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.
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!!
Last week I started my eight part series where I would try and explain Islay Distilleries and their whiskies, specifically to people that are new to whisky, by way of Rock and Roll. In that post I compared Bruichladdich to the Sex Pistols – true punk rockers of the Scotch whisky world!
Most people seemed to agree (about 95% of all that gave feedback) with my analysis though I did get a suggestion that The Ramones were more fitting or perhaps The Clash. Whether the band choice was agreed upon or not, everyone seemed to agree that Punk Rock was the correct Genre. Huzzah!
Now we move onto comparison number two. As with my Bruichladdich post from last week, first the whisky review then the Rock Band comparison.
On the nose – Strong nose with a fair amount of smoke and soot (more so than I expected, what with this being 25 years old; I expected something a touch rounder or, shall I say, softer).
Lemon pledge.
A good deal of green apples (who came up with the name “Granny Smith”?) and spicy thai red curry sauce.
Burning notebook paper; the white lined, 5 subject type notebook.
Oak, smoke, char and cherry syrup. Interestingly reminiscent of mizunara oak (notes I’d get from a Yamazaki, actually).
Strong, oversteeped tea (green & white).
This nose is all over the place and has an unorganized feel rather than one that gives you a sense of evolution.
On the mouth – Now the roundness kicks in! Soft, creamy, viscous & soothing but smoke starts to kick in after a few seconds.
Marzipan and lemons.
Then more peat smoke – warming, growing and growing leading up to the finish…
Finish – Mint and menthol, salt and lemons. Looooong and zesty and slightly numbing after a while.
In sum – This was a odd one, for sure! The nose seemed to be all over the place, hard to follow yet not unpleasant in anyway. However, upon tasting the whisky it all comes together, gets buttoned up and starts to make sense.
A lovely, odd, old Islay that’s very different from the Ardbeg style of today. It’s not my favorite Ardbeg but a nice one none the less.
Special thanks to David B for the 2nd sample (note: whisky does not hold well in baby bottles. Hence the 2nd sample – thanks again, David)!
Ardbeg – The Band! — Perhaps the most CULT Islay single malt, Ardbeg has a truly devout following.
I’ve heard stories from the very recent past about people waiting in the rain for 30 hours during the Islay Feis Ile festival just to pay £300 (or so) for the distillery only, Feis Ile festival bottling. If I had the time and money, I suppose I’d do the same…
Ardbeg tattoos are common place among devotees. There’s also a well know website by Malt Maniac Tim Puett called the Ardbeg Project that deals with even the most minute of details about Ardbeg… all the way down to various bottle codes. Talk about devotion!!
Given the above, my initial reaction is that Ardbeg is most like The Grateful Dead. However, I personally can’t stand The Grateful Dead (sorry people) and their successors, Phish, turn my stomach even more.
Let’s compare it to their house style of whisky… Bright, brash, in your face, lively and invigorating. Peaty without being a smoke bomb. Clean and very confident.
So, big cult following + an attention demanding, big ‘ol elephant in the room style… You, my dear Ardbeg are Slayer (minus all of the death and devil stuff)!
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.
Region of Scotland – ?? – ABV 46% – Released on March 27th, according to the bottlers, specifically in conjunction with “World Whisky Day. You can find a bottle at Mast of Malt for £38 (not available in US stores but MoM does ship to the US).
A few months back I received an email that basically said: Hey there, I’m sure you hear this all of the time but, we want to send you a sample of a single malt, un-chill filtered whisky and are curious to know your thoughts.
The obvious response to a statement such as the above is, well, “Ummm, OK.”
I followed up, mind you, with some questions:
What are the details of the whisky?
Who produces or who bottles it?
The response was basically… well, there was no response. But you know what? I sort of liked that!!
A short while later, just prior to the whisky arriving at my doorstep, another email came my way telling me that the whisky in question was to be called “Peat’s Beast” and that it was a intensely peaty whisky.
There was also mention of Richard Paterson giving his tasting notes on the Peat’s Beast website but they were very clear – Richard’s review was simply that – a review and they were independent and in no way tied to Whyte and Mackaye.
So, all I knew at this point (as well as all I now know) is that:
Peat’s Beast is a single malt whisky, not a blend
Peat’s Beast is, well, peaty
It’s bottled at 46% ABV and there is no chill filtration.
Nothing about age, distillery, terrior. Nothing.
You sneeky-cheeky-monkeys!!!
Let’s investiage…
Color — Very pale – like a Sauvignon Blanc (young 1st fill bourbon casks or a 2nd fill? A mixture of 1st, 2nd and refill casks? The world may never know…).
On the nose – This little beastie does offer up some smoke infused notes (peat smoke indeed) but what I find most striking, and enjoyable, is the waft of lavender then lilac that floats above it all.
Reminiscent of a whisky dunnage warehouse, dirt and oak in all.
A tiny hint of apricot and buttery crumpet. Fruits that tend to give away a whiskies youth: Pear and maybe (maybe) a touch of apple.
Not so much a big beast but I’ve had other self-proclaimed peat monsters that haven’t offered up some of the interesting floral tones I’m getting with this one.
So far, so good.
On the mouth – This is where the fiery roar comes in to play. Lots of burning twigs. Very peppery. A snuffed out spring campfire (snuffed by spring morning dew with the slightest hint of spring moss rolling around here).
Not big with the mouthfeel but not overly watery. A young effervescing quality to this whisky.
New buds, young wood.
Not sure if this is all inspired by spring fever but it’s all on the burning of old brush and in the with new life for me with this one. This does pack a smokey wallop (though not very peaty as the nose initially suggested, just very smoky).
Finish – Longer than I expected given that this is supposed to be a younger whisky. Peppery and smoke lasts and tingles the sides of the tongue.
In sum – A satisfying young, brash whisky that will satisfy most (I include myself that that “most” category). Bottled at a solid ABV (46%) and the fact that it’s non-chill filtered and there was no color added makes me smile.
I can find myself pouring this as a no-brainer, “I need a smoky whisky”, whisky. I like young peaty whiskies and if you do, too, then you can’t go wrong with this whisky.
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.
