Octomore 10yo - only at the distillery

Last September we reported on the release of new Octomore editions, to be released as part of the Octomore 12 series. It included three whiskies, one of which, Octomore 12.3, was made exclusively from barley grown on a farm near the distillery. Bruichladdich Distillery, maker of Octomore whisky pays great attention to the local aspect of its production and uses local resources as much as possible.

Today we learn of the release of the fourth Octomore, which complements the three that debuted last fall. For several reasons, this is an unusual whisky, which is worth taking an exceptionally close look at.

First, usually Octomore are bottled at 5 years old. The edition debuting today is ten years old, or twice as old. This is the fifth case in the history of the brand, and all previous cases were received very enthusiastically. While a longer aging period means less influence of peaty phenols on the final flavor - and after all, one buys Octomore for - a whisky that is ten years old usually can no longer be accused of "youthful roughness," and this works just fine with Octomore. We are dealing with a whisky that is structured, harmonious, mature.

Secondly, this whisky has undergone a double aging process. First it went into first-fill American oak barrels, in which it spent the first five years of maturation. It was then transferred to French oak barrique barrels, which had previously held red wine from Ribera del Duero in northern Spain. In the latter type of barrels the whisky spent another 5 years, making a total of 10 years of maturation.

Third - and this is the least optimistic - this edition is only available at the distillery or through the Bruichladdich online store. However, as is widely known, as a result of Brexit, online shopping and delivery of alcohol from the UK to Poland can be highly problematic, to say the least.

In keeping with a tradition that has been cultivated in Bruichladdich for years, this whisky was bottled without caramel coloring and without cold filtration. In addition, like all Octomore, it has not been subjected to dilution, so we are dealing with a liquor with a strength of 56.3%.

Limited to 3,500 bottles, this edition contains a beverage offering smoky notes - naturally - as well as citrus, fruit, accents of sherry, nuts, oak, vanilla, flowers, coffee, caramel, heather honey, and marine influences. The retail price is, as with the previous edition of the 10-year Octomore, £160.

The Octomore line first appeared in the Bruichladdich distillery's offerings in 2008, as a super-smoky competitor to any so-called peaty monsters, mainly those from distilleries in the south of the island of Islay. The new Octomore edition described here was created with malt smoked to 90.3 ppm, twice the level of most of the competition's liquors, although it only echoes Octomore 8.3, which was released in 2017. In its production, smoked malt was used at an almost unbelievable level of 309.1 ppm.

While the Octomore edition debuting today can only be purchased directly from the manufacturer, both the Octomore, as well as other whiskies from the Bruichladdich distillery are usually quite richly represented in our current offerings. You are cordially invited to learn more about it, as well as to keep up to date with it. History knows of numerous instances when whisky theoretically available in some specific distribution channel, also appeared in the House of Whisky Online.


[01.02.2022 / Photo: Bruichladdich]