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