Octomore 5 Year Old Edition 05.1 169ppm
Uppercut
0 299
Review by @Pandemonium
- Nose25
- Taste25
- Finish25
- Balance24
- Overall99
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Distribution of ratings for this:
- Brand: Bruichladdich
- Type: Scotch
- Region: Islay
- ABV: 59.5%
Christmas tasting at the Water of Life Society at the University of Edinburgh, perfect evening, great whiskies, good company, a perfect evening. To top it off, they had a surprise: a real "punch in the face" whisky and God, was I in for a treat.
Octomore 5.1, the peatiest whisky on the planet 169 Ppm, a malt so good that I still wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it.
Well, after the 6 preceding drams, one would expect that my nose would be well saturised, but from the moment that the first bottle was cracked open about 3 meters from me, a wave of aromas came rolling in.
Nose: Peat, but not from a campfire, no this is a wildfire of peat, but at the same time rich of fruit: Cranberries but also hints of Orange, Dark Chocolate,Vanilla, a maritime breeze somewhere in there: a faint smell of Salt. There is just so much in here
Taste: And the gates of heaven open: Heavily Peated,but surprisingly smooth, Iodine, Toasted Barley again the fruit, but new flavours like Grapes, but also spices: hints of Cinnamon and Ginger
Finish: a long warm burning but pleasant sensation, a long lasting intriguing taste of Peat and Oranges on your tongue and a warmth that reaches every corner of your body.
To me this one is verging on the divine. The next morning I picked up a bottle in a shop on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.
I finished about half of it by the time I had to return home. But fate (or that is the ground handling services at Edinburgh or Brussels Airport) struck me a cruel blow. I packed the metal container with the bottle inside in a duffle bag together with my clothes. But as soon as I went to retrieve my checked-in luggage at the luggage carousel, a strong smell of peat indicated that things had gone terribly wrong.
Sadly enough,the dented metal container is the only souvenir I have left.
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The 99 score is high, it even looks a bit unprofessional, but to me personally this is the best single malt I've had so far. Who knows, maybe in the future I will come across other malts that will make this one look like a dwarf and I'm always open for suggestions on drams that may top this one. But untill that day this will remain the ultimate experience for me.