First encounter with Octomore and I expect something approaching the high-ester jamaican rums.

N : mix of charcoal smoke and turpentine, a touch iodine and vanilla. Maybe a little herbs too (seaweed ?). It's a nice multifaceted peat and not that aggressive, but it's all about peat. After half and hour it opens differently, sweetness gets more prominent : cereals and sugary biscuits but also a cold chlorophyllic presence I never experienced in any other whisky. I might be losing it, after ten more minutes I start smelling something close to pesto.
M : back on some more regular tracks with black pepper, coastal smoke and expected vanilla sweetness. I'm not sure how to explain this; but it's at the same time mouthcoating and drying. I'll add touch of oak bitterness to the list.
F : neverending (seriously) iodine smoke with the chlorophyll come-back.

That was some nosing. And I didn't specify but at 62.9% the alcohol is incredibly smoothed out. 8/10

Came back to it five months later and my notes are still very relevant. I'm adding : juniperus and black radish on the nose, still schizophrenic texture-wise in mouth with a touch of barbecued pork ribs. That chlorophyll in the finish again ! Definitely buying a bottle.

Acre peat, rather balais, but which is gently tempered by syrah and rivesaltes. Malt is - as often - clearly in the spotlight. Young, fresh and lively in the mouth, but without the defects of youth. Roots enough, plugged into the cereal. The wine barrels are only there to slightly round the corners, without allowing to express their primary aromas.

Enthusiasm 3/5

Whisky n ° 1865

Awesome Octomore. Sweet nose, strong peat finish, without feeling the 62.9% alcohol.

Delicious. It feels incredibly cohesive despite all the crazy flavours and intensity. The wine casks are very subtle but really work. As tasty as this is, I don’t know if I like it any more than the also-delicious 9.1. They’re pretty different: this one doesn’t have quite as much complexity, and trades in the fruit and herbs for more meat and honey. I’d give this one half a point of an edge if I could, but I can’t, so whatever. Bottom line: drink this and be happy.

Nose: Incredibly rich, malty, and meaty. A good bit of of peat smoke, earthy, charcoal-y, and medicinal. Vaguely rubbery. Salami and ham aplenty, along with both hard cheese and goat’s cheese. The body is all barley sugar, honey, salted caramel, and chocolate-covered sponge toffee. Sunflower seeds and some walnuts. Mushrooms, soy sauce, and dark chocolate. A little bit of sappy green wood and forest floor. French vanilla! It’s not particularly fruity aside from the barley sugar, but there’s definitely some pear, apricot, and green grape in there.
The sweetness builds as it sits in the glass: it gets cleaner, fruitier and more honeyed. Some vanilla, pear, and mint

Palate: Oily texture. This round fruity note actually opens up here, before more of that goat cheese and honey. Lovely rich dirty funk, toasted sesame seeds, oregano, and new leather. The development is pure barley and peat, which I think is the whole idea with the x.3s. Then comes lots more dark chocolate, toffee, honey, nuts, and smoke. Just a bit of dried fruit in there, coming across as a sweet rounded mustiness.

Finish: Lots of honey, almost texturaly, too. Ripe fruit: strawberry, orange, nectarine, dates. Oh hey, it’s my favourite note: strawberry-jam-glazed kosher salami cooked in a dirty wok in the woods! Medicinal notes and earth. Honey and nuts. Black pepper, sundried tomatoes, and truffle oil (that’s a new one!). Tropical fruit fading into the distance.

Nose: Fruit leather, smoke, spice, caramel, malt, roasted nuts and oil.

Palate: Plasticy smoke, BBQ sweetness, spice, caramel, roasted nuts and dried bananas.

Finish: Long -> BBQ sweetness and smoke with some fruit.

OCTOMORE
DIALOGOS 09.3
Just 52 tonnes of precious Islay barley were malted to produce this single farm Octomore 09.3 edition. Raised in Irene’s Field on Octomore Farm in 2011, this uber-provenance single malt was later distilled and filled into 134 casks. Predominantly second-fill, the gentler influence of the wood allows more of the locally grown barley flavours to cut through the legendary peat smoke.
Source: Bruichladdich

CHARACTER – Wild, Ileach, if this whisky could speak it would only speak in Gaelic. Atlantic coast raised. Out on the edge, the sense of place is strong.

AROMA – Malted barley, Horlicks, the smell of the mash going into the mashtun. Heather wildfire, black tea, golden syrup, lemon sponge.

TASTE – Golden syrup in the tin, smoked tea, wort, malted barley, pear, peach melba. Sea spray, heather flowers.

FINISH – Smoke, toasted oak, rye bread, salt, ozone.

COLOUR – Rusty/Sepia.

(https://www.bruichladdich.com/laddie-shop/octomore/octomore-09-3-dialogos-133ppm/)

Port Charlotte/Octomore and Syrath ... what else to say?!

Bruichladdich says:

"OCTOMORE 09.3 διάλογος is:

Uber-provenance single malt whisky; one field, one farm, one vintage

Malted to 133PPM

Distilled from 100% Islay grown Concerto barley, harvested in 2011 from Irene’s Field, Octomore Farm and distilled in 2012

Matured entirely on Islay in a combination of ex American whisky and French wine casks

Five aged years in 1st fill ex-American (25%), 3rd fill virgin oak (25%), 2nd fill Rivesaltes (20%), 2nd fill Syrah (20%), 2nd fill bourbon (10%)

Bottled unchill-filtered and colouring free at Bruichladdich Distillery, 62.9% alc. / vol.

Limited to 18,000 bottles"