Bruichladdich Future – Trestarig 2005 (6 year old) 46%
Triple distilled from Publican Barley
Bourbon Cask/ Dist: Aug 2005 Btl: Apr 2011
Bottle No: 1075
Tasted: Nov 2011
The nose opens with a lovely, delicately sweet floral note. As expected it’s quite gristy with plenty of fishy, costal hints. Laddie’s new make can be quite biscuity and there is plenty of that evident here. There is not a huge amount of oak but what there is imparts some burnt caramel and a touch of butter. The aromas remind me of ‘Toshan, but cleaner!
The palate is soft and quite rich in character with plenty of sweet digestive biscuits with light hints of pepper and caramel. There is a pleasant spicy bite on the middle with hints of burnt wood and linseed oil mingling with the biscuity notes. The barley sweetness holds all the way through and it finishes with the barest of coastal notes.
Bruichladdich Future – X4 2005 (6 year old) 64.6%
Quadruple distilled from Oxbridge Barley
Bourbon Cask/ Dist: Mar 2005 Btl: Apr 2011
Bottle No: 1285
Tasted: Nov 2011
Quite a refined and high toned nose, but like the Trestarig there is plenty of sweet barley and biscuity notes. Obviously not as rich as the Trestarig but showing a touch more wood notes.
The palate is sweet and gristy and (no surprise) alcoholic! In saying that it possesses a lovely softness in the mouth but given the abv it does finish short but spicy with just a touch of sweet digestive biscuit.
With water the nose possibly becomes a tad sweeter along with hints of green apple and violets, still quite biscuity but the oak has vanished. On the palate the light, natural oils are more prevalent and just like the nose the oak has disappeared but it’s still wonderfully spicy.
Bruichladdich Future – Islay Grown 2004 (6 year old) 46%
Distilled from Publican, Oxbridge and Optic Barley
Bourbon Cask/ Dist: Dec 2004 Btl: Apr 2011
Bottle No: 0982
Tasted: Nov 2011
Lightly phenolic with sweet peat and rose peatl notes mingling. Ever so slightly confected with hints of sweet digestive biscuits. With time some soft, ultra-ripe tropical pineapple appears. To me it puts me in mind of a peated ‘Toshan. Really intriguing!
The palate is light and gentle with oodles of sweet barley and delicate Spey-like grassy notes and some green apple. The light phenolic notes of the nose do not seem to appear on the palate but it has a lovely, fresh, mouth-watering, slightly perfumed finish.
Bruichladdich Future – Organic 2003 (7 year old) 46%
Distilled from Maris Otter Barley
Bourbon Cask/ Dist: Dec 2003 Btl: Apr 2011
Bottle No: 2599
Tasted: Nov 2011
A surprisingly spirity, high toned and edgy nose, but I’m afraid that there is not a lot else, maybe some sweet orange and fishy peat, but this is way too young and displays absolutely no wood interaction. It definitely doesn’t display and fatness, which could be down to the organic barley having smaller grains resulting in less sugar after fermentation?
The palate is soft and gentle with a distinct milky character. Pleasantly round with some sweet barley but overall quite straightforward and dare I say it a bit bland and short. I would have expected some grist and biscuitiness but there is none of that present.
Maybe this is a more ‘natural’ whisky, but one thing is for sure it definitely needed more time in the cask. Another thought is that given that this is organic the low wines tank would have to have been cleaned of all non-organic spirit, thus this could have been the product of the first run, ie, without any feints or foreshots from any previous distillation being added, thus the level of congeners in the spirit would have been a lot less than a spirit that was say distilled during the middle of a run. I could well be wrong but it’s a thought?
Bruichladdich Future – Octomore 2004 (6 year old) 60.5%
Distilled from Optic Barley. Peated to 167 ppm
Bourbon Cask/ Dist: Nov 2004 Btl: Apr 2011
Bottle No: 2249
Tasted: Nov 2011
A very briny, windswept, youthfully phenolic nose of bog myrtle-peat and iodine. Very rich, full and maurey but this is by no means a one dimensional peat monster, there is some lovely balancing macerated fruit with hints of ‘old skool’ Caol Ila fresh garden fruit and a sprinkling of coffee/ chocolate spices. A seriously concentratedIslaynose with some beautiful coastal oily moments. Given time in the glass it becomes seriously rich and unctuous with the young biscuity spirit reacting with the wood to impart an almost Madeira-esque ‘finishing cask’ character – It’s a bit like Caol Ila on steroids!
The palate is very butch and oily with creosote and tar notes up first. Once the eye watering alcohol has passed some hot peppered mackerel, vanilla oak, bog myrtle and herb notes flow in as does some delightfully dry, dusty peat, and more peat, and yet more peat! Liberally coating the mouth with this stunning peaty/ tarry/ oily residue. Stunningly long with hints of burnt wood and mulchy vegeatation.
With water the richness of the oak takes a bit of a back seat to the herbal, bog myrtle and manuery notes. On the palate it has become more rounded and chewy now the alcohol is lessened and hints of sub-tropical fruit, banana and white peach have now emerged. The oak has intensified and the rampant bourbon vanillins make this a monumentally spicy mouthful, but that peat cannot be tempered. Beautifully polished but still with a definite Islay rawness.
I tasted it against the last distillery bottling 04.1 and that seemed almost thin in comparison with this monster, which leads me to believe that the futures bottling was matured in more active casks. Also the peat make up was a lot ‘wetter’ in character in the 04.1. Either way Octomore is the real deal!
Whisky According to Chris Whiskyman 