I actually do not know a lot about this whisky. I know that it was matured in three different types of wood:
Oloroso Sherry Casks
Indian Brandy Casks
Rum Casks
That’s about where my knowledge ends and, to be honest, I didn’t want to know much more. I wanted to the whisky to speak for itself a bit.
Wait, I do know one more thing – this was bottled at 50% ABV which is such an odd ABV… it’s so exact that I want to say that it was reduced to 50%. Especially given some of their cask strength whiskies have been at 60%ABV+
This is quite a limited release – I only found two stores that still have some (note the link above, or click on the picture of the bottle, for the lowest cost source).
Special thanks goes out to Raj and Purple Valley Imports for the sample!
On the nose – Peppery, yet sweet.
There’s something that is very “Amrut” about this Amrut. My point is that the style and character of the spirit is unique unto itself.
Quite fruity – a mix of apples and persimmon come to mind.
There’s a deeper sweetness in here as well – some of the rum cask influence, mayhaps?
On the mouth – A good and oily mouthfeel and very peppery toward the back of the mouth.
Light in flavor in the front of the mouth yet it seems as if this might be a peated whisky (I am reminded of Amrut’s peated offering).
An odd and interesting experience here… the flavors are massive toward the back of the mouth (Jack fruit and green peppercorns) but it’s so light in flavor in the front of the mouth.
I’ll need another sip here.
A good amount of spice and wood in the front of the mouth including floral teas.
Finish – Quite a long and spicy finish.
In sum – An enjoyable experience and perhaps that is the best way to explain this whisky – it’s an experience; one that requires the drinker to have time to his or herself and a friend or two to share and discuss. Lovely, lovely stuff.
I’m going to keep the typing down to a minimum because, as you’ll see below, I’ve hand written this post and all of the tasting notes to accompany it. It was suggested to me by a good friend to write the notes as if I was actually in 1953 so, I grabbed a pencil and paper and, viola!
What I am about to review is the oldest whisky to EVER be released by Glenfarclas. A 58 year old whisky, this was distilled in 1953 and is one of 4 cask of its age – the oldest in all of Glenfarclas’ stock.
The single cask rendered just about 400 bottles and all of them are available exclusively through Master of Malt.
A 1953 Glenfarclas, 58 years old… I have very lucky taste buds and they are all thankful. Very thankful. I mention it in my review but a HUGE thanks goes out to the folks at Master of Malt, George Grant of Glenfarclas and Michal Kowalski for the generous sample!
And now, the review – there are two jpgs you can click on to view the pages in full size on a PDF if the type is too small or difficult to read – the PDFs are about 8mb each so they may take a couple of moments to download for viewing:
Sad fact of life – there is a lot of ugliness in the world.
From Hitler’s Nazi Germany to 9/11 and Bin Laden to that girl I met online all of those years ago that had a hump on her back, bad breath and broccoli in her teeth, the world can be an ugly place.
However, there is a lot of beauty as well.
From a young boy helping an elderly woman across the road to the wonders of new life and happy parents to One Day at a Time’s Valerie Bertinelli (she’s the young one in the middle, if you’ve never seen the show):
Boy, did I have a crush on her back in the day!!
Yes, the world can be beautiful and have gorgeous things in it. Today’s pageant winner is the new Octomore Comus 4.2.
Bottled at 61%ABV, this 5yo was matured in French Oak/Sauternes casks and apparently peated to 167ppm. Sweet Yoheved, mother of Moshe! That is a heavy peating level!
Let’s see what happens when you take *heavily* peated spirit and mature it in French Oak/Sauternes casks for five years:
On the nose – The canister and bottle say so. Bruichladdich’s website and marketing materials echo it. Various webshops concur. The barley for this here Octomore was peated to 167ppm prior to distilling.
Well, heck if I can smell 167ppm worth of peating here.
It’s no doubt a peaty/smoky beast but, my face did not catch fire when sniffing at this whisky…
There’s smoke in here for sure but I’m also taken by crushed almonds and buttered biscuits.
A very briny nose as well – salted porridge.
Hard red plum minus the tartness.
Wow, the toasted biscuits with slightly darker edges really captures my attention.
There’s a spiciness here that flirts with cigarette smoke and a touch of salted black licorice in the background…
On the mouth – Like drinking one of Marc Bolan’s powder blue velvet suits – the mouth is incredibly soft and silky. Almost honey like. I’m reminded a bit of the mouthfeel on Glenmorangie’s Pride (another Sauternes casked whisky). Remarkable mouthfeel.
A good deal of smoke upfront however this relents to waves of golden raisin, coconut, chocolate…. hermit bars.
Pears and apple are here too but not the tell tale pear and apple from a young whisky – this seems cask driven as it’s not spirity, if you catch my meaning.
Slightly buttery (maybe it’s just a mouthfeel thing…)
A bit spicy, more nutty notes (walnuts this time) and cooked and candied lemons.
Finish – Shortish with fruity & smoky notes. There is brine and spice that stays on the back of the tongue.
In sum – This Octomore offers up balance and beauty like none before it. Yes, the other Octomores I’ve had are/were very nice and well constructed but the Comus is above and beyond… a cut above, the big cheese, the head honcho, numero uno (sorry, I let my inner love for Airplane come out there).
One would never know this is 61%ABV. Wonderful at cask strength. Celebrate with this.
If you have nothing to celebrate – make something up… It could be national “That’s what she said” day for all I care.
This whisky is so worth your time.
Truthfully, one of the best whiskies I’ve had year to date.
Special thanks to PJ, DF & EC of Bruichladdich for their tremendous hard work to get me the sample!!
*Special-Special* thanks goes out to ParcelForce for getting me the package in record time! The sample was sent from the UK on Friday afternoon and arrive at my house on Monday afternoon. THAT’S service!!
I had a “sit” and a “think” the other day and wondered if I could explain Islay distilleries and their whiskies, specifically to people that are new to whisky, by way of Rock and Roll; which is a universal language. Right?
Sure, scientists will say that math is the universal language. If that’s so, why did we send a Rolling Stones tune into outer space? Answer me that. It’s not Freakonomics, it’s Jaggernomics is what it is!
So, let’s see if this works out. I’ll go over the eight existing distilleries and make my comparisons… First the whisky review then the Rock Band comparison. Cool? Cool.
On the nose – Whoa. Huh. Interesting. This is huge. We’re talking huge.
I’m not sure what has the most influence – the levels of phenol (peated to 140ppm) or the wine finish (Petrus). Lots of root vegetables with parsnip seeming to win that battle.
Fresh soil and port wine spice. Grape jam, sweetened overly so.
No smoke whatsoever, this is peat. Peat and a bit herbaceous, briny capers too.
Currently, I’m sitting outside and with the sun on me and the cool breeze… I could nose this forever. The day is perfect and this is shining even more so because of the day.
With water, there are some fantastic coastal elements that come to the fore. Salty sand castles, browning apples, ocean stones. I am LOVING this with water!
On the mouth – A numbing quality upfront that forces the focus on the finish rather than the flavors upfront. I need to give this some time and a second go… An elusive whisky, aren’t you??
Very ashy for sure after the 3rd sip, and once it’s noticed it’s a bit of an affront. *However*, there are these fine wine influenced notes that offer up some tanniny grape skins (think dark Rose where they use a better part of the skins in production).
Very creamy, ooey. Yummy. Me likey. Reminds me a bit of an heavily peated Black Arts (that Bruichladdich spirit quality shines through).
The addition of water brings out notes of chocolates and spent welding flux. The mouthfeel becomes massive with a dash water.
Finish – Heavy wine influence, good wine influence. Not very long though…
In sum – Don’t let the high ABV and 140ppm peating level scare you off (if those do in fact tend to scare you off). All it takes is a dash of water to subdue this baby and s/he will be yours. Big, powerful and full of character. If you can find some, grab some and enjoy sparingly. A dram will go a long way. I envision many wonderful conversations being had over a dram of this whisky!
Special thanks to Ronnie R for the sample!!
Gal of Whisky Israel reviewed this one quite a while back as a head-to-head review with Octomore 2.1 and it’s well worth a read!
Bruichladdich – the band! — Man, this is an easy one for me. Sex Pistols. Simple. Easy. Let’s move on.
Wait, you need more explanation? Ok, ok…
Back in 1976/77 few major bands had the look or (raw) impact on the music like the Sex Pistols. Rock was stagnating and Disco was becoming more popular. But the Sex Pistols burst upon the scene like a lion on new kill.
Compare this to Bruichladdich, look at their kick-a$$ packaging or their all-over-the-place releases of yesteryear (and by yesteryear, I mean the past 8-10 years and up until the newest Laddie Ten). From the moment they released their amazing new “Laddie Ten“, it takes people from a scratch-your-head, “what are these guys doing?!” position to a more, “Ah, NOW I get it!” position.
And then, like Springbank, they’re making three different whiskies in the same place. An unpeated one (Bruichladdich), a heavily Peated one (Port Charlotte) and the world’s most peated whisky (Octomore).
What’s more is they have a still (called Ugly Betty, by the way), they they installed a short while back that now makes what I feel is one of THE best gins on the market – The Botinist. Seriously, A-MAZ-ING gin!
My point? They are doing what they want to do and not what people might expect from them. They don’t give a $#!?. Solid.
“We are Bruichladdich – love us or leave us.”
To me, that’s punk rock and that’s why the are the Sex Pistols of whisky.
It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed and Arran (and G-d knows, I’ve reviewed quite a few Arran whiskies). I’ve had a bottle of this Arran Sassacaia on my shelf for a while and have been slowly, but surely, chipping away at it.
The first time I tried it was when I was in Scotland doing the JSMWS whisky tour with Jason Johnstone-Yellin and our two guests Meg & Mike. Mike was the one that turned Jason onto the stuff and it was he, Mike, that turned me onto the stuff during a stop at the Craigellachie Hotel just outside of Elgin.
We put this Sassacaia cask whisky up against another distiller’s Sassacaia cask whisky and this Arran one blew the other one out of the water. There was no real comparison. This Arran is big and fresh and vibrant. The other? Not so much. While I will not name the other whisky, I will tell you it was *not* the new Glenmorangie Artien – that whisky wasn’t even released when we did this side-by-side.
Here are the details on the Arran Sassacaia Cask:
On the nose – Like bathing your nose in a tub full of deep/dark tropical fruits (think passion fruit, persimmon, over-ripe cantaloupe and then a good bit of cherry which I know is not really tropical…).
A bit of a malty backbone.
Juicy juice grape juice (if there were a not so sugary version of it).
Some notes of rubber birthday ballons too. That’s said in a very positive way.
It’s like a party in my nose.
A very vibrant smelling whisky.
On the mouth – Thick, deep and honied mouthfeel.
Noticeable notes of, you guessed, Sassicaia wine – cherries, cedar wood and even a bit of chocolate in there.
Cinnamon spice which quickly becomes drying.
A couple of sips later reveals an interesting hint (a tiny hint) of swimming pools on hot summer days.
Finish – Drying, long and filled with cherries and chewing tobacco.
In sum – Not a very Arran, Arran if you ask me. Nice, well balanced and overall a very satisfying whisky. However, I did not detect much of the Arran character that made me fall in love with their whiskies. Not a complaint… it just makes me think about what percentage influence wood *really* has on whisky and what makes that percentage change from cask to cask. This aside, when should you enjoy this one? Well, I’d try to do it soon. These bottles are hard to find!!
Big thanks goes out to Mike A for suggesting the whisky – big thanks goes out to Merwin’s for selling me their last bottle!
India – 50%ABV – $80
An odd and interesting experience here… the flavors are massive toward the back of the mouth (Jack fruit and green peppercorns) but it’s so light in flavor in the front of the mouth.
A good amount of spice and wood in the front of the mouth including floral teas.
