Octomore 8.3 Review [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been working at Whisky Live in Paris the last few days and had the chance to try some new and very exciting releases. Of course, I didn’t really have the time to do full reviews, but managed to make some notes on most things I tried.

So, this is one of the latest Octomore’s and one of many ‘lose your shit’ bottlings I got to try… Sooo more to come my friends…

As if Octomore wasn’t peaty enough, they went and peated it more. Up to 309ppm. Which is a new level. The most I’ve tried is the 7.2, which was 208ppm. This was made from Islay barley, peated and peated and peated, then put into 1st fill Bourbon and various red wine barrels.

This was the main whisky I wanted to try in Paris really, and the ladies on the stand, very graciously, opened the bottle for me.

Octomore 8.3 61.2%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Classically Octmore, elegant but HUGE, imagine you distilled a piece of peat, I think this is what you'd get. Amazingly earthy and minerally, subtle sweetness, Adam Hannett's white grape signature, dry, seaweed.

Taste: So good. Soft and building slowly, like it's got all the time in the world. Seaweed, fresh fruit, then HUGE mineral notes. Goes on and on, growing and growing. So subtle and so big.

Finish: Long length. Mineral, rocks, oily, sticks to the mouth for a LONG time. DRY.

I’d put it between the 7.3 (86) and the amazing OBA (87), in terms of a score. It just about scrapes by the 7.3 but doesn’t quite get up to the level of the OBA. Great juxtaposition of the big and subtle here. Really, I needed to try this with water but didn’t get enough or the time.

86/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #449

Whisky Network Review #512

Network Average: 74.2

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

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 a 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 am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

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