Octomore 13.2

First Fill Spirits

"What a wonderful dram" in my Louis Armstrong voice. I smell peat, sea salt and BBQ. I taste figs, raisins, dates, plums and strawberries too. With salt and peat smoke on the finish. I say to myself what a wonderful world. Oh yeah !!!

Octomore 13.2 sells for around $300. If the thought of dissolving the dregs of a charcoal cookout in ethanol has ever entered your mind, then this is the whisky for you. The price will be the price for Octomore. It’s not about the age, it’s about the spirit you put into a cask and what the cask does to the whisky. Lagavulin and Laphroaig have forced peat and Oloroso sherry to go on longer dates, but those are failures when compared to Octomore 13.2. This is the pinnacle for the BBQ in a dram style. I have numerous friends who say that once they go Octomore, they cannot go back to anything else. That’s what I am pushing these days. Buy the best alcohol that you can barely afford with your disposable income, and don’t worry about “I can buy 2.5 Lagavulin 16s with the money this bottle is asking me to spend.” Fuck Lagavulin 16, you don’t need that tame watered-down shit. You need the best expression at what it expresses, and you deserve no less. Buy this. Buy this.

Nose: Heather honey and fruit, wafts of bacon and ash after water added Palate: Hot sweet honey and ash from a new fire. Sweet. A bit dry Finish: Dry ash

The nose is bold and rich starting with tangy barbecued brisket, grilled figs and slightly sour blueberries followed by dark chocolate truffles topped with sea salt and mild campfire smoke then balsamic strawberries, sautéed apples and caramelized peaches that transitions to mild baking spices and black tea with high ethanol burn. The taste is a rich oily mouthfeel starting with creamy orchard fruits that quickly veers to charred meats topped with tangy barbecue sauce and moderate black pepper spice that fades to a spicy mocha, bacon wrapped dates and seaside rocky minerality then balsamic strawberries, tart blueberries and caramelized peaches that transitions to mild baking spices and black tea with high ethanol burn. The finish is long, starting with bacon wrapped dates and caramelized peaches that fade to moderate campfire smoke, seaside rocky minerality and dark chocolate mocha that lingers for minutes. This is a hell of a big, bold and smokey treat that those 5 years of aging in an oloroso cask have added mildly sour and rich berries to the smokey spirit without overpowering the underlying flavors. There is a bit of youthful sourness to the dram that holds it back slightly along with a moderate pepper spice, but it is just a bold smokey beast that is incredible to taste with a finish that seems to linger on forever. At a price of around $250, this is a smokey indulgent treat that I think any fan of Octomores or peated whisky would highly enjoy and is one of the best Octomores I've ever tried.