Octomore 8.1 & 10.4 Reviews

Hi everyone,

Got two Octomore’s today. I was pretty excited about the 10.4, being the youngest and least peated Octomore that we’ve seen in a while.

Been pretty impressed by Octomore generally, though some would put them down as gimmicks that are far too expensive for what they are. I would probably agree that they are but some of the stuff is just so stunning that I don’t really mind. 8.3 and OBA Concept come to mind. And a particular cask sample I tasted at Bruichladdich a few years back.

Octomore 8.1 58%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Earthy, mineral, granite, rocks of various kinds. It’s funny, with Octomore I don’t tend to get a huge amount of obvious smoke but more minerality and earthy notes instead. Very typical of that here.

Taste: Soft arrival, really well balanced arrival, mineral, frying pork fat, smoke smoke smoke. Pretty delicious.

Finish: Long length. The minerals and rocks are back.

167ppm. Raw and powerful.

80/100

 

Octomore 10.4 63.5%

Colour: Bronze

Body: Full

Nose: Pure Mezcal, Agave, Tequila and cigarettes, wet rocks, driftwood, the smell of clothes after a night out clubbing with smokers, quite sexy IMO.

Water: More funk and Octomoreishness.

Taste: Sharp and intense, big wood component but a bit flat then the huge Octomore minerality and full on vanilla and yet more wood, big salt too.

Water: Still sharp, less of the wood at first then it comes in strong. Almost Bourbon-like.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Softer and fruitier, goes a bit flaccid (haha), very dry.

3yo, 88ppm and full virgin oak matured. Absolutely lovely nose, the taste and finish not so much.

75/100

 

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #858-#859

Whisky Network Review #1032-#1033

Network Average: 75.2

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

 

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as the Global Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Springbank 18 & 11 Refill Sauternes Single Cask Reviews

Hi everyone,

Another duo today! This time it’s Springbank’s turn.

It has taken me far too long to get round to trying the 18yo. I can get pretty expensive and although I’d heard that it was great, I didn’t want to risk forking out on a bottle. So I waited patiently but just never got round to it or saw it many places.

I also recently tried a official single cask for the USA.

Springbank 18 46%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Robust and chiselled, smoky coals, dried apple, musty leather, a little tobacco and cigar smoke, subtle dried banana, standing outside a smoking room, old cigarette smoke.

Taste: Oily with building spices tingling and dry oak, lots of black pepper, a bit industrial with concrete dust and chalky minerality, some dust and leather and old smoke.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Softer, more tobacco and leather here but fades quite quickly.

Shame about the short finish. Everything else is pretty well balanced and interesting, if a little austere.

79/100

 

Springbank 11 Refill Sauternes 57.2%

Colour: Dark Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Soapy but in a really cool way, raisin and passion fruit, rich apricot, dirty orange, good sulphur, dried lavender, bath bombs, intense and full on.

Taste: Soft and oily, orange and mango, super good balance on arrival, great mouthfeel, fruity and intense, soapy again but again it’s good and interesting. Some spices come through towards the end, black pepper and a tiny whiff of smoke.

Finish: Medium/Long length. More soapy here, almost overwhelming it, softer then comes back with the oils.

Nov 2007, bot Nov 2018 from a single refill Sauternes cask, bottled for USA. Some people are gonna hate this, but I love it. Really interesting and full on, in-your-face whisky that grabs your tongue and won’t let go until it’s done with you.

86/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Reviews #851-#852

Whisky Network Reviews #1023-#1024

Network Average: 75.2

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as the Global Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Laphroaig 16 & 1999 SMWS 29.173 Reviews

Hi everyone,

Two 16 year old Laphroaig’s to review today.

I was excited for the new OB as it’s a decent age, decent strength and Laphroaig. The only thing that grates me slightly is that I paid £20 less for the 18yo, but that was a few years ago now and such is life.

And since we seem to be in the middle of a little apocalypse I opened a 16yo Laphroaig from SMWS that we can compare against.

Laphroaig 16 48%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Nice mineral/seaweedy blast, soft vanilla, soft malt, plenty of peat and iodine, fresh bandages, clean classic Laphroaig. Great nose.

Taste: Soft and oily arrival, building mineral and medicinal flavours, iodine, bandages and honey, then more fruit with a fresh lemon/lime and under ripe mango thing, then back to more peat with sea soaked rocks drying in the sun.

Finish: Medium/Long length. A touch of rubber into the finish then salt and pepper, quite dry. Not as good here.

Finish lets it down a little but a great, slightly softer Laphroaig. Much prefer this to the 15yo 200th Anniversary.

77/100

Laphroaig 1999 SMWS 29.173 59.8%

'Forget time and space'

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Fresher and fruitier than expected with plenty of citrus, lime rind, grapefruit juice, light malty smoke backing it, salty samphire, driftwood bonfire. There is a medicinal touch to it but its quite subtle and in the background, clean bandages.

Water: Loses the fruit and now it's more about the earthy malt, mud after rain, the orange is coming back now.

Taste: Clean arrival, very bright and citrusy, then suddenly grips the tongue with heavy heavy smoke with lots of minerality and salt, licking salty rocks, sand saturated with sea water, samphire, grapfruit and dirty orange, stunning oils and really lovely balance.

Water: Softer and more fruity with an incredible orange flesh thing I remember from samples at the distillery, some seaweed, soft but heavy smoke. Takes me right back to the distillery.

Finish: Long length. More petrol-y here, delicious and super oily, a little lemon zest perhaps. With water there's a coal and ash thing going on.

Bottled at 16yo from a refill Bourbon barrel. The whisky I got for my engagement! Just fantastic indie Laphroaig, oily, balanced, citrusy, salty, a little medicinal. Not quite the equal of ‘Sausage Sandwiches and Oil Rigs’.

87/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Reviews #849-#850

Whisky Network Reviews #1021-#1022

Network Average: 75.2

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as the Global Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Tomatin Decades II & 30yo Reviews

Hi everyone,

Hope everyone is staying safe and as virusless as possible.

Got some of the slightly more expensive Tomatin’s to brighten your day today! The original version of Decades is not something that I tried but I love the idea of multi-vintage vattings where the components are listed in detail with as much info as possible and this is what Tomatin have given us. So I was quite excited for Decades II when it came out recently as I’m also a fan of Tomatin in general after a great distillery tour there on my stag.

Tomatin Decades II 46%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Fruity and complex with a little interesting off note. Very slightly lactic with milk bottle sweets, dusty apple, cola bottle, a bit of rubber (maybe the Sherry finished stuff? I tend to find that Sherry finished Tomatin can go a bit rubbery).

Taste: Fruity arrival, fresh with green apple, stewed pears, some melon, long development though the lactic note makes an appearance, lots of honey.

Finish: Long length. Woody honey, silky old oak, some delicate malt and a bit of rubber again.

Undoubtedly some great casks went in here (you can find the breakdown here) but ends up as a bit of a jumble. Perhaps there was also a tired cask or two. I have found that with multi-vintage vattings, sometimes less is more as the individual casks have more of a chance to stand out. Deanston did it well with their Decennary release which was only 4 casks, this was 21 in total.

74/100

Tomatin 30 46%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Wonderfully tropical, fresh pineapple, orange slices, some darker malt and tobacco, white chocolate, some exotic spices hiding behind with something almost savoury- coriander. Complex.

Taste: Soft and woody start, fruity with coriander again, red and green apple, spiced pears, then darker with malt and chocolate, nice soft long development.

Finish: Medium length. Lovely balance and mouthfeel here, fading fruit, leather and tobacco.

Tried this twice before but never had the chance to make notes. A good old whisky, though lacking a bit of wow factor.

82/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Reviews #847-#848

Whisky Network Reviews #1019-#1020

Network Average: 75.2

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as the Global Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Arran 10, 18, 21, Sherry Cask & The Bothy Reviews

Hi everyone,

Got a few Arran’s for you today! Gotta say, I love the new packaging and range. The new bottles have a great look and feel, though of course its the juice that we’re really interested in. Plenty of the new stuff seems darker, with more sherry casks in the mix of the usual age statement range.

Having started in 1995, it is now Arran’s 25th Anniversary, which should bring some exciting things as well.

If memory serves, my first experience of Arran was the 12yo cask strength, which I found very solid but isn’t around anymore. Since then I’ve always found Arran to be very dependable, quality malt.

Arran 10 (2019) 46%

Colour: Dark Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: A sweet shop that only sells gummy sweets, some kiwi, keylime pie, whipped cream, very fresh and bright.

Taste: Malty and soft then a big hit of fresh fruit, melon and apple, gummy sweets but goes a bit rubbery.

Finish: Short/Medium length. More rubbery here with some malt and apple.

Fresh and malty, kept back a little by the rubbery notes that I seem to be very sensitive to.

66/100

 

Arran 18 (2019) 46%

Colour: Amber

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Bright cherry, malt and chocolate. A heavier, almost meaty Arran. Toffee apple, a little gravy maybe, some vanilla, a little creamy.

Taste: Malty arrival, raspberry and cherry, again quite heavy and thick, almost Mortlachian, then some unfortunate rubber. Seems that the sherry wasn't quite perfect.

Finish: Short length. A little of that rubber and cherry but another short finish...

This was so almost so damn good. A Mortlach of an Arran ruined by the rubber and short finish. Fun whisky though.

74/100

 

Arran 21 (2019) 46%

Colour: Light Amber

Body: Medium

Nose: Malty and robust with plenty of fruit, red apple, spearmint, herbal pockets, wild strawberry, dark chocolate truffles, all nicely in balance and expressive.

Taste: Soft arrival, really good, chocolate and malt, a little orange, wild strawberry, dry oak, some leather, goes a bit flat into the finish.

Finish: Medium/Long length. A bit flatter here with oak and a little chocolate.

Would be in the 80's if the finish hadn't let it down. Nose is the star here.

76/100

 

Arran Sherry Cask 'The Bodega' 55.8%

Colour: Amber

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Ethereal rather than a full on Sherry bomb, actually a bit medicinal, cherry cough sweets, cherry lip gloss, something slightly mouldy? Interesting nose.

Taste: Sharp and sweet, medicinal again, cough syrup, raisin and prune, plum, quite fruity and something more oily as it develops. A bit of rubber near the finish.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Fades quicker than expected. Fruity with some rubber.

Not completely pleasant but very interesting whisky.

71/100

 

Arran The Bothy Batch 3 53.2%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Slightly tropical, austere, lemon, butterscotch biscuits, some nettle and mint, creamy vanilla.

Taste: Soft and creamy, biscuit, malt, lemon, dark chocolate, some leather, really nicely balanced, oily into the finish.

Finish: Medium length. Very oily here with more creamy biscuits.

Quarter casks used. Similar to the Wolfburn Langskip.

75/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Reviews #842-#846

Whisky Network Reviews #1012-#1016

Network Average: 75.2

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as the Global Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Hibiki 30 & Yamazaki 25 [Road to #1000, Reviews #997-#998]

Hi everyone,

Today I have two very special whiskies that I tasted last year.

I have mentioned before that I am attempting to complete my edition of Ian Buxton’s 101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die and one of the hardest to get hold of and most expensive in there was the Hibiki 30yo.

And I’ve always wanted to try the Yamazaki 25.

Though, to perfectly honest, I didn’t expect to enjoy these whiskies quite as much as I did. I was really expecting to be saying that these are over-oaked, over-Sherried and under-proofed. I wanted to say that the hype is all noise and you can live out your lives in the contentment of knowing that you’ll never have to hunt these down to try them.

Unfortunately, that just isn’t the case…

Hibiki 30 43%

Colour: Dark Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Ridiculously complex. Standing in a carpenter's workshop with loads of different types of wood being worked on, polished oak, pine, as well as loads of others that I couldn't begin to guess at, Acacia honey, leather and cigar box, complex oils, dry forest floor. Menthol and complex herbs and subtle spice, spearmint, freshly crushed mint, chocolate powder too. The balance here is insanely good.

Taste: Dry arrival, incredible balance and silky texture, then more powerful with leather and chilli and ginger spices and old honey, delicate oils, evolves through endless layers. Dried leaves, there is some smoke in there too but its interwoven into the fabric of everything else, dried apple. Slightly sweeter into the finish with very old brandy.

Finish: Long length. Softer, more delicate, very subtle earthy flavours then the most incredibly delicate oak you can imagine. Moving.

Blended? Really, with what? 5% grain whisky? Seriously, this stuff is kinda magical. The heft, weight and poise of this is exquisite for a blended whisky.

92/100

 

Yamazaki 25 43%

Colour: Dark Amber

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Complex herbal and Sherried nose, wood sap and marker pens, pine forest aromas, sweet orange, orange peel, something light and ethereal yet also heavy with burnt thyme, pine smoked ham?, Lapsang Souchong and Ginseng tea, honey comb, some forest floor, something medicinal perhaps? Even more complex as it opens up.

Taste: Full on from the off (despite the 43%) with a great balance of sweet and dry, pine and sap, orange and oak, cherry and cough sweets, very oily mouthfeel- chewy, very old Sherry, dry dark chocolate, raisin and prune, something perfumed then some very slight rubber into the finish.

Finish: Long length. A long slow bleed of sweet and dry, some oak and Sherry, tobacco and all sorts of chocolates. Stunning finish.

Not quite the equal of the also stunning Hibiki 30 but damn close. I really wanted to believe that this would be a little tired and over Sherried like the 18yo but no, alas not.

If the 2013 Sherry Cask is something like this then I can see why Jim Murray would have given his whisky of the year to it.

91/100

Updated Distillery Rankings

Japanese Reviews #25-#26

Whisky Network Reviews #997-#998

Network Average: 75.2

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as the Global Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?