Octomore 2.2  – Orpheus
61% ABV

Colour: Golden with red tints.
Nose: Thick, buttery, creamy and fruity all mashed together with elegant peat and smoke. Red berries mashed up, jelly like.
Palate: Thick, oily and smoky with elegant peat (no tcp), sweet berries and somewhat of a fizzyness on your tongue, like a refresher. Quite powerful with it’s alcohol strength.
Finish: Loooong, sweet with smoke, peat and some red wine and dark berries coming through and lasting for ages, some red apples there too.
Water: For me I eventually found the high abv of this started to anaesthetise my tongue so I happily added a drop of water to make it more suitable to my palate. It takes some of the power away, but it’s still an enjoyable dram.
Thoughts: Octomore is always a fab dram, and this one has combined really well will sweet berries to produce a powerful yet laid back dram.

Ta to my mate Jon for the sample.

Octomore 5.1
59.5%ABV

Colour: Light straw.
Nose: Quite high with the ABV so take the nosing easy. There’s malt by the shovel full with loads of integrated peat smoke and fire. It’s strong and velvety.
Palate: Similar to the nose it’s very upfront, hot and strong, yet thick, oily and velvety. It’s sweeter than you might imagine with the ever present peat.
Water: Reduces the heat a touch making it more readily palatable, it brings out costal notes more along with creaminess.
Finish: Huge and warming on your chest, it goes on for ages with a hint of coastal nature finally rearing its head.

Thoughts: Octomore at it’s peaty best, great stuff.

My own bottle.

Octomore 6.2
58.2% ABV

Colour: Light gold.
Nose: Peat! Light malty tones and a fizzy sweet sherbet note from the wine finish. Gorgeous and clean nose.
Palate: Thick and dirty, full of earthy oaky notes while the peat rushes in to great you with a costal hug. Creamy light wine notes are there playing nicely all the way through. It’s a powerful dram that’s for sure. Slight tarry note.
Finish: Slightly hot and very warming, and reaaally long leaving those peaty notes all over your palate. Something really refreshing too.
Water: For me it takes water well, makes it that wee bit easier to drink and makes it a touch sweeter.
Thoughts: Pure peaty bliss. It’s not your Laphroaig peat, it’s a more refined type of peat, try it if you haven’t already!

Ta to my mate Jon for the sample.

Octomore 10 Year Old
50% ABV OB 2012 6000 bottles 80.5PPM

Colour: Straw to light gold.
Nose: That deep peat that you get with Octomore, but more restrained, much more engine oil, rubber and older must from the casks, just a touch of fruit cake chucked into the mix, it’s also that bit more mellow.
Palate: Oh my that’s good… the ABV is less than the normal Octomore, I don’t know if that’s age, or if it’s been reduced a little. Either way, it makes it really that much more drinkable in my mind, that and the smoothing effect of the extra 5 years over the normal drams. It’s mouth coating with rubbery smokey peat, with a pinch of spices, but not enough to annoy you. It’s mellow and sweet and got just a hint of costal salt at the back.
Finish: Really nicely warming on your chest in a good way (not in a hot young spirit type of way). It’s sweet and mellow, but peaty and gorgeous.
Water: Doesn’t really need it if I’m being honest with you, I don’t think I want to ruin it by putting any in! However just a wee stop brings out even more sweetness and allows lashings of vanilla to also come through, so worth a small drop.
Thoughts: The slightly lighter PPM is explained partly by the older age, but also mostly because this would have been a fairly early days run of Octomore by Bruichladdich and the barley wasn’t quite so heavily peated back in those days… So both things together lead to a slightly lighter dram in terms of peat kick, although there’s still plenty there to keep you happy! Gosh, I’m sad I didn’t get a bottle of this. The nose is pretty good, but it just gets better and better from there.
Available: Still to be found here and there on Google but at prices that are at least twice the original or more.

Purchased sample.

Octomore Discovery – 7yo / Feis 2014
69.5%

Info: Released for Feis Ile 2014 this was quadruple distilled in 2007 and matured in Oloroso sherry butts for 7 years.
Colour: Bright and clear golden.
Nose: Unmistakably Octomore with it’s peaty base, but the sherry maturation here has added a hugely buttery, creamy and fruity edge that’s not been found before, there’s peaty raisins and other winter berries. The 4 x distilling and sherry all come together to knock the smoke back just a touch, and the high ABV is masked.
Palate: Similar to the nose your palate is instantly covered with a thick, creamy luscious peaty fruitcake. The high ABV is masked a little, just as on the nose, but it creeps up after a bit to become hot and nearly overwhelming, sip this gently! Once your mouth is accustomed to the strength you’re rewarded with thick fruity malt, which as on the nose has the peat dialled back quite a lot from other’s in the range.
Finish: The finish goes on and on, it’s hot, warming your chest all over while leaving your mouth with hot but sweet flavours for ages.
Water: Water lets out a few puffs more of smoke and some nuts make themselves known to you along with more malt. The water does make it much easier on your palate but doesn’t change the tone much, the flavours stay the same but you can leave the in your mouth for longer.
Thoughts: I’m slightly conflicted with this whisky, it’s both totally amazing, but also a little too much for me (at first)… however stick with it, and with water it becomes much more approachable and it’s great to sit and explore for ages. I would be interested to see what a standard (i.e. not quadruple distilled) version of this would be like, I’m sure we’ll find out at some point!

My own 10cl bottle as part of a share.

Overall Thoughts: They’re all amazing in their own way. The Feis release is fantastic with its extra sweetness… but the one I keep thinking about over time is the 10 year old, I loved it and I’m sad that no more of it seems to have been produced as of yet.