Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Discovering a whisky that’s an Octave above the rest

Post Thumbnail

In his debut column, one of our whisky writers, Andy Clark, talks us through some of his favourite drams over the past 12 months.

What a time of extremes these past few months have been. Lockdown, the horrors of Covid. Uncertainty. Worry.

Yet at the same time the joy of family, new priorities. New perspective. I finally achieved a dream, and launched my own whisky blog, which led me here to the fantastic opportunity to write this column for you.

And I discovered something that has turned my perception of whisky upside down.

Of all the drams I tried in the last year, every one I loved – my whiskies of the year – was under 10 years old, that imaginary age when whisky is meant to become “good”.

Young, beautiful expressions from the wonderful Glenglassaugh distillery, the excellent first single malt from Ardnamurchan, the unforgettable debut dram from Nc’Nean, the spectacularly smoky Wee Beastie from Ardbeg.

Nc’nean Distillery in Locaber launched its first organic single malt whisky.

These drams – and a few more – were bursting with personality and quality. Young upstarts that ran rings round the old guard. But above them all stood something very special – a three-year-old from a similarly young Speyside distillery, Dalmunach.

It was an expression by those masters of the single cask, Duncan Taylor, and it had been given the “Octave” treatment, where a dram spends the last few months of its maturation in an Octave cask, one-eighth the size of a normal butt, allowing the flavours to intensify.

This one was so good, all sweet pastry and frangipane, that it left me wanting more – wishing, in fact. And that wish came true just a few days ago when Duncan Taylor released a new, four-year-old Octave Dalmunach.

Bottled at 54.2% ABV and available only in the UK, this is a serious explosion of decadence. On the nose, there’s deep sweetness and an almost buttery richness – and to me there’s a lovely air of coffee chocolates. The kind that used to star in a box of Milk Tray but seem to have disappeared in recent years.

The palate is smooth, sweet and creamy with hints of wood and light spice swirling around in the background. A super-satisfying finish makes me reach for the bottle to pour another.

Now, normally something as special and rare as this – only 99 bottles will ever be available – would carry with it a pretty special price tag. But this dram is just £55-£60, and that transforms it from a luxury to a must-have.

If you’re quick enough to get your hands on a bottle of this young beauty, why not help me drink a toast to the future – a time when whisky WON’T come of age?

For more about the Octave range go to duncantaylor.com

The Octave Dalmunach is on sale at Drink Finder, Master of Malt, Regal Whisky and Whisky Online.

Andy Clark is author of the Dr@m whisky blog. For more, go to dram-whisky.com


More about whisky…

Canadian whiskies are few and far between in UK supermarkets

Bottle of whisky dubbed ‘holy grail of single malts’ sold for £1m by Perth-based auctioneer