguely reminded of the Highland Park 18 here. 18 is border line genius and probably shouldn’t be drawn as a comparison, but this is my review so I’ll run with it. 18 is finesse, poise and craft; bottled. This 16 year old is like a burlier, meatier counterpart. The addition of the virgin Swedish Oak imparts an oomph and fullness that can really be grabbed hold of. At about the same price point it’s a tough call for which I’d keep in stock. In the immortal words of the old El Paso advert: “¿Por qué no ambos?” And now for something completely different. The premise of the whisky being made by HP and Björn Frantzén was to craft a whisky that explores the deeply personal ways we experience flavours and aromas, and how sharing what we taste can bring us closer. To that end the whisky comes with a little booklet that provides emotional and experiential prompts for tasting. My thoughts on this are below… COLOUR Hold your dram up to the light. How would you describe the colour of your whisky? What does it remind you of? -Deep gold to burnished. Probably because I am back in the UK in summer time, but stubble fields. I spent my child hood riding horses cross country across farm lands near to home. The end of summer, after the wheat fields were harvested left these dark golden ‘stubble fields’ that were great for charging across at break neck speed. AROMA Hold your glass up to your nose and breathe in the scent of the whisky. Which aromas do you smell? Where have you smelled them before? -Aromas are above. To be honest, this is a whisky smell, but the orchard fruits are somewhat reminiscent of the cideries and orchards of SW England; again childhood memories here of family holidays to the SW. FLAVOUR Take a small first sip and let the whisky cover every part of your mouth. Consider how it tastes and how it feels. What flavours can you taste? How do they evolve over time? -As above. MUSIC There is evidence that music and sound can affect the way we taste and experience whisky. Which song or sound do you think would go perfectly with this whisky, and why? -Life has not been straightforward of recent years the daily existential crises that a baby (now toddler) brings, together with career changes, promotions, health scares, bad health outcomes, and loss. Music has been a necessary processing mechanism and whisky has been mostly absent. Whisky has always been a meditative experience though, enjoyed in quiet moments. Music has matched my mood through the last two years. Sadness, anger, stoicism and pure joy. I think the play list that I would pair with a deep pour of this whisky, in light of recent years and current state of contemplation would have to be: 1. Sand Drawing - Judah Earl 2. Bear Story II - Luke Howard 3. Caledonia - Nathan Evans 4. Go Do - Jonsi PLACE If you could be sipping your whisky anywhere in the world right now, where would you be? Describe the scene in as much detail as you can. What time of day is it? What can you see and hear? - I’ve been quite fortunate to travel widely and visit some truly remarkable places, and I am hard pressed to find anywhere better than the here and now of my family home, sat on the patio watching the sun go down. The sky is just starting to take on a rich pastel colour palette of yellow pink and mauve as the fading light bounces of the estuary mud flats, and soft fluffy clouds are kissed by pink shadows. Song birds are currently flitting about before the shift changes to bats chasing the evening insects. The delicate smell of countless roses and herbs is drifting by, and the sounds of my family chatting through an open back door with my daughter asleep in her room above me are really all I could wish for. FOOD What dish you would like to eat with your whisky? How would you describe the ingredients, flavours, aromas, colours and textures, and what you would call the dish? -Come with me to Montepulciano in Tuscany for a spell. In July 2023, my wife and I travelled across Italy with my best friend and her partner, Diego. Diego is as Italian as a person can be and knows food better than most. To this day the favourite thing I have ever eaten was cooked by Diego from fresh Tuscan produce, a simple fresh Pici (thick spaghetti) with pancetta, tomatoes, and parmesan alongside buffalo and cow mozzarella. Perhaps followed up by the single best ice cream I have ever experienced during a life dedicated to finding the worlds best ice cream (top tip; never find the worlds best ice cream if you plan on continuing to enjoy ice cream). COMPANY There are few greater pleasures in life than spending time in good company. If you could share a dram of your whisky with anyone who has ever lived, who would it be, and what would you talk about? - The day I was born my grandparents moved in next door. My grandpa died in 2014. As I sit here now looking up at his house, I think I’d most like to sit with him and tell him about the last 12 years, have him meet my wife and his great granddaughter. My grandfather owned a large pewter thimble (about 75 ml I think, my dad currently has it). My grandpa was well known for declaring he’d have ‘just a thimble’ of whisky before bed. EMOTION Take a moment to think about how your whisky makes you feel. Which word or colour best represents that feeling? -Grateful, dark pink. SPACE Imagine you are creating a space to house your whisky. What would your space look like? Which objects would you include in it, and why? -Easy, I already have this space. It’s my rock room. Two deep seated, high backed and winged leather chairs in my rock room. Surrounded by shelves of rocks, fossils, meteorites. Geological maps and my microscope work adorning open wall space. Geology texts going back to the mid 1700s and all my whiskies happily shelved. After all I think whisky should be with rocks, not on the rocks. ART What painting or piece, of art would you like to look at or experience while drinking your whisky? What does that piece, or the artist who created it, mean to you? -Anything by Heironymous Bosch. If you don’t know who he is/was look his work up. Straight up hellish fever dreams. I swear he must have been borderline insane to come up with the visions he put to paper. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon one of his pieces in the museum at St Marks Square in Venice. I proceeded to get shouted at by multiple security and museum staff for being far too animated and excited in front of it. Anyway, I think his work is immense and just so much fun, no other reason than that. THREE WORDS Now that this experience is coming to an end, take a moment to reflect on what you have tasted and shared. How would you describe this experience in just three words or phrases? -Not three word, but one phrase that has resonated recently: “the days are long and the years are short”. I guess its incumbant on us all to appreciate the small moments then. Distiller whisky taste #305 Highland Park running scores: 10: 3.75 12: 4 15: 4.25 18: 4.75 25: 4.75 16 Between You and I: 4.5 Valknut: 4.25 Valkyrie: 4.25 Valfather: 4 Dragon Legend: 3.25 Voyage of the Raven: 3.5 Spirit of the Bear: 3.25 Loyalty of the Wolf: 2.75 Wings of the Eagle: 4 The Light: 4.25 The Dark: 5 Mjolner: 4.5 Full Volume: 3.25

It’s been another hot minute. Life keeps getting in the way lately. I am pleased to knock the cobwebs off again though with a Talisker, and a special release that has gone back to an age statement. A promising omen I hope. And at 58.7% ABV this may be something quite big to tackle. N: Straight into an orchard overflowing with superbly crisp pears and tart green apples. There is a dryness in here through, not unlike the air at the end of a hot spate of weather. Sitting with it though, there are things to unpack, a sweet vanilla, a stony mineral twang and just about some vinegary notes. The nose is crisp, but it takes work to seperate out from a very apple-pear juice forward dominance. P: Medium to full bodied, sticky sweetness up front and the definite knowledge that all 58.7% is here to scream in your face. Ooph, that was a heavy hit. Get past that and it mellows, just enough to let honeyed pears, salty toffee, and peppery heat come through. The salt is the stand out note, its mineral rich and of a pebble beach nature. But its delicate, look to long in its direction and it will duck beneath the waves and out of sight. F: Medium-long. The high ABV does some heavy lifting but its not great. A little damp smoke, a little minerality, and some generic baked apple with chantilly cream; but I am stretching to find character here. A drop of water adds to the nose, toasty, bready-grains. A palate calmed and softened has smoke surge forward like throwing green leaves on a fire. Pepper changes to the Talisker chilli bite. The finish lengthens through to a very drying presence of embers and stone. Is this Talisker? yes. Is this Talisker at its finest? Absolutely not. Is this Diageos finest in marketing spinning a story of waves and stones and sea? Absolutely yes. To be honest I’m disappointed, but not surprised. In an increasingly saturated market, spinning a tale is probably more important to the bean counters than the quality of the product. This, even with an age statement, feels rushed. Massive ABV but without finesse. I feel like the ABV is there to mask inferior batches rather than to give the Talisker connoisseur something to play with. Talisker should be a storm, or the sea, or a tempestuous coastline captured in a glass. This though, this is imitation Talisker. Distiller whisky taste #304 [Pictured here with a pair of trilobites from the Order Harpetida. These are from the Middle Devonian of Morocco and showcase a wonderful semicircular brim on their heads. The wide brim features small pores. It is postulated that the trilobite drew water through the brim pores to churn up the sediment, trapping a cloud of detritus between its mouth and the brim to feed from.] Talisker running scores T10: 4/5 T18: 4.75/5 Skye: 3.25/5 Port Ruighe: 2.75/3 Storm: 3.5/5 Dark Storm: 4.25/5 Surge: 4/5 57 North: 4.25/5 X Parley Wilder Seas: 4.25/5 T8 2018 Special Release: 4.5/5 T15 2019 Special Release: 3.5/5 T8 2020 Special Release: 4.25/5 T8 2021 Special Release: 4.5/5 T11 2022 Special Release: 4/5 Wild Explorador 2023 Special Release: 3.5/5 Tidal Churn 8 yo 2024 Special Release: 2.75/5

Glenfiddich is something that I have had a few times over the years, and only twice with considered tasting thought here on Distiller. The various expressions have always struck me as perfectly fine. Just fine. Nothing special about them. So, it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I purchased a sample of this XX. Supposedly this XX (twenty) ”is a vatting of twenty different casks, including Port pipes, Sherry butts and first-fill Bourbon casks, each chosen by the brand’s twenty global ambassadors. A collaborative marketing exercise, each ambassador selected a cask from the distillery's warehouses that best represented their personality. The casks were then blended together to create a NAS, non-chill-filtered expression” All I am hearing is ‘marketing exercise’. Lets see how it holds up. N: A strong musty nose on pouring that a generous time opening in the glass has not dissipated. Sweet apples and pears with a certain floral character are slightly masked by spicy oak, aniseed. Some late furniture polish. P: Well that was unexpected: bright and very fruity. This is floral candy floss, and pear cider at first backed up with woody spice notes, vanilla, biscuit, marzipan. F: Long. Florals are dominant, some waxy-tannic undertones and what ultimately is a sweet and almost soapy mouthfeel. OK. There is a lot going on here. The nose feels like it could be excellent but it comes across as slightly out of focus, almost unmixed. The palate has some wonderful florals but they should be a suggestion, a delicate whisper. Instead this is like a mouthful of pot-pourri and its just too intense. The finish is strange, again it just feels muddled. There are rave reviews out there for this whisky, with Jim Murray giving it 95.5/100 in the 2019 Whisky Bible. Several other glowing reviews from notable names in the industry are easy to find. But no, I just don’t get it. This feels less like a project and more like the marketing team trying to keep the accountants happy in using up a bunch of left over barrels under the guise of a brains trust. It’s not that though it is just too many cooks in the kitchen if you ask me (which I realise, no one did). Distiller whisky tastes #303 [Pictured here with a garnet-staurolite schist from the Bohemian Massif of the Czech Republic. This rock represents the eastern end of a huge European mountain building episode called the Variscan Orogeny that occurred 380-280 million years ago during the assembly of the Supercontinent Pangea. This rock represents metamorphism of a muddy sediment at up to 570 degrees C and at up to 5 kbar of pressure. Only one cook in this kitchen; geology; and it cooked up a stonker] Glenfiddich running scores Glenfiddich 12: 3/5 Orchard Experiment: 2.75/5 Project XX: 2.5/5

It’s been a minute, let’s see if I can remember how to do this… It has been my experience to date that whisky shown peat in the form of a barrel previously housing plated whisky can have mixed outcomes. Sometimes good, sometimes less so. Here the Welsh druids have taken their own Welsh malt and introduced ex-Laphroaig quarter casks. I am hopeful that the Welsh and the Scots can get along well here… N: Unexpectantly bright and fresh. The subtlest hint of Germoline underlies a waxy furniture polish, vanilla, crisp green apple, and maybe a lemon-pine type affair. The smoke arrives relatively late for me, and when it does its dry and slightly vegetal, like crunchy brown leaves smouldering on a bonfire. P: Delicate but laced with savoury biscuity-vanillin, crisp apple and an SSB wine like gooseberry, lemon rind. A briny-salty-smoke dance plays like a fleeting summer there is the invocation of smoking fish on a pebble coast. F: More delicacy, a wonderful perfumed florally driven crispness is the take away message here. Brilliantly delicate with a lovely balance between the sweet and crisp malt and the powerhouse laphroaig barrel. The barrel has done in incredibly good job of supporting and elevating the malt without becoming a monster like the liquid that once filled it. It could be that the Welsh are onto something and I’m keen to track down some more of these liquids. Distiller whisky tastes #302 [Pictured here with a chunk of blue schist from the Isle of Anglesey in Wales. This (not so blue looking) rock is from a high pressure remnant of a subduction zone. Around 550 million years ago a cold slab of basaltic oceanic crust was subjected and reached very high temperatures at comparatively low temperatures, only 300-500 degrees C for 14 km of depth. The result of this subduction; metamorphic rocks packed full of beautiful blue glaucophane] Penderyn running scores Madeira: 4/5 Peated: 4/5

Currently in the UK introducing our daughter to the family. After almost 10 days of winter sickness I have arisen to share a dram with my dad. Whilst still suffering somewhat from some olfactory stuffiness I am quite pleased to find a brief moment to enjoy a big pour. This OP is a limited edition single malt. Harbour was matured by the sea in a selection of four American oak bourbon barrels. N: Light, slightly creamy. Oaky vanillins, malty white bread, toasted coconut. Maybe a little bitter marmalade? P: Medium-oily texture. Creamy honey and buttery malt, darker toffee elements, toasty coconut and subtle pineapple sweetness. Plump raisins and light tannic spice. F: Medium. Very gently mineralic salt, dried fruits, and caramel. When commenting on OP12 I wrote that as a kid my Dad would often buy a big white bloomer bread loaf on the weekends that we would eat warm and slathered in honey. It’s a happy memory and one that mirrored OP12 for me. Getting to now have Harbour with my Dad is lovely. This OP is slightly toned down on malt, toffee/honey, and salt. But, In their place is a fruitier and slightly deeper profile with more prominent spice. The underlying backbone is much the same as OP12 though, and I am going to go and butter some bread, it is Sunday after all. Distiller whisky taste #301 Old Pulteney 12: 3.75/5 Harbour: 3.75/5 [No rocks, no pictures; forgive me for not having a travel rock. I had to leave it behind to make room for the offspring in my case]

On the 4th of November 2022 I poured my 100th Distiller Whisky Taste, Port Charlotte CC:01, one hundred tastes later on the 1st of June 2023 I poured number 200, Bruichladdich Black Art 10.1 29. It seems I’m slowing down rapidly at this whisky business but none the less tonight, number 300 is being celebrated with Octomore 14.4. I think 14.3 is going to be hard to beat, maybe my trend of 5/5 for ‘100’ reviews will be lost here. I don’t know, I type as I taste. N: Kill me now. I am not religious, but holy f***. Butter! Vanilla (of the most French like variety), richly warmed by an embrace of delicate peat laden with bright and airy citrus and sweet-sticky BBQ burnt ends. This is summer, winter, spring, and autumn rolled into a single buttery moment. The peat here is dry, but joined by a sweetly tropical and deeply oaky and maybe even waxy component that balances everything expertly. I’m thirty minutes in, haven’t tasted a drop yet, and custard, pear and peach have all joined us. P: Seriously, kill me. End it all. This is an explosion of simple excellence. Laden with warm, soft, pillowy barley and run through with silky pear. The wood and smoke combine into black pepper, sugar puff cereal, and resin. Smoke is through it all, earthy and creamy in equal measure. This is sweet and savoury done properly. This is whisky. F: Just long enough to drown in. Sweet wood and barley, just enough iodine to keep things interesting, a little leather?, ashy slightly lemony brine. A single drop of water is all I could bring myself to add. Why would I risk more when neat was so very good? The nose is unchanged, the palate and finish just build on the warmth of the smoke and the buttery goodness of the mouthfeel. Wow. What a ride. Skip 14.2 sure, but line up 14.1, 14.3, and 14.4 and that is a progression worth something. 300 and I am bowing down yet again to the team at Bruichladich. I’ll say it again, holy f***. This is what whisky is meant to be about, it’s meant to be exciting, it’s meant to be an expression of craft and story telling. It is amazing that such a young liquid, partnered with such an atypical wood (Colombian Oak; wait, is there cocaine in this, I hear that’s moorish?!) can produce such a powerful and luxurious outcome. At 100 and 200 alike Bruichladdich had crafted an experience, at 8 years of age and 29 years of age they were established artists. This Octomore 14.1 is different. It’s the young disrupter, the prodigy. Not the masterful aged hand, but the young future master. A natural talent. If I had access to it, it would join the stash of three CC:01 on my darkest retirement shelf… Happy 300 - if you have been playing along at home, thanks for tuning in. The eight of you that read them - keep reading them, I’ll keep writing them I guess. The question now though; at 400 what 5/5 Bruichladdich should I be lining up?! Distiller whisky taste #300 [Pictured here with a pretty block of silvery-yellow marcasite and white quartz. Marcasite has the same chemical formula as pyrite but is structurally different (orthorhombic). Marcasite crystals of good quality are quite rare and lots of marcasite is quire reactive, breaking down to powder in air. So these doubly terminated coarse crystals from Peru are quite special, a bit like this whisky]. Bruichladdich running scores Classic Laddie: 4/5 Bruichladdich 18 re/define: 4.75/5 Black Art 10.1 29 y/o: 5/5 Port Charlotte 10: 4.5/5 Port Charlotte CC:01: 5/5 Octomore 14.1: 4/5 Octomore 14.2: 2.75/5 Octomore 14.3: 4.25/5 Octomore 14.4: 5/5

Number 2 in the countdown to 300. After a rocky start I am entering 14.3 with a degree of trepidation… wine casks, again! But, second fill. Maybe this one will figure itself out before all hope is lost. I guess I am about to find out. N: Oh, hello. Ever walked along the coast, stony beach underfoot, sea breeze whipping in, warm fresh pastry in hand. I don’t think I ever have (seagulls would have that pastry in seconds). But damn, I’m close to being there in spirit. Vanilla, toasty oak barrels and grist, briny-salty air, and a danish pastry with that little glazed fruit compote in the middle (pear, apple, mango?). There is also a curious waxiness to this nose, and it’s good. The peat here is gentle, restrained and quite floral, but a spectre of sulphur is also there. P: Wow, it’s huge. Cured beef with demerara glaze, oatmeal with rich creamy milk and churned honey. Salted caramel and toffee apples. Tobacco leaf, ash and salt, aniseed and toasted nuts. I may be wrong, but the palate feels simple, approachable, and yet; monstrous. This is poised and authoritative, it knows what it is about. F: Long. cool dry smoke, some menthol, creosote, brine. Black tea, and maybe fresh blackcurrant at the last. Two drops of water, a swirl, and time to rest. The result is wonderful. The nose warms towards BBQ but slightly mutes and waxiness turns oily. The palate loses and gains nothing in flavour, but it extends each flavour drawing wider arcs and bleeding more subtly into one another. The finish melds into a firm powerful teashop affair. I have at this point forgotten that this was a wine cask or a bourbon cask. These elements are clearly present in the nose, that much should be apparent from the notes I have ascertained. But the palate and finish feel driven by the peat and the distillate, which is, to me at least; what it seems Octomores should be striving for. Distiller whisky taste #299 [Pictured here with a lovely ***** of spodumene pegmatite from Pilgongoora in the Pilbara of Western Australia. This pegmatite is ~2.8 billion years old and formed as dykes between 0.5 to 80 m wide, 50-1500 m long and up to 400 m thick, intruding into an ~3.2 billion year old continental rift. These dykes, thanks to their endowment with huge spodumene crystals and platy lepidolite micas, makes them one of the worlds largest hard rock lithium sources; also, really pretty.] Bruichladdich running scores Classic Laddie: 4/5 Bruichladdich 18 re/define: 4.75/5 Black Art 10.1 29 y/o: 5/5 Port Charlotte 10: 4.5/5 Port Charlotte CC:01: 5/5 Octomore 14.1: 4/5 Octomore 14.2: 2.75/5 Octomore 14.3: 4.25/5

Number 3 in the countdown to 300, and the obvious next step from Octomore 14.1. Straight into the glass, and something is clearly drastically different from what came before; what is in store for me here… N: Wow, that hits different. This is overwhelmingly winey. After almost ten minutes in the glass there is still a wall of red wine. Sherry, dried fruit and maybe some marzipan or turkish delight that I can’t single out. A hint of black pepper. With enough effort I think I find some raw very mulchy peat and ashy-sulphur. (The nose here is uncomfortably close to a Berry Bros and Rudd Sherry Cask I very much disliked). The malt brilliance of Bruichladdich is lost to me and I am wounded. P: Yikes. What is this?! Sweet and tannic in complete disharmony. Bitter burnt coffee, seaweed and heavy stony minerality. Menthol and aniseed. The somewhat briny, mineralic ashy smoke is buried under a wall of sweet wine. F: Medium. Sherry, waxy-oak. Beach pebble and ash. A fairly liberal watering (four drops into half a dram) draws more sulphur out of the nose but with it a hint of dry barely and tannic spice. The palate kind of doubles over in pain, the smoke billows forth and its cool and maritime, but then a strange rose, wet cardboard and prickliness develops against wine and sherry that just wont settle down. Ooph. Bruichladdich, seriously?! What have you done here? I don’t get it. I realise that Octomore is experimental, pushes the envelope yada yada. But really? Sweet and smoke can work, yes. But it is also really easy to balls up. Not everything has to leave the editing room floor. Some things should be chalked up to experience and allowed to fade away. I realise I have little right as a rank amateur to call out one of the finest distilleries anywhere in the world, but come on guys this is not anywhere close to the excellence I, and I am sure others, would expect from you. It’s weird, jarring, and doesn’t work. Be better than this. Distiller whisky taste #298 [Pictured here with sparkly chunk of ruby fuchsite schist from the westernmost part of the Archaean Dharwar Craton in Karnataka, India. This delicious rock is predominantly fine grained green fuchiste (a chromium mica) with poprhyroblasts of reddish corrundum (rubies). Rims of kyanite altered to fine white quartz and muscovite rim the rubies as coronas. This rock was formed from potassic-siliceous fluids infiltrating high pressure-temperature zones of metamorphism that were busy transforming thick piles of marine muds and silts during the early Proterozoic]. Bruichladdich running scores Classic Laddie: 4/5 Bruichladdich 18 re/define: 4.75/5 Black Art 10.1 29 y/o: 5/5 Port Charlotte 10: 4.5/5 Port Charlotte CC:01: 5/5 Octomore 14.1: 4/5 Octomore 14.2: 2.75/5

Number 4 in the countdown to 300 (it may be obvious at this point what my 300th will be). I’m not sure how I’ve only just poured my very first Octomore? Bruichladdich are in my Top 5 distillery picks, no question about it, and yet to have never tasted these experimental delights? It feels wrong. Well let’s right that wrong right now… N: Wow, not what I was expecting. Bright, yet brooding. Peat smoke is unsurprisingly everywhere. Ashy campfire embers, meaty BBQ, coconut and oily toasted nuts provide a robust backbone to an otherwise lemony and slightly floral brightness. P: Bold, and with some high ABV but it isn’t aggressive; just quite big. Very briny and with what I can only describe as the charred lemons I end up with after cleaning my BBQ post cook up. A creaminess unfolds with time that is a little ashy but with chocolates and pear and fresh pastry with plenty of bakery spice. F: Medium. The citrus, ash and brine all persist but as they fade butterscotch and vanillin come out. The last thing to wisp away is a floral peat note. At the high ABV this demanded a couple of drops of water and time to marry. The dram becomes much greener and sweeter. There are grassy or soft herb vibes coming through along with a bit of coffee bitterness. With no other Octomores in the bank to compare to I don’t know how this sits. Is it the immediately brilliant normalcy of Bruichladdich, no assuredly not. But it is still Bruichladdich that heart is apparent. What this is is something altogether different, indeed thats what the Octomores are meant to be about as I understand it. Big, ashy peat adds an interesting textural dimension to what is a heavy and brooding youngster, and I think it’s a fun dram to try and keep up with, it certainly shifts and subverts expectations from start to end. Distiller whisky taste #297 [Pictured here with a piece of vein graphite from Ceylon in Sri Lanka. This graphite is unique, Sri Lanka is the only place in the world with commercially extractable quantities of coarse vein graphite. Hosted by Precambrian aged high temperate metamorphic rocks (granulite) this vein of graphite represents CO2 extracted from the mantle during the amalgamation of the supercontinent Gondwana, forming veins as pressure was released during rapid uplift of the crust]. Bruichladdich running scores Classic Laddie: 4/5 Bruichladdich 18 re/define: 4.75/5 Black Art 10.1 29 y/o: 5/5 Port Charlotte 10: 4.5/5 Port Charlotte CC:01: 5/5 Octomore 14.1: 4/5

Number 5 in the countdown to 300, and another two years of age to the dram in tonights glass. I know nothing of Deanston and have not sampled their wares before. This liquid was distilled in 1991, matured first in ex-Bourbon then finished in ex-Muscat for two years. I suspected Muscat on last nights Bladnoch Talia 26 was like a smack in the face from a bowl of potpourri. Let’s see how Deanston measures up on the florals. N: Yep, floral. This is a gentle nose but with plenty going on. Bright and juicy with both stone fruit, dark berries, and dried fruits. The sweetness carries well with toffee and vanilla. The florals are, unsurprisingly king here though; fresh blossoms interlace with orange spritz and a tropical tang. Vaguely malty and oaky at the back. P: Sweet and winey out the gate. A oiliness creeps through what is otherwise an almost cloying texture. Surprisingly tannic and spicy with a dominant old oak spice and hints of sweet cinnamon. The palate becomes waxier over time and honied. A dusting of cocoa here, a spattering of blackcurrant there, and through it all puffs of orange and perfume. F: Medium. Creamy fading to sticky and sweet. Sultanas, some shortcrust pastry, leather and more oak. Huh. I didn’t know what to expect here, but it wasn’t this. Curious, if it wasn’t for the waxy oak I would have suspected a 15 year old, maybe, certainly not 28. The malt that is trying to escape from the thick and weighty muscat finish would be so good if it could shine through a little brighter, there is not enough savoury here to balance the torrent of sticky sweetness. The nose is definitely the best part of this dram. The florals on the nose are inexorable, but they remain gentle and bring a lovely brightness. The palate is a bit of a disappointment it lacks the depth of the nose and the finish hints at what should be; instead though heavy finishing has stopped the palate from shining. Distiller whisky taste #296 [Pictured here with a lovely Eclogite from Monte Torretta in Piémont, NW Italy. This wonderful lump is yet another piece of the deep underbelly of our planets crust, and represents the highest pressures of metamorphism now thrust up onto the surface. This rock used to be a gabbro and is now a mix of red garnets, green omphacite, rare blue glaucophane, and retrograde flaky micas]