Octomore -- worth the price?

Buy it! Drink it! Life is short.

@Bruichladdich Very glad to hear there are new batches of Octomore and Barley on the way.

Funnily enough, I was talking to a local merchant whose opinion I respect a great deal (he points me towards great craft brews all the time), and as we were talking he mentioned a great whisky he'd tried recently.

"Black Magic... Black Wizard... Something like that," he said.

"Black Art?" I asked.

"That's the one!"

Small world. :)

I'd rather pay more or less for something else. I find it spicier in a raw sense. It's a newer whisky selling at a premium. In this category of flavor, I'd go with a Port Charlotte, which is put out by the same folks. However, if you don't like one, you may not like the other.

Proud owner of two SMWS 127.1s.

I tried the 6.1 at the Whisky Extravaganza in Boston a few days ago and will be picking up a couple of bottles, one to enjoy and one to hold onto. I also have a bottle of 6.3 and 3.1 coming and plan on holding onto them.

@smcma glad you liked the Octomore it is one of my favorites and I have yet to come across a bad batch. (:

@PMessinger

I've had the 4.1 and 6.1 - Yes they are excellent full flavout whiskies but I won't pay $150+ for a 5 YO when I can get Caol Ila CS and Amrut peated CS for much cheaper.

Somehow, I preferred the PC11 over the Octomore 06.1 but they are both solid malts.

@Wodha you words ring true!

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"Buy it! Drink it! Life is short"

My favourite from the Octomores I have tasted is Comus 4.2., a whisky which brings me enormous pleasure.

So.. I 've experienced a bit more whisky since my initial post. I have sampled a 2.1 at a bar - very nice. I have bought and repurchased a 5.1 - very nice, but not so much as the 2.1. I have a Comus 4.2 which I lucked into but have yet to open, and a 6.3, which I rerget not buying as second bottling of, after having sampled in a bar.

The Octomore series is well worth pursuing, and has shattered my negative expectation for young whiskies. Should you find any of these in the 150 - 175 range, I recommend pulling the trigger.

I find it very tiresome to see things like "too expensive for a X-year-old whisky." Aging is just one of an untold number of things one can do to improve, enhance, or just change the flavor of whisky, yet you don't really hear...

•"too expensive for an unpeated whisky"

•"too expensive for a bourbon-matured whisky"

•"too expensive for a diluted whisky"

•"too expensive for a non-wine-cask-finished whisky"

•"too expensive for an unadvertised whisky"

•"too expensive for a non-scotch whisky"

•"too expensive for a refill-matured whisky"

•"too expensive for a wide-cut-at-distillation whisky"

•"too expensive for a whisky not poured over the breasts of a supermodel"

•"too expensive for a mass-produced whisky" (OK, maybe you hear variants of the one sometimes.)

I'm no NAS defender, but I think the reverence giving to aging over all other quality drivers is silly. The best thing you can do is try a whisky blind and decide how much you value it, THEN find out what the heck it is, how they made it, and what they're charging. Sure, that's rarely possible, but the further you get from that ideal the more you're letting the seller tell you WHAT to value and HOW HIGHLY to value it before you've even had a sip.

I've never had Octomore—and maybe I never will, given that all except the X.2s sound like nothing special relative to other cask strength peat bombs that I can get from (say) Laphraoig for half the cost—but if they knocked my socks off, I'd be willing to pony up the dough in direct correlation to how far from my toes those socks where knocked—not according to how many years they matured it.

Responding to a 2 year old post is tiresome?

Some topics seem to be forever relevant. Balking at the price of Octomore seems to be one.

@OlJas

If the Octomore was SO UNIQUE that nothing else would do I'd save all my loose change and buy it whenever I could. But what it it that I like about the octomore?

1. Peat kick: Ardbeg 10, Caol Ila CS, Amrut peated CS

2. Sweet malt: Amrut CS, Amrut single cask,

3. Chocolate: Amrut Peated CS, Aberlour A'Bunadh

4. CASK strength full flavour: A'Bunadh, Amrut (name the one you like), Springbank, etc.......

My point is, it's not so unique a product. Sure, nothing tastes quite like it but n the other hand, it doesn't taste quite like anything else either.

For the price of an Octomore in Ontario ($230 CAD) I could get 700 cc Amrut peated CS, 200 cc Caol Ila CS, and 700 cc Amrut single cask (bourbon) or unpeated Cask Strength.

Or a bottle of A'Bunadh, a Springbank CS and a bottle of Old Granddad 114.

Or a George T. Stagg 2015 (if I win the LCBO lottery), 200 cc caol Ila CS and Amrut single cask Sherry.

Anywa you get the picture.

I can get a lot more stuff of the same quality as the Octomore, which means it will last longer or make more people happy.

I bought my Octomore in Calgary for $150. I almost bought another when the same one was on sale for $120 but I couldn't justify the cost at the time.

In fact, I've noticed everything I like rising in price, and I've started being really selective in what I go after. I strongly suspect I've approached or hit peak whisky... that by the end of next year I'll probably have as many unopened bottles as I do now, and then over time that number will start to drop.

@Nozinan

The 06.1 wasn't too bad a price at release - relative to the other versions. Sadly, the current 07.1 sees the price creeping back to stratospheric levels.

@Nozinan , thanks for your take on the Octomores. I'd still love to try one but I'm none too worried about foregoing it in favor of better-value bottles like you mention. And thanks too for mentioning the Amrut Peated CS again—that's still one of those whales that I've yet to snag. Next time I'm doing a substantial online order, I ought to seek out a retailer that has it.

For the sake of thinking out loud, here are the bottles I'd be buying today ahead of the Octomore (IF I were spending money on whisky today):

•Kilkerran WIP 2015 CS (stock up)

•Laphroaig Cairdeas 2015 (stock up)

•Longrow Red Port

•Longrow Gaja Barolo

•Amrut Peated CS

•Lagavulin 12 2015

•Port Charlotte Islay Barley

•Ledaig 10

@Nozinan to quote you, "My point is, it's not so unique a product. Sure, nothing tastes quite like it but n the other hand, it doesn't taste quite like anything else either."

I will say that every expression of Octomore thus far has been rather expensive. That said, I believe there is value in them as well. To me, peated whisky, with some exceptions, shines more brightly at a younger age statement, and Octomore is a great example of that. It's also a great testament of the wizardry going on at Bruichladdich, considering the insane PPM levels of peat and the rather young spirit, there is A LOT to experience in each dram. Sipped neat, and then adding a few drops (literally) progressively will change quite a bit upon each examination. If the price gives you pause, I would point of that there are a few examples of Ardbeg (Supernova, Auriverdes), Laphroaig (Virgin Oak) and Kilchoman (Sherry Cask, 10th Anniversary) that don't carry age statements, yet carry price tags near to Octomore. I'm not denigrating the quality of the aforementioned whiskies, to the contrary, I'm simply putting the prices into context.

@OlJas you've happened to pick many of the bottles I have stocked up on, Kilkerran WIP 7 CS (7), Longrow Red 12 pinot noir (only 1),Amrut Peated CS (6), Lagavulin 12 2015 CS (3), Port Charlotte Islay Barley (1 open)/but I do have 5 bottles of PC12 from whiskybroker. As far as Laphroaig goes I've never had any Cairdeas but I do have 8 of the 10 year CS put away . Great minds and all that!

@maltmate302 , wow—seven of the new Kilkerrans! Have you been following the series? Did you find any earlier ones worth stockpiling too? I'm loving the ABV but I haven't done a side-by-side with earlier WIPs to compare.

Same question on the Lagavulin 12: Does the 2015 edition seem like a stand-out over previous years' bottles? Or did you stockpile those too for the whiskiocalypse?

I had a bottle of the 5.1 a couple years ago I got for $185. Yes, worth it. The quality of the young spirit with its flavor of butter and almonds, the pleasing flavor of the peat and the high abv made it a spectacular whisky.

This is relative, of course. As I always say, the prices of whisky nowadays are three or four times higher than they should be.

Put in context, depending on price, a 30 cc dram will cost you $6-12 dollars. So if you think about spreading that over a year or 2, it doesn't seem so bad.

But you COULD have twice as many drams for the same price...

@OlJas I bought those kilkerran in 3 separate batches ,not easy to get hold of. I only became aware of the WIP series just after the fifth one come out , didn't think to much of it but then I read the reviews of WIP 6 and had to get them. I didn't consider getting earlier batches because they were still ' in progress' but I wish I had , it would be great to taste the spirit's progression..

With the Lagavulin I made a typo, should have been 2014 which is considered one of the best batches of recent years but I will ,eventually , buy a bottle of the 2015 to make comparisons. Initial reports of the 2015 are very good, possibly even better than the 2014.

@OlJas how is the Longrow Pinot? I've been eyeing it for a while now, as well as a 13 year Caol Ila Hermitage by G & MacP

@maltmate302 , you're in Wales? I have indeed heard that the new WIP is already hard to find across Europe, so that makes sense. My local shop (Madison, WI, USA) got some in at my request and I reckon I'm the only one in these parts who cares. I bought one and will probably go back for a second when I get a chance. This is the same place that had WIP #1 back in 2010 when I first encountered it. Just a few months ago, they still had one kicking around. (It's now in my stash.)

A full side-by-side of all the WIPs would be incredible. I don't know of any write-up online of anyone having done that, so as far as I know nobody ever has. The My Annoying Opinions blogger intends to, though (scroll to the comments:

myannoyingopinions.com/2015/11/…

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And that's good to know about the 2014 Lagavulin 12. The 2014 was the first (and still only) one that I've had, so I have no basis of comparison, but I do like it a lot.

@smcma15 , our other friend here maltmate is the one who had the Longrow Pinot.

Coincidentally, though, I just opened a Longrow Red Cabernet, and it was good, rich, pretty punchy, kinda sour at first in the glass, but sweeter by the end. I liked it, but I've only had one glass so far.

@OlJas its a different world over here for getting the whiskies you want. I myself check the major online retailers 2 or 3 times a day otherwise I wouldn't get anything. The first batch of Kilkerran CS went in about 5 hours and every other batch went the same way. A good example is Laphroaig 10 ÇS 007 , the latest version. Over here only one major retailer had it and then it was marked up at nearly double the price. They sold the same day. The only other place was the distillery shop itself which most people don't know about and they lasted less than a week. In the US you can pick them up any old time. You've got to be on the ball to get good whisky here.I hope that guy sorts his Kilkerran tasting out because I've never seen the whole set done in one go. No doubt the later ones will be marked higher but I'd love to see the year oñ year progression.

... and three years later, the Battle of Octomore continues.

They just released an Octomore 10 limited second edition at around $175 with shipping to the US and tax included. Did anybody try it? Could you compare it to other versions?

Apparently the limited stands for 18,000 bottles. Do we have to run for it? Would you get two if you like it?

The price of most Octomores has remained fairly constant over the last 5 years while the price of other malt whiskies has doubled. The price differential between Octomore and the rest of the field is not nearly so great as it recently was. Octomore is still expensive whisky, but many who like it consider it to be "expensive but worth it." If you are paying a premium price you may as well get a premium product.

@goldfilm : Careful now, I hear it's tiresome to pick up old ideas in this thread. (Joking—see above.)

Thanks though for putting this thread back on the main page. This should be a famous one in the Connosr annals: the one where Bruichladdich joined in and everyone got VERY excited. :)

For some sales spin but also some info on the new 10-year-olds from Bruichladdich, see this page: bruichladdich.com/article/new-troika-tens/

For some other anonymous internet chatter on these, including at least one actual comparative opinion, check out the scotch page on Reddit: reddit.com/r/Scotch/…

For my opinion on Octomore prices, see any of the many pages strewn across the Worldwide Whisky Web on which I've said something like "prices reflect the market, not production costs." I will add, though, that since this thread was last current, I have bought my first Octomore (6.1) and while I think it is quite good, I do NOT think it is worth the $145 I paid for it. I'm unlikely to buy another Octomore, though I'd always been really keen to try any that a friend might open.