Distillery: Bruichladdich Bottled: 2015, Distilled: 2001 ABV: 62.8% Cask: Jurançon wine cask Bottler: Rest And Be Thankful More Info:WhiskyBase
This’ll be the third bottling I’ve tried from those mysterious people behind Rest And Be Thankful. The two Octomores they produced were very interesting and this one promises to follow suit.
At any rate, you’ll not see a Port Charlotte much older than 13 years these days because there wasn’t any made before 2001 so this is a treat for me – the oldest ever peated Bruichladdich whisky I’ve tried.
And it’s whacky wine barrel finished to boot – I’m no wine buff so I know nothing about Jurançon. Let’s see what it’s like…
Nose: Salted cashew nuts, crispy bacon and black pudding, dark chocolate, mineral oil, burning pinecones with dry soil and ashes.
Palate: Runny caramel mixed with a huge handful of sea-salt. Fragrant Kaffir lime leaves with spices: cayenne pepper, cinnamon and cumin with a touch of nutmeg. There’s an element of dry white wine in there, though I’m not sure I’d have noticed without knowing it was a wine maturation – it’s chalky and floral with a tart, bitter edge to it. Gets winier with water.
Finish: Very long and tingly with lingering smokiness, leaf litter, minerality, and the bittersweet taste of mild rolling tobacco. After a while, the taste of swimming pool water (though that’s not as bad as it sounds).
Wow – another indy bottling of Bruichladdich whisky that just piles on the weird and wonderful flavours.
This is a winner for me. It’s much more savoury than other wine maturation Port Charlottes (the PC6 was a sweet shop on the palate). Very long and lip smacking, and very drinkable at full strength. Great wood influence and a slightly calmer Port Charlotte peat smoke.
Distillery:Bruichladdich Bottled: 2015 Age: 5 years old ABV: 58.5% Cask: American oak, finished in Rhône Syrah Wine Casks More Info:WhiskyBase
Here’s this year’s cask-finish Octomore, the travel retail exclusive 07.2 finished in French red wine casks which previously held wine made with those famously peppery Syrah grapes.
I’ve been wanting to try this for a while! These TREs from Bruichladdich can go for silly money so it took a while to source one at a sane price.
Nose: Opens with salty dark chocolate, orange wine gums, blackberries. Damp earthy peat bog leading to herbaceous lavender and dry basil. A faint sulphurous edge which, combined with the salt, reminds me of the smell you get when opening a pack of vacuum packed wafer ham.
Palate: Like someone peat-smoked a strawberry cheesecake! Viscous, golden barley syrup leads only to be t-boned by the Octomore signature peat juggernaut. As the peat fades you get the soft red fruit – strawberries and raspberries, with some kirsch cherry-chocolates
Finish: Long, lipsmacking oily peat with salt and pepper, and a touch of citrus. The peat’s very sticky – you can almost chew it. Slightly ashy, like the mouthfeel after a cigar.
Clean fruit meets dirty peat! I don’t like it as much as the 06.3 Islay Barley but it’s got a certain appeal for sure. That intense muddy peated chocolate character that runs through Octomore acts as a good backdrop for those red fruit high notes.
Another worthy experiment, Mr. McEwan.
I picked this up for about £88 on WhiskySite.nl – they’ve sold out now, but they do still have the 06.2 version for the same price.
Bottled: 2013, Distilled: 1990 Age: 23 years old Bottles: 6,000 ABV: 49.2% Cask: ????? More Info:WhiskyBase
Here’s the 4th release of the Bruichladdich Black art, a 23-year old mystery expression whose secret recipe is known only to Jim McEwan himself.
It’s bottled at 49.2%ABV, most likely has a sherry influence, and that’s about all we know. People have pondered over the years whether it’s port, sauternes, shiraz, fino, PX, oloroso, rum… we’re told it’s likely around 6 different casks.
Palate: Golden malt, rich and oily with spices. Green apples, then sticky figs, soft dates, chocolate, Brazil nuts, and banana bread.
Finish: Long, chewy, oaky finish with wafts of fruit coming through.
Mmmmmm, interesting!
Jim mixes up every release of Black Art, so each one has different characteristics. I enjoyed the 3rd release very much, and this one’s just as appealing. Given time, it yields a lot of different flavours…
You’re seeing this increasingly – distilleries producing clear spirits in addition to aged spirits. Whisky’s a long waiting game, so being able to distill something that can hit the shelves immediately really helps cash flow in a small distillery.
Jim McEwan, the master distiller at Bruichladdich, entered into the task of gin production by sampling different grain alcohols. Typically, a gin is made by buying pure neutral grain alcohol and soaking botanicals in it. This is then re-distilled with a still that filters the vapours through a container holding more botanicals.
Jim went for a 100% wheat alcohol, due to the sweeter flavour. This gets loaded into the Laddie gin still, the fierce lady known affectionately as “Ugly Betty”. Betty is an old Lomond-style still, and so is squat and dumpy compared with the tall, slender necked whisky stills. She puts out an 80% ABV gin which is then watered down with spring water to a bottling strength of 46%.
Mary, one of the distillery’s “ninja grannies” decided one day to make a cheese cake. To make it more fun, she decided to add some Botanist gin to the recipe. Somehow, she “accidentally” used the concentrated pre-bottling strength gin… and you can guess what kind of an afternoon the staff had at the distillery when she shared it out!
Nose: Mint, juniper, aniseed, cumin, lemon, touch of coconut.
Palate: Very refreshing neat. Tangy salted lemons and bitter citrus peel.
Finish: Slightly drying cloves.
The Botanist contains nine base botanicals which include juniper, cassia bark, angelica, liquorice, and citrus peels.
The condenser box contains twenty-two foraged botanicals from Islay which are infused during distillation – these include three types of mint, bog myrtle, sweet Sicily, heather, and (to my delight) gorse.
Gorse is that yellow flower you see growing on knarled clifftop bushes by the coast. At the right time of year, they smell of coconuts – a bit like the smell of some sun cream, or maybe even a Piña Colada.
Distillery:Bruichladdich Bottled: 2014, Distilled: 2007 Age: 6 years old ABV: 50% Cask: American oak ex bourbon casks More Info:WhiskyBase
In France, the concept of “terroir” explains the character of wine, cheese, whisky, brandy etc by considering the place in which it’s made. The soil, climate, variety of barley, locality to the coast, location of warehouses, origin of cask, colour of the stillman’s underwear (!) all feasibly impart an effect on the flavour and overall character of a whisky.
Many distilleries, due to demand, have to import barley from abroad. This would compromise the terroir of the spirit, so Bruichladdich only use Scottish barley in all their whiskies. For this expression, they’ve gone one further and made it exclusively with barley grown on Islay. Specifically, at Rockside farm just up the hill where Kilchoman distill their whisky.
Nose: Farms, stable-smell of hay and straw, salty again, wet flowers. Palate: Creamy. Salty porridge with apple. No citrus this time, but a touch of menthol and spicy nutmeg. Finish: Hazelnuts and a little more salt.The barley in this was grown in 2006, distilled in 2007 and matured purely in bourbon casks until it was bottled at 50% ABV. Apparently, the Islay farmers were paid for their barley (at least partially) in whisky!Lovely dram this is – it’s so farmyardy, but not in a bad way at all. On the nose is stables, hay, horses, leather, mud etc and the palate’s creamy and cereal-rich. Yummy.
Distillery:Bruichladdich Bottled: 2013 Age: NAS ABV: 50% Cask: American oak ex bourbon casks, and European oak ex fino sherry More Info:WhiskyBase
First and foremost in the Laddie core range, the vibrant aquamarine bottle of Bruichladdich Scottish Barley, “The Classic Laddie”.
The story goes that, when Mark Reynier (one of the band of independent investors who rebooted Bruichladdich) first visited the distillery this is what colour the sea water was in Loch Indaal.
This is a multi-vintage whisky (a.k.a. No Age Statement, or NAS) but I have it on good authority that it’s around 5/6 years old. When it comes to their whisky, Bruichladdich don’t keep many secrets.
Produced in a mixture of American oak ex bourbon casks, and European oak ex fino sherry casks, the whisky is unpeated and bottled at 50% ABV. As always, all the distillery’s bottlings are non chill filtered and free from colouring.
Nose: Salty, earthy and grassy with limes and bananas. Slightly rubbery with a strong mineral smell.
Palate: Salty custard with limes and cinnamon. After sitting in the glass a while, vanilla sponge cake.
Finish: Oily walnuts, sultanas.
Deceptively simple at first but reveals more character with each sip. Very approachable and smooth at 50%. A solid introduction to the core range of Bruichladdich whiskies.
Distillery:Bruichladdich Bottled: 2012 Age: 21 years old Bottles: 18,000 ABV: 46% Cask: American Oak, finished in Limousin European Oak More Info:WhiskyBase
Nose: Salty Atlantic air, dried apricots, clementines, kiwis, apples, mint, and waxed leather. Bit of dark chocolate brownie in there too.
Palate: Golden honeyed malt with drying notes of Moroccan herbal mint tea, sweet raspberry, blood orange, Turkish delight, and citrus pith.
Finish: Dry and oaky, with Brazil nuts in dark chocolate.
Oh yes, indeed. That lovely Bruichladdich maltiness with a salty edge and silky mouthfeel, with refined French fruit and wood aromas wrapped around it.
I enjoyed the 407 PX but most of the character came from that first-fill sherry finish. This is still a malty, salty unpeated Atlantic whisky but the Cognac barrel has imparted subtle and soft notes of fruit, herbs, chocolate and nuts.
Vive le France ❤
There are three Cuvée bottlings in this particular series: 640 Eroica, 407 La Noche Bocca Arriba (PX), and 382 La Berenice (Sauternes/Barsac wine). All the same stock from American oak, and finished up to 21 years old. All are still available on the market (try Whisky Exchange) for around £90-£100.
Distillery:Bruichladdich Bottled: 2012 Age: 21 years old Bottles: 18,000 ABV: 46% Cask: American Oak with a finish in Pedro Ximénez sherry More Info:WhiskyBase
Nose: Wood lacquer, chocolate, red wine, red liquorice, strawberry laces, sandalwood and cigar box.
Palate: Muscavado, rich malt sugar, salty toffee, cola syrup, caramelised apple, dark cherry, dates, and cinnamon spice.
Finish: Long and tingly with more cigar box.
Interesting. In many ways, it has a lot in common with a well-aged dark rum with sugar, spice and wood dominating the palate.
I think the PX finish definitely does the whisky a favour, because I get the impression this particular batch of spirit wasn’t cut particularly well. Even aged 21 it feels quite hot. Not unpleasantly so, but not as smooth and refined as I’d expect of a modern Bruichladdich that’d been in cask more than two decades.
Distilled in the neglected days of Whyte and Mackay ownership, it’s a respectable recovery by Jim and the current Laddie team that still yields some great dusty wood and aromatic sherry fruit flavour.
There are three Cuvée bottlings in this particular series: 640 Eroica (a brandy finish), 407 La Noche Bocca Arriba (PX), and 382 La Berenice (Sauternes/Barsac wine). All the same stock from American oak, and finished up to 21 years old. All are still available on the market (try Whisky Exchange) for around £90-£100.
I was wandering around the local Booths the other day, and what should I see on the shelves but the Islay Barley releases of Port Charlotte and Octomore! In a bloody supermarket, no less. Well played, Booths, well-played.
And, as if I need any more excuse to taste a pair of whiskies from those progressive folks on the shores of Loch Indaal…
Terroir
Bruichladdich have made a big deal of “terroir” for a number of years, and have already had several Islay barley releases of their unpeated spirit on the market for some time. There’s already a Scottish Barley release for Port Charlotte and Octomore, but now we finally have versions of each using only barley grown on Islay itself.
Terroir is a French word with no direct English translation. Essentially, it means “from the earth” and describes the unique character that a place imparts on a wine, a cheese, a whisky, or any other organic creation.
The now retired Duncan McGillivray “in the field”
The Port Charlotte is a vatting of spirit produced with barley from several farms on the island; the Octomore is the ultimate expression in terroir, having been grown in a single field (“Lorgba”, if you must know) on Farmer James Brown’s farm, Octomore (after which the whisky itself is named).
At this point, I have to mention that in-spite of being made with 100% Islay barley that was mashed, distilled, matured and bottled on Islay – the barley did make a brief trip to the mainland to be malted and smoked. I expected it to have been done at the Port Ellen maltings, but apparently not. So, the accolade for the whisky that’s 100% made (from seed to bottle) on Islay still sits with Kilchoman for their 100% Islay bottlings.
Oh well, as I’m sure NASA like to remind people: being first isn’t everything. I’m pretty sure nobody else has ever released a whisky that can trace its origins back to a single field!
This is a 6-year-old Port Charlotte, though it’s not officially age-statemented on the bottle.
Like other distilleries of late, the marketing department seeks to make the packaging as attractive to new drinkers as possible so the age isn’t in evidence (perceived as a bit alienating and old-man-ish). Bruichladdich are usually very forthcoming on the details for their whiskies*, though, so there’s no secret about when it was distilled or when it was bottled – you just have to do the maths yourself.
Seems a fair compromise to me. And, let’s be honest, the tin and bottle do look fantastic. Time to drink!
Nose: A walk on the clifftops. Muddy boots, beeswax, lavender, wet flowers, with dusty icing sugar, barley sugar, salty sand, pear skin and a little tropical papaya.
Palate: Sweet and salty, with a rich and buttery maltiness. Grassy notes with honey and lemon throat sweets, ripe pears and a rising crisp dry peat smoke.
Finish: Toasted oak, black tea.
I really like this. This is a tasty PC bottling with enough going on with the nose and palate to contend with the flavour of bottlings that are twice its age. No fancy wine finishes, either, just straight-up ex-Bourbon barrels for that clean, maritime, peaty profile around a buttery, slightly-citrus core spirit.
Very well priced, this. £48 in Booths, Media City. Similar prices online from the usual suspects.
Octomore 06.3 Islay Barley
Distillery:Bruichladdich Bottled: 2014, Distilled: 2009 Age: 5 years old Bottles: 18,000 ABV: 64% More Info:WhiskyBase
Quite dark in the glass for a five-year-old. Thick line of oil sticks on swirling. At 64%, this is serious stuff!
Octomore releases always push the limit when it comes to peating levels but this is a whopper even compared to others in the range. Typical peating levels are 167 parts of phenol per million – this release weighs in at 258PPPM!
Nose: Savoury, cooked meats, sweet Summer hay, sea spray, thyme and lavender. Quite grassy, and nowhere near as phenolic as you’d expect for such an intensely peated malt.
Palate: Very malty to start. Intense medicinal rush, calms down to reveal a little barbecued banana. Lots of deep, earthy, vegetal and herby notes among the peat. There are sweeter, raisiny, chocolatey, coffee notes in there too – odd since I don’t think the spirit’s seen the inside of a sherry barrel.
Finish: Salty butter on toast, liquorice root, smoked cheese. Long – very long. Lip-smacking ages after it’s gone.
Phwoar. This is going down beautifully… It’s comforting, but fierce. Earthy, but sweet too. So many outdoor notes of herbal vegetation – you can nose it for hours and still find more character appearing.
Love the frosted glass on the bottle, too. It harks back to Octomore 04.2, “Comus”, and looks… well, sexy as all hell.
Not cheap at £130 in Booths, though online retailers seem to be pitching it at £145-£155 so it’s a decent saving and not exactly an order of magnitude more expensive than the Scottish Barley Octomore.
In Closing
As usual, Laddie have made a a couple of honest, charming, thought-provoking drams that are a true snapshot of the place in which they’re created. I like the Port Charlotte more than the Scottish Barley release, and it’s definitely good value if you want an interesting peated dram.
The Octomore, though, is utterly glorious. So much going on in the glass, and devastatingly easy to drink even at full cask strength and with all that peat. Velvety, sweet, savoury, herbal, earthy and lip-smacking on the long finish.
I poured a glass for myself and my folks recently. My dad’s a huge peat freak so I knew he’d be intrigued, but my mother typically only goes for a nip of something mild and sweet. To my great surprise, she loved it, and asked for another dram! If that isn’t a rousing success, I don’t know what is…
I often wax lyrical about Bruichladdich but I have to say, hand on heart, the Islay Barley Octomore is the best Octomore I’ve ever tasted. Bravo!
Distillery: Octomore (Bruichladdich) Bottled: 2014, Distilled: 2008 Age: 6 years old Bottles: 302 Bottler: Rest And Be Thankful ABV: 64.1% Cask: French Oak (Rivesaltes Wine Cask) More Info:WhiskyBase
Oh, hello, Octomore. You smooth, sweet, delicately-caged tiger of a whisky.
For the uninitiated – Octomore is the super-heavily peated line of whiskies produced by Bruichladdich. They tend to have a complex character, with a lot of really interesting flavours coming out in spite of the very high ABV and PPPM.
It’s weird, but I find the Port Charlotte releases more in-your-face-peat-smoky than the Octomore – with a typical phenol level of between 160 and 260, this is a big surprise (PC is nearer 40, about the same as Ardbeg).
I’ve had the pleasure of several official bottlings, last year’s Feis Ile bottling, and even a generous measure of a Château d’Yquem matured 10-year-old at the distillery warehouse*.
This stuff is always an adventure to taste, so an independent bottling is very exciting news indeed. Aged six years entirely in a Rivesaltes French wine cask. I don’t know much about Rivesaltes as a wine, but I understand it’s aged for a long time so I’m hoping for some dry, tart, rich character to come through to the whisky.
Palate: Sweet and oily with pine resin, basil and honeydew melon. It develops into formidably drying earthy peat smoke, alongside toasted oak, sea salt, lime juice, ginger and vanilla cream.
Finish: The sweetness dies down to leave salty and savoury cheese crackers, with earthy peat. After a few minutes, it feels like you could pick it out of your teeth!
Wow! Like being at an old wooden amusement park at night, eating eggs-Benedict, while the children enjoy sweet candy floss and salty popcorn. Honestly, it’s like a three-course-meal of a dram. Loads of unusual savoury notes amidst the expected peat smoke and sweet, buttery fruit notes.**
My gosh, I loved this. At £185 it’s more expensive than the standard Octomores (usually somewhere between £90 and £150 on the primary market), but that Rivesaltes cask really works for me and it takes the spirit in a new direction – I mean, how often do you nose a peaty whisky and get Hollandaise sauce??
Quoth the Rivesaltes, “Octomore!”.
Bottles and samples on Master of Malt are £185 and £13.57, respectively. Rest-And-Be-Thankful are a mystery to me as a bottler, and I can’t find any information about them. If anyone knows anything, do give me a shout on Twitter!
* Yes, it was sublime.
**I didn’t add water – this really doesn’t need it, at all.
Distillery: Bruichladdich
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Distillery: Octomore (
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