Octomore 17.3

THE HOLY SPIRITS VIEW
You don't get higher provenance than this — barley grown two miles from the stills, in one named field, distilled the same year it was harvested, peated to a startling 132.1 PPM. Octomore's annual series never repeats, and 17.3 pushes both traceability and peat further than almost anything else on the shelf. A dram for the curious as much as the committed peat-head.
 
THE DISTILLERY
Octomore is Bruichladdich's super-heavily peated project, distilled at the Islay distillery but built around its own obsession: how far peat, barley and cask can be pushed while keeping real elegance intact. Each annual release is a limited, unrepeatable snapshot of a single harvest and cask selection — brought to strength using Octomore's own spring water, non-chill filtered, no added colour.
 
THE WHISKY: EDITION 17.3
Distilled from 100% Concerto barley grown exclusively in Irene's Field on Octomore Farm, malted to 132.1 PPM — the peatiest expression in the 17 Series by some margin. Five years full-term across a genuinely unusual medley: first-fill bourbon, second-fill Ribera del Duero, Sauternes, Eiswein and Syrah. Bottled at 60.9% ABV.
 
TASTING NOTES
Salted caramel first, then smoked apple, toasted coconut, praline, a wisp of vanilla cream underneath — smoke sitting quietly behind it all, waiting. Palate arrives sweeter than the nose promises: first-fill oak, orchard fruit, honey, then the campfire hits — big, muscular, rolling smoke that never quite drowns the praline and vanilla still working through the middle. Stunning cask interplay for something this young. Long finish, deep, smoke and sweetness locked together right to the end. Intriguing how composed 132 PPM can taste.
Serve: Neat, in a Glencairn glass, to take it in as bottled — water will tame the smoke if you want, but you'll lose some of what makes this one so good.