Edition 12.3

Peat level: 118.1 PPM

Octomore 12.3 is single vintage, single field, single malt. Raised in Church Field on Octomore Farm by friend and farmer James Brown, this Islay grown barley has been trickle distilled through our tall narrow necked stills just two miles from where it was grown.

This terroir-driven spirit would take two separate journeys before being combined; 75% was filled into ex-American whiskey casks, while the remaining 25% spent five years maturing in genuine Pedro Ximenez Solera casks from Jerez bodega Fernando de Castilla.

This Islay barley spirit has breathed slowly and delicately for five aged years, its salty citrus marine note resulting from the locale of where the barley was grown and our warehouses proximity to the sea.

The Pedro Ximenez casks contribute sweet dried fruit notes which highlight the rich dry peat smoke of Octomore.

Tasting notes by Angus MacRaild at Whiskyfun.com

118.1 PPM and barley grown on Octomore Farm in 2014. Two parcels of stock matured full term respectively in bourbon and PX sherry.

Colour: bright straw.

Nose: green olives, wasabi, pickling brine and anchovies in olive oil. There's also even some raw barley sweetness still in there surprisingly. Once again I'm finding this similar impression of deep, bass-like farmyard smokiness as on the 12.1. Here there's also more camphor and more brazen medicinal profile too. Excellent nose! With water: riddled with sooty smoke, rollmop herring, pickling juices, camphor and raw seawater. Also develops this leaner medical side that goes towards bandages and antiseptic.

Mouth: very tarry and peppery up front. Glycerine, smoked mead, hessian, carbolic acidity, boiler smoke, iodine and a slightly dirty dried herb aspect. Olive bread, cough mixtures and umami paste. Very salty and tarry. With water: the texture is really impressive now, you feel like you're sipping top notch smoked olive oil. Perhaps a cornichon or two bobbing about in there along with a stray pork scratching. Some kind of peated mead with traces of heather smoke.

Finish: long, tarry, leathery, briny and still on many of these impressions of pickling juices, olive oil and fat medicines.

Comments: really excellent, and the sherry takes a very quiet back seat here which I think works very well. I suppose I just prefer the 12.1 by a single notch is all. On average though, this is probably my favourite 'batch' of Octomores for a while.