Bruichladdich Octomore 7.4 Virgin Oak Cask
A Sickie Day Surprise!!
0 890
Review by @SquidgyAsh
- Nose24
- Taste22
- Finish21
- Balance23
- Overall90
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- Brand: Bruichladdich
- Type: Scotch
- Region: Islay
- ABV: 61.2%
Bruichladdich's Octomore 7.4, Virgin Oak Cask, 7 years old, bottled at 61.2% at 167ppm, 12000 bottles for the world.
Where does one start with this whisky?
Stunning? Special? Doesn't begin to cover it for me to be honest. I was lucky enough to spend my last birthday at Bruichladdich on Islay, where as part of the tasting I was privileged enough to be allow to pull the whisky straight from the cask.
So imagine my surprise when the Spirits Platform contacted me and said they had a little present for me. They were coy, not spilling the beans on just what it might be, so I was absolutely gobsmacked when this 200ml sample arrived.
Unfortunately I was ill with the flu, so unable to taste anything where I could smell/taste reliably, however I'm finally on the mend and able to taste once more!
Let's get into the whisky a little bit shall we? Well it's an Octomore so there's definitely the smoke and peat on this bad boy, but much less then then one would guess. a bit of alcohol on the nose, a heap of oak, a bit of smoky bacon, vanilla, some wet cardboard, there's a small amount of fruit hiding amongst the smoke and meat, apples and sultanas, but this takes time and patience to pull out of the whisky. This is a whisky I could spend hours nosing happily.
On the palate, it is spirity, especially if you're not used to high abv, but if you're used to high abvs it's pretty mild. I found it so approachable. Soft and sweet, again mildly smoky, vanilla, some dark chocolate, and again the fruit, but it's more of a lemony citrus note then the apples and sultanas
I pick up on the nose.
The finish is soft, and dry. A puff of smoke that disappears and then reappears.
This is an absolutely stunning whisky, better then I remembered trying in Scotland, and a whisky which I will be picking up in the near future.
Find where to buy Bruichladdich whisky
He's......baaaack! Hey Squidgy, nice to see you posting a review after a nearly full term 9 month gestation...!
So I guess that you felt that the new oak worked well here. Great. Do you have any information as to how the oak was handled, specifically, was it toasted, lightly charred, or heavily charred? I think that the key to using new oak with barley whisky is to control the oak by keeping the opening of the wood influence under control. With heavily peated whisky more oak flavour will balance more easily than it will with unpeated barley whisky...hence e.g. Ardbeg Alligator, using very heavy "alligator" char. With an Octomore, I would expect charring of the new oak barrels to balance the strong peaty flavours, but I am interested to hear if the distillery gave you any information on this.