Bruichladdich Octomore 07.1 5 years old

This review is from a sample kindly provided by @Timp. I also have a bottle of a different Octomore release open so I'll be doing a comparison between the two.

Nose (neat)

Pretty much exactly as you'd expect it to be. Seaweed, sea-air, some sweet peat and freshly mown grass.

Palate

Immediately campfire smoke! A little heat, hay, grass, straw. A long development, some sweetness with the smoke underpinning everything. A thick oily mouthfeel. The nose was pure seaside the palate brings a little farmyard!

With water

The sweetness on the nose disappears and it is more obviously smoky. Some creaminess appears on the nose also and Lapsang Souchong tea. On the palate the smoke actually intensifies with water. It becomes more salty too and a little oak is detectable.

Overall

Just very good stuff. If you're Jeff Bezos and you like intense smoky Islay powerhouses you really can't go wrong with Octomore. If you love intense smoky Islay Powerhouses but you're like the rest of us and have to live within your means then you still can't really go wrong with Octomore but you'd better make the bottle last because replacing it makes your Bank Manager cry.

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