One of the more interesting cask breakdowns I’ve seen, I’m happy to be getting around to this one blind and see what the various wines do without any expectations. A low ppm for an Octomore but still more than double most heavily peated malts.
Minutia: Distilled in 2012 from 100% Islay grown Concerto barley (the X.3 meaning) harvested in 2011 from Irene’s field, Octomore Farm, peated to 133ppm, matured for 5 years in the following combination of ex-American whiskey and ex-French wine casks: 25% 1st fill ex-American, 25% 3rd fill virgin oak, 20% 2nd fill Rivesaltes, 20% 2nd fill Syrah, and 10% 2nd fill Bourbon. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn.
Color: Russet muscat, 1.3.
Nose: Big smoke when you start to nose, intense wine wipes that away, and then they fight for dominance, struggling a bit against the ethanol.
Taste: Strong peat flavor, then some kind of salty fruit bomb goes off.
Finish: Big heat at first. Then vegetal, earthy peat. The peat gets funky as the heat persists, and then it fades over a long finish.
Guess: Port Charlotte or Octomore in a wine cask.
It’s a fairly broad guess, but that’s how it felt. I’m at the part where the amount of bottles left in the pool is small enough that guessing is a but easy. I confused the X.3 for X.4 and was thinking the X.4 would have been virgin oak so I was leaning Port Charlotte, but included Octomore in the guess because it felt stronger than that (peat and ABV-wise). Had I remembered what the cask breakdown was, I’d have gone right to Octomore. This is a really neat dram, and is truly an upward journey. When I like a nose as much as I did this one, I’ve come to expect either a significant dip and a bit of a rise or a steady decline as I proceed through the palate. This is the opposite where each step makes me like it more. If I come across a bottle of this at a store, I’ll be taking it home unless it’s wildly overpriced.
Score: 92
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