Bruichladdich has a big variety of peated whiskies nowadays, but before Port Charlotte and Octomore they distilled non-peated whisky although some sources says they had a ppm-level of 5. I think they can have done both as some old Bruichladdichs have a certain peaty character and some don't. Old and young Bruichladdich in this tasting.
Bruichladdich 29yo 1964-1993 50.6% Gordon & Macphail Cask cask#3670,3671,3672
A mix of casks, I've always enjoyed this series. The color is amber orange. It smells of leather, soap, varnish, cinnamon, rubber, vanilla, menthol, camphor, eucalyptus, creamy, caramel, heather. The taste is big, oaky, cinnamon, melon, hay, spicy, red bell peppers, fried onions, beef jerky, licorice, honey, syrup, black pepper. No peat here. Its waxy, rubbery, tannins, dried coriander, banana skin. The finish is long on sherry, ammonium, butter and peppery notes.
A lot of good stuff in this old Bruichladdich: 8.5
Bruichladdich 30yo 1969-1999 53.5% Gordon & Macphail Cask cask#2975,2976
Lt's hope for another great, old-styled complex Bruichladdich. The color is amber/orange. It smells of hay, wheat, heather, dry, sweet, banana, cloves, sawdust, phenolic, chalk dust, creamy. Very different from the 29yo, but nevertheless a great nose on this one as well. The taste is sweet, vanilla, cinnamon, butter, marzipan, peaty, ginger, leather, sherry, white port, fruity floral notes. The finish is on peaty and peppery notes, a bit more like some of the recent OB batches.
Certainly a great peaty old Bruichladdich: 8
Bruichladdich 24yo 1988-2012 54.3% Malts of Scotland cask#12040
From a sherry hogshead. The youngster of the Bruichladdichs in this tasting, but a dinosaur compared to the next two I'm gonna try. The color is amber orange, the same color on all three pre-millenium distilates in this session. It smells of oil, gasoline, peaty, oaky, charred oak, bonfire, barbecue smoke. Peat? Yes! Also some cinnamon, orange zest, christmas tree, stearic, not completely my bowl of soup as it comes of as a closed and restrained. Time and water, time and water. But first lets try i bare. The taste is pretty raw for such an old whisky. A lot of oak and chili, also some sweet Oloroso, but I think this is a whisky which probably hit its prime around 18-20yo, as now its a bit too oaky for me. But lets add water. With water it turns sweeter, ammonium, rich, spiced, honey, cinnamon, peat smoke, coal, still some chili and quite an amount of wood. If diluted, its a very classy sherried peater, not that there's many around, but straight its very raw and oaky.
Many Lagavulin-fans would love this one: 6.5
Octomore 5yo 61% OB Comus 167PPM
Octomore is the crazy, high peat level and very young, but getting there I presume, whisky of Bruichladdich Distillery. 5yo and extremely peated, are we buying the peat or the malt? Golden color. It smells of peat smoke, sugary, syrup, orange marmalade, sweet and smoky. Like some young Laphroaigs I've tried, a 7yo from Whisky-fässle comes close to this one. The taste is sweet, drying, heather, honey, banana liqueur, orange marmalade again, honey, ginger, yellow bell peppers. One of the fruitiest and sweetest peat-monsters I've ever tried. And it harmonizes perfectly. The finish is peaty.
My fav Octomore thus far: 8.5
Octomore 5yo 59.5% OB 5.1 169PPM
Even more peat! The color is light golden, much lighter than the Comus. It smells of smoke, peaty, peppery, hay, kinda raw, like a new-spirit, peated new-spirit that is. Peated CS Vodka? After a while, say 30 minutes, it opens up a bit on some light vanilla and peaty notes. The taste is sweet, vanilla, peat, honey, much better than what the nose suggested. Keeps improving with time and becomes a great peat-bomb in the end, although on might not call it complex in any way.
Does the high peat level overshadow all spirity notes in Octomore?: 7
Next tasting: Bowmore Distillery
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