First rather surprising nose with little peat and ... cognac? Lemon, burnt wood, some chocolate. Some softness settles. Over time, vanilla typical of a bourbon emerges and settles by strengthening the chocolate. With water, more fruits! A touch of banana? Wood, spices evoking a rye.In the mouth, lively and round, not aggressive. Well spiced. Peat is not so strong at the first sip. The following are much more muscular! The water softens a bit. The nose is certainly the best of all the Octomore I've tasted. (Ten)

Enthusiasm 4/5

Well, I was a little worried that vanilla would dominate. It is more the wood itself and the dryness with which the virgin oak leaves its mark. Some people didn't like that at all in their reviews of this Octomore. I can get used to it very well today.

Full review alongside the 10y 5th edition: https://keinehalbendrinks.de/2022/03/01/der-pfad-zur-900/

Octomore 7.4. At Imperial Bar, Glasgow, March 2019. Aroma is woody - almost sherried-seeming, but apparently it's virgin oak used - quite sherry, cherry notes and coconut. Taste is huge rounded and intense but not brutal in this case. Lovely peat influence really. It's a little plasticky - some hair spray and perfume ... very oaky. Interesting but not blowing me away considering. Not too much complexity. Plasticky and touch of cherry. Light bitterness in the finish. I wonder if there's caramel in this - the colour is dark and there's an odd bitterness, but I guess all that could be put down to wood too. Very interesting and I'm glad to try it but not worth the money a bottle would set me back. So oaky like an over-oaked Greek wine or something. I paid £4.10 for a standard 35ml Scottish size dram, which is great value given the Octomore hype and almost seems like a mistake (the prices are great here and it's hard to tell), but in saying that the price is probably par for the course in terms of enjoyment/quality. 3.45/82

My least favourite Octomore at this point. That said, still lots better than many other peated malts out there. Typical Octomore peat, but the sharpness is too heavy handed thanks to the Virgin Oak. Not sure the extra couple years of aging are doing it any favours either.

An aside - I have taken to blending this with PC10 (a great entry level malt in its own right) and the sum is better than it’s parts. Just a few drops of this added to a dram of PC10 pulls the PC10 up into ~90 point territory imo.

Tried this in a pub assuming it was the 7.1. Literally blown away with the 61% alc content. Very unique taste and a pleasure to experience. Bought a bottle for collection and will save for special occasion. Found it different to other octomore as most I’ve had are 5 year old.

Just crushed another bottle of this. Still wonderful. Still a 90 whisky. Sweet and smokey and farmy and complex. Just wonderful. 

tasted on feis ile 2016;) in a blind tasting I would definitely not typed on an octomore, since he has much less smoke than the previous bottlings. For an alcohol content of over 61.0%, it is very very mild.

Peat, smoke, spices, medicine, sweetie. And really much of everything.

At least one Octomore, which settles in comparison to its predecessors. This tastes rounder than the previous ones. Nice to smoke, bacon and barbecue with a little sweetness (similar to a sweet & smoke barbecue sauce). Not bad, but I find no more flavors in the whisky and the aftertaste is also gone again.

Note by Serge Valentin from whiskyfun.com:

Octomore 7 yo 2008/2016 '07.4' (61.2%, OB, virgin oak, 12,000 bottles)  167 ppm smoke in the barley, and some virgin French oak from Allier - albeit not entirely, apparently. It's too complicated. Now what could go wrong? Colour: amber. Virgin oak indeed. Nose: it's the first Octomore that's so entirely 'craft', and indeed you could think this was made in Texas or in California. Starts with a very spicy oak, with plenty of ginger, green pepper, and caraway, and gets then progressively smoky, in a surprisingly smooth way. Fumes, new tyres, bitter oranges, and really a lot of myrtle. Didn't the oak overpower the bombastic peat? The jury's still out. With water: new planks, ginger, curry, cinnamon, leaven, bread dough, rubber. Mouth (neat): creamy and extremely oaky. Curry and honey coated fried bacon, cinnamon mints, salty fudge, rubber... Really not too sure. With water: no, the oak bites you. I think the Americans do it better. Finish: long, gingery, oddly sweet. Cheap lapsang souchong. Comments: lacks definition and 'a sense of the place' as they now say in the industry. So many Octomores have been much better in my book! Well, all of them - not to mention the Port Charlottes. I wouldn't swap one bottle of 7.3 (WF 91) for ten cases of this rather wacky 7.4. Quick, 7.5... SGP:467 - 70 points.

Is a better but most overvalued whisky. Luckily I only had one sample. Woody like a JBG Münsterländer but with too much smoke! Does not harmonize at all. Nothing that would make you want more.

http://kaypingers-whiskyblog.de/frontend/fullarticle.php?id=199 Color: rust red
Nose: wet paperboard soaked in lemon juice, with orange, leather, vanilla, smoke and peaty lime extract. Little spice and hardly any salt! Then some iodine, BBQ and orange peels - dull and actually relatively unspectacular.
Taste: Sweet caramel and a lot of salty spice. Orange extract, smoky peat, cayenne pepper and sticky, pampy-sweet honey. Woody and dry with still full salinity.
Finish: Long, but also far away from what you want to have on the finish. Hot and bitter-smoky - with dry ashes, coal dust and burned peat.
Remark: With minimal mouth filling still okay, then it works - otherwise it will be oblique!
83 points (nose: 87 / taste: 83 / finish: 80)

The virgin oak doesnt overwhelm the spirit.

Not as overtly peaty as anticipated. smoked werthers! smoked spicy coffee

The official tasting notes Color: With its deep maroon, it is a whisky of extraordinary visual presence. Nose: Once uncorked, the bottle exudes a unique fragrance that fills the room with sweet and smoky aromas. Racy, wild and complex without water - absolutely bewitching with some water. Dried fruits and toasted bread. The smoke flavors are reminiscent of barbecue and harmonize perfectly with the hint of clove and cinnamon. Palate: On the palate, the Octomore 07.4 presents full-bodied and opulent. Sweet and peaty meets toasted oak. Exotic flavors of coconut, clove, lemon zest, caramel and Turkish honey. Orange blossom honey strikes oak and is swept away by a wave of smoke and peat. Finish: The aftertaste seems endless and reminiscent of licorice, clove, dried fruits and roses. The powerful oak tone makes room for the typical Octomore finale: endless smoke and an unforgettable adventure!

Fassauswahl:

-25% 7y Virgin Oak Casks
-75%
3y First Fill Bourbon Casks im Anschluss
2y Virgin Oak Casks und weitere
2y First Fill Bourbon Casks

COLOUR
RICH CHESTNUT

NOSE
THERE IS HUGE PRESENCE WITH THIS WHISKY, TAKING THE CORK FROM THE BOTTLE WILL UNLEASH SOMETHING UNIQUE.  THE ROOM FILLS WITH THE SWEET, SMOKY AROMA AS THE FIRST GLASS IS POURED AND YOU KNOW THIS IS THE PRELUDE TO A WHISKY LIKE NO OTHER. THE SMOKE IS POWERFUL BUT TEMPERED BY SWEET, RICH OAK, TWO HEAVYWEIGHTS THAT COMPLEMENT EACH OTHER - THERE IS BALANCE BETWEEN THEM. AS THE WHISKY OPENS, THE COMPLEXITY AND INTENSITY OF THE VIRGIN OAK GIVES NOTES OF DRIED FRUIT, RAISIN AND APRICOT THEN TOASTED BREAD, CHOCOLATE ORANGE, COFFEE, COCONUT, BUTTERY VANILLA. THERE IS A HINT OF BARBEQUE AND PINE NEEDLES ALONG WITH MORE FRUIT, THIS TIME FROM THE SPIRIT – GREEN APPLES AND GRAPEFRUIT WITH A DUSTING OF CLOVES AND CINNAMON.  IT IS CAPTIVATING

PALATE
PREPARE FOR AN ELEVATION IN THE OCTOMORE EXPERIENCE. AS THE FIRST TASTE OF 7.4 MEETS YOUR TASTE BUDS THE SENSATION IS TRULY SPECTACULAR. THE MOUTHFEEL IS RICH AND SUMPTUOUS THEN THERE IS A DETONATION OF FLAVOUR. SWEETNESS, PEAT SMOKE AND THE RICHNESS OF TOASTED OAK CLAMOUR FOR YOUR ATTENTION AS THE WARMING STRENGTH OF THE SPIRIT IGNITES.  WOW! A DROP OF WATER WILL RELEASE EXOTIC COCONUT AND CLOVE, LEMON PEEL, CARAMEL, TURKISH DELIGHT.  SWEET ORANGE BLOSSOM HONEY AND MORE AND MORE OAK FILL THE PALATE, ALL OF THIS IS VEILED IN PEAT SMOKE, ALMOST MEDICINAL IN ITS CHARACTER IT IS PEPPERED WITH SWEET SPICY NOTES OF CINNAMON AND CLOVE. THE FLORAL, FRUITY, STYLE OF BRUICHLADDICH IS EVIDENT THROUGH ALL THE POWER OF THE OAK AND SMOKE REASSURING US THAT WE HAVE NOT LET THIS AGE TOO LONG IN THE INTENSITY OF THE FRESH OAK CASKSFINISH
TRUE TO OUR BELIEFS THIS DISTILLATION WAS SLOW AND CAREFUL TO ENSURE THE TEXTURE AND BALANCE IS PERFECT AND THIS ALLOWS THE FLAVOUR TO LAST FOR AN ETERNITY. HONEYSUCKLE AND ROSE MINGLE WITH LIQUORICE AND CLOVE, DRIED DATES, APRICOTS AND HONEYED VANILLA RELEASED FROM THE OAK WILL SLOWLY FADE THEN THE SMOKE WILL LINGER FOR AN AGE COMPETING WITH THE SWEETNESS OF THE OAK FOR THE LAST WORD ON AN UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE

(wwwbruichladdich.com).