Thanks Rob for the great review and the added surprise of the head-to-head with the Bruichladdich 18! Glad I got the 14.3. These reviews save me money, educates, and entertains! Keep up the great work.
I think to solve the peat blindness you really need to compare something you would consider heavily peated vs the ultra peated dram. I opened my hypernova recently "150-170 ppm" and was like you puzzled. I felt wow it's smoky but not that smoky. Opened my uigeadail and gave that a quick smell as an A-B. Brown sugar candy sweetness, zero peat. It turns all other Islay peated bottles into candy. Went up and down the collection popping corks and contrasting against the hypernova. All sweetness.
What a spectacular head to head Rob!!! I adore the Bruichladdich18!! Oh do I love it!! I also adore the Octomore 14.2!! I like the green direction that Bruichladdich is taking with the bottle and in many other ways. Very responsible. I have read a lot about it. Great video!! Cheers!! Hey the Laphroaig 18 is spectacular!!
How green then, is the glass bottle? How green is the transport, and delivery of the glass bottle? How green is the production of the contents of said glass bottles? Why do you write of green things when your ideas are so black and rotten?
Great review Rob. Excited to try the Bruichladdich 18. The 14.2 was my least favourite of this years Octomore releases, and the Meikle Toir releases are absolutely a game changer. Cheers buddy.
We tried teh 18 at The Pot Still in Glasgow with the intention of buying it around the corner at The Good Spirits Co for £155 I think. Having tasted it we did not buy it. Thought the last third/finish really let it down being kind of dry/grey. Then we had a dram of SB Local Barley 13 that was filled with magic by comparison. Of course nowhere to buy that one :-)
Unpeated Islas can be quite something - I’ve had a few from various distilleries and it often impresses. I’ve got a Caol Isla 15 and 18, bought years ago, that are both really impressive. I’d heard the Bruchladdie 18 wasn’t great, but to each his own I guess. Sad to hear about the 14.2 - the octomores are all so wayyyyy overpriced but sometimes they just blow you away. Opened a 9.3 recently and omg delicious. Bought a 14.3 in BC earlier this year and am looking fwd to opening it in due course. Sad they’re almost impossible to get in Ontario now let’s hope for a liberalization of distribution so we get some great independent stores opening !
Such a small allocation for AB and no PC18, disappointing! Regarding cask constitution, it's mostly bourbon, with added sauterne and port for sweetness, married together for 9 months before bottling.
wad up, Teach ! . . . 7 years ago I projected 18 will be the new 25 : right I was and am/still - - - wait until the 15-16 goes hyperbolic . . . [[ finally, that painted-on drake-beard faded - i see . ... nice (LOL, kidd') ]] . . .
Pricing has gone absurd, good as it may be the base level price for 18yr is going up and up and up, and most of the time it isn’t justified. I think the industry is in danger of pricing consumers out and pushing people away. Time will tell I guess. Slainte
