Octomore 5 Year Old Edition 4.2 Comus

Mirror Mirror on the wall, who’s the peatiest of them all?

We’re back in the peat wars, and the newest addition of Bruichladdich is this Octomore 4.2 “Comus”, rated at a whopping 167 ppm.As you know I’ve passed the “Bring all the peat you an to me” stage, many of whisky lovers go through at some time or other in their whisky journey, but I’m a big fan of the Octomore. Having really liked the 2.2 “Orpheus”, I have soft spot for Octomores finished in wine casks, they just turn out better than their “unfinished” counterparts.

Comus is the son of Bacchus and was also a play written by John Milton, presenting the desperate battle by Comus to ensnare a beautiful innocent girl through the hedonistic power if his magical potions. What makes this unusual is the finish of this extra peated spirit in casks which previously held one of the worlds most renowned dessert wines : sauternes wine from Chateau d’Yquem. Sweet honey gold, to compliment Big peaty tarry notes. Can it work? Oh, yes. It works, and it works like a charm! Some of you might find that combination weird, but let me just remind you how well the Petrus Casks finish worked with the Octomore 2.2 “Orpheus”. Bruicladdich do experiment a lot, and some experiments just turn out to be lovely, others a disaster. Here it’s clear they have a winner. Enough blabber let’s get to some dramming.

Nose: Major ABV % here. Strong stuff. With an initial layer of sweet fruit then comes peat in hefty amounts. Spicy cinnamon gum. Vanilla and sweet fruity melange of grape and apricot. Sauternes colossus. Smoke. Tar. Eating an apricot jam scone after a peat smoke fire.

Mouth: Oily mouth feel. Lots of grape influence , wine. Fruity sweet with honey liquor. Whiffs of peat smoke in the middle in hefty quantity. Medicinal and yet so sweet. Fruit Compote set alight. Leather. Spicy-Sweet.

Finish: Smoke. Very long. Peat. Grapes. so long it took minutes literally to withdraw from my palate.

Excellent stuff. I was a bit worried if the desert wine finish would hold against the powerful Octomore phenols, but it just works out so well together. Good work Jim ! A real good buy, it may not be cheap for a 5 year old peated monster, but it’s worth it, IMHO.

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