Nose: Deep, earthy smoke. The peat-reek is like the smell of good sweet compost mixed with honey and vanilla. It’s a dark and moist fragrance with butter, caramel fudge and creamy dark chocolate highlights. Behind the rich tone there is a companion fresh aroma of maritime breeze carrying a different and more subtle oily and ashy smoke. The two threads are perfectly balanced and sing a faultless duet. In the backdrop there are faint heather and wildflower floral hints, like dried petals smelled from a distance, and a touch of fennel. Palate: A luxuriously soft and spicy arrival with no hint whatsoever of the alcohol volume. The development builds slowly and you can sense it nearing like a tsunami. First there is a wave of thick, warm vanilla cream, soft fruit and smoky oak. That wave retreats and then the second wave comes unexpectedly crashing in with a thunderous wall of smoked meats drenched in a chocolate, cardamom, paprika and licorice root mole. The slightest tinge of citrus salt seasons everything perfectly. Finish: Eternal. Angelic. Smoky, subtle briny licorice and tobacco. Spicy, sweet, umami salt at the end, with hints of smoky butterscotch. The aftertaste stays with you literally for hours. An amazing whisky, one of the best I’ve ever tasted, and certainly one of the finest Octomore expressions, if not the apex. Right up there with the 10 year old Second Edition, but whereas that is a perfect balance between smoky and fruity tones, this Octomore is all about the smoke, with a huge cast of other supporting aromas and flavours adding colour. Some Octomore expressions can be reticent and shy, their personality needs to be coaxed out of hiding. Not a bit of that here – this one commands the stage from the first sniff until the final resounding notes echo away. It is, however, also incredibly approachable – a gentle giant - and water is simply not needed for dilution. However if water is used a few drops are all that is needed to uncover even more body (!) and sweetness and enhance (!) the smoke even further. I was fortunate enough to find two 30ml tasting samples of this fine spirit but I'm pretty sure whole bottles are unobtainable now. However if you do run across a bottle do not pass up the opportunity. “Excellent” : 89/100 (4.75 stars)