Ardbeg Supernova 2010 vs Octomore 2.1

Ardbeg Supernova - the extreme model from the maker of serious peat monsters. I miss a lot of Ardbeg special releases, sadly. They are all good and many are excellent. I've been reviewing Octomores and Gal Granov, the incredibly gregarious, intelligent, questing and amazingly active master of the Israeli food and booze blogging scene via Whisky Israel among others, asked me how the Octomores compared with Supernova. When I said I had never tried any of them we got busy setting up a trade and I recently received a sample of the 2010 edition from Gal.

Ardbeg Supernova barely there in the glass; huge on the palate

Ardbeg makes peat monsters and when Bruichladdich concocted Octomore, the most heavily peated whisky in the world, Ardbeg quite reasonably derived a competing version. Ardbeg has released fewer versions and less total volume of this intense fire water than Laddie - and they never quite got the peat phenol levels as obscenely far into the stratosphere as Laddie did (and continues to do) with Octomore. However, as anyone who has marveled at the heavy peat flavors of Lagavulin and Laphroaig (which taste mighty peaty at comparatively tiny phenol levels) the ppm number doesn't tell the whole story. I had to see which peat monster tweaked my peat freak tail the hardest.

Ardbeg SuperNova 2010 60.1%

Color: Pale straw

Nose: light and youthful spring meadow with floral vanilla and a kiss of lemon over a darker foreboding with spirit heat, clay, putty, and some distant petrol and auto garage.

Palate The entry is pointed and sweet with malt sugars, grassy and clean. There are gentle intonations of vigorous juicyfruit and jujubee berries on a thin light mouth feel. And then hits a roaring big expansion of spirit heat with vigorous big and classically maritime Ardbeg peat. The peat blooms into massive intensity, well melded with sweet. It is a huge, visceral, pulsating burn. At the turn to the finish it becomes massively bitter and ashen - like the gray end of a fine cigar. The intense ash fades over an extensive period of time progressing though herbal bitters and eventually into a gentle cherry and malty residual sweet glow on your blasted palate.

A dash of water ups the citrus lemon note in the nose and increases the angularity of the sugars. However the mouthfeel is noticeably richer and the pointy sweetness of entry rendered more honeyed. There more pepper and spice in the huge peat expansion.

Bottom line here, Ardbeg Supernova 2010 is a huge peat monster and a delicious dram with a lot going on flavor-wise.

*****

Read Gal's review of it: 
http://whiskyisrael.co.il/2010/08/16/tasting-ardbeg-supernova-2010-release/

The general consensus in the blogosphere seems to be that Supernova 2010 is more citrus and fruit and less phenol and slam than the 2009 edition.  That sounded a lot like the general consensus about the difference between Octomore 01.1 (phenol and slam) and Octomore 2.1 (more sweet and heather - despite higher phenol levels).

Given the sweetness of Supernova and the legacy of the turn to the light between the 2009 and 2010 expressions I decided to skip the heavy petrol of Octomore 01.1 for the head to head comparison.. It was a toss up, for me, between the razor sharp 4.1 or the slightly more rounded 2.1. It seemed like splitting hairs and I have a fresh full bottle of 02.1 and only a couple of ounces of 4.1 so I queued up a dram of Octomore 02.1 straight away.

Octomore 2.1 62.5% 140ppm 5 yo

Color: pale yellow - a tiny touch darker than the pale pale Supernova

Nose: grassy sweet over industrial putty, clay. But where Ardbeg Supernova features floral and lemon notes, Octomore features a darker nasal palate with grass and grain sugars rather than flowers and more peat (clay) notes in evidence.

Palate: Ardbeg opens with pointed malt sugars and young grassy grain too, but more a tiny bit more heft, a thicker mouthfeel, and a slightly bigger mid palate expansion of ash, and tar. Octomore 2.1 has lemon citrus in the turn to the finish. There are maritime notes, iodine, sea air, kalamata olives. With repeated
sips the peat burn builds, but so does a creamy vanilla quality.  This is classic Octomore: grassy malty heather sweet entry followed by a titanic mid palate expansion of explosive peat and rich maritime flavor elements.  The palate experience divides cleanly into two divergent and opposite halves like the twin nature of Man: light and dark; good and evil.  Sweet angelic honey sugar sunlight and monstrous burning ashy tar laden hellfire.

*****

Dramming them side by side I'm struck by how distinct the flavor profiles are: Ardbeg with more floral, citrus, and black pepper; Octomore with more honeyed malt, meadow, tar and cream.  The Ardbeg tastes so distinctly of Ardbeg and the Octomore is clearly in the peated Bruichladdich house style.  Yet I'm also struck by how similar they are to each other. Sweet and young up front with titanic peat wallops and huge tarry finishes. They are both true to what they are and clear Islay kin. Two different routes to the top of peat monster mountain. So, which is king? Octomore is darker and more convincing peat monster from the perspective of the density of burn. However Ardbeg Supernova is just ever so slightly more delicious from my perspective.  They are both monsters and both superb.  It's an academic question anyway.  Both are limited editions and both are long sold out in most places.  

Octomore 4.2 Comus puts a honeyed glory on the blaze and the ashes.

Château d'Yquem is the highest end Sauternes, the only Premier Cru Supérieur. If you like the rich sweet yellow dessert wine Sauternes, you'll want to have it at least once in your life. It is famous for balancing sweetness and acidity with a big tropical fruit and floral nature. In the wine finish craze that has gripped the Scotch whisky world (and, beginning, the bourbon world too now) it was inevitable that Sauternes casks would be used. Probably the most famous such expression is Glenmorangie's excellent Nectar D'Or which amps up Glenmorangie's honeyed floral nature with the honeyed floral nature of Sauternes to produce the laciest most floral expression of Scotch whisky around. Whiskies finished in the casks from the regal and expensive Château d'Yquem are harder to find. A notable example is the kilobuck crystal decanter top of the line Glenmorangie Pride which I had the opportunity to taste at a Glenmorangie flight in 2010 at Keen's hosted by Paul Pacult and Bill Lumsden. Pride is intensely honeyed and regally floral with tons of figs and dates and honeysuckle flower. Pride is composed mostly of 18 year old Glenmorangie which then rested in Château d'Yquem casks for a full 10 additional years. Glenmorangie is a natural to pair with this delicate wine influence because its high stills, the highest stills in Scotland, emphasize the delicate and floral esters which whisky can possess.

Today I'll be tasting the latest expression of Octomore from Bruichladdich: 4.2 Comus. The name comes from Greek mythology. The "dot two" designation, so far, indicates a wine secondary finish. The previous wine finished Octomore was 2.2 "Orpheus" - sporting a Château Petrus finish. It was universally lauded as a big step forward for the Octomore flavor profile. The reception for the Comus expression has been more tepid, perhaps not surprisingly. It's an odd pairing - Octomore, the highest peated whisky in the world - and the sweet and floral wine influence of Château d'Yquem. Peat is a powerful and assertive flavor. It might be expected to stomp all over the more delicate d'Yquem. However, experience has taught me that Octomore has a dual nature born of Bruichladdich's extremely tall stills, the highest stills in Islay: a beautiful light sweetness up front - married to the big and assertive peat that shows up, seemingly out of nowhere, at mid-palate. So, maybe it's not so crazy after all. Bruichladdich plays this aspect of the pairing up with the white tube and the story about Comus.  Here it is from Bruichladdich's web site:

FOLLOWING ON FROM THE NOW LEGENDARY OCTOMORE ORPHEUS, THE NOW LEGENDARY JIM MCEWAN HAS CREATED ANOTHER LANDMARK OCTOMORE. COMUS WAS THE SON OF BACHHUS [GOD OF WINE AND REVELLING] AND CIRCE, DAUGHTER OF HELIOS THE SUN GOD AND A SORCERESS WHO WOULD BEGUILE THE INNOCENT INTO DRINKING HER MAGIC POTIONS.

"COMUS" WAS A PLAY WRITTEN BY POET JOHN MILTON AND FIRST PERFORMED IN 1634 AT LUDLOW CASTLE, ENGLAND. THE WORK PRESENTS THE DESPERATE BATTLE BY COMUS TO ENSNARE A BEAUTIFUL, INNOCENT GIRL AND THROUGH THE HEDONISTIC POWER OF HIS MAGIC POTIONS ­ - "HIS ORIENT POTIONS IN A CRYSTAL GLASS" - ­ ROB HER OF HER VIRGINITY. A PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOURSE ON THE BATTLE BETWEEN SENSUAL PLEASURE AND PHYSICAL ABANDON, AND REASON AND VIRTUE.
ALL VERY BRUICHLADDICH.

IN THIS OCTOMORE 4.2 "COMUS" WE SEE THIS SAME DUALITY ­ THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN THE BROODING POWER OF THE EXCEPTIONAL OCTOMORE PEAT AND THE SUBLIME ELEGANCE OF CASKS THAT PREVIOUSLY HELD THE WORLD¹S GREATEST SWEET WINE.

HENCE THE WHITE, VIRGINAL, INNOCENT PACKAGING - ­ BUT LIKE OUR HEROINE, DO NOT BE DECEIVED... ALL IS NOT WHAT IT SEEMS.

http://www.bruichladdich.com/the-whisky/peated-whisky/octomore/octomore-4-2-comus-167ppm 

Octomore 4.2 Comus is a lovely light gold color.

Octomore 4.2 Comus 61% abv 167 ppm

Non chill filtered.  No artificial colors.  3cl samples from http://whiskysamples.flyingcart.com/

Color: pale gold - a slightly richer color than the light straw of the non-wine finished Octomores.

Nose: the putty and library paste notes of big peat come first. Then the maritime salt spray notes share time with an odd vegetal note which initially had a lemon pith quality but, with more nosing, began to seem more like dry hay. There is also a little meat broth aroma behind everything a a slight mineral note like chalk. This is, frankly, an odd complex of flavor notes. Adding a drop of water amps up the putty and broth and hay at the expense of the sea spray and mineral.  I think the admixture of powerful peat aroma, sweet, and broth savory is the origin of some reviewer's sense of "rotting plant matter" - (see the April 11 post of Sku's Recent Eats).  I don't get that sense - but I do acknowledge that some of these aromas are at odds with each other.  Frankly, it hardly matters; once you start sipping something bigger trumps them all...

Entry is sweet and honeyed with a much richer mouth feel than other Octomores in my experience. The flavor signature of Sauternes is immediately apparent as a softening and richening overlay on top of the usual razor sharp sugars of Octomore's opening. This opening is lush, but with a drop of water the sugars explode and the whole fore palate becomes much more richly honeyed yet: viscous, and rich with a Sauternes like sweetness.   (The enhancement wrought by the addition of a few drops of water (only) is so profound that I consider it mandatory for this dram.)  At mid-palate where the floral aspect of d'Yquem emerges, however, the smoldering peat attack owns everything and overshadows the Yquem flavors. As in all the other Octomores the peat builds huge and smoldering in the mid-palate and turns to ash in the finish; a huge dominating flavor aspect.  This is the "Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde" aspect of Octomores:  the ethereal sweetness up front which gives way to a dramatic mid-palate expansion dominated by a huge wall of peat reek.  Somehow this transition, which thrilled and delighted me in other Octomore expressions, induced some regret in me here.  The Yquem glory up front is eclipsed by the massive peat attack and doesn't show up again until the palate progresses through fiery peat, road tar, and then the long finish of smoldering ash and then lingering herbal notes and a wistful final post echo of sweetness and then finally the decks are cleared for the next sip.  Is this new regret a shortcoming of this dram, or is it a testament to the beauty wrought by the lovely Yquem Sauternes finish; a beauty so lovely that I cannot bear to see it so roughly treated by the peat monster's massive shaggy bulk?  I don't know - but I pondered this with a knit brow.

The Sauternes finish has softened the "usual" Octomore initial razor sharp sugar opening and tempered and thickened it. The rich d'Yquem flavor profile luxuriates the intense sugar sting and makes it softer.  That's the bottom line here.  This is a softer, more plush and luxurious Octomore.  I don't know if I prefer it to the un-wine-finished style I've tried in the 1.1, 2.1 and 4.1 expressions.  It's different and new.  If you found the initial intense razor sharp sugar attack of these other Octomore expressions too intense, this 4.2 Comus expression will be a revelation.  Personally I'm inclined to find it an incremental improvement.  Something is most definitely gained, but something is lost too.  Softer and richer isn't unambiguously better in my opinion.  However, Octomore remains the most intense flavor profiles I've experienced and 4.2 Comus doesn't disappoint in this regard.  4.2 Comus goes new places and stretches to new extremes.  I remain quite bewitched by the whole crazy series.

*****

Octomore 01.1 Fierce or lovely; Doctor Jekyll or Mr. Hyde?

Jim McEwan of Bruichladdich has dazzled and influenced the whisky world with many of his exciting and innovative directions since taking over at the turn of the millenium.  Perhaps his boldest and most iconic direction is to make peated whiskies and bottle them young, at young hot cask strength, when the peat is fresh and fierce.  The excellent and popular Port Charlotte line exemplify this direction, but the ultimate expression of this style are the Octomores - the most highly peated whiskies in the world.  Octomore 01.1 was the first of the Octomore line and many reviews (such as this excellent one by Ruben at WhiskyNotes) identify it as the beefy brawny one.  Subsequent expressions have slightly higher phenol (peat) levels, but none were reputed to exceed it in intensity.  I didn't hesitate when an opportunity came to try it. 

Darth Vader is in the house.

Read it and weep: 5yrs 131ppm

Bruichladdich Octomore 01.1 Aged 5 years, 63.5% abv, peated at 131 ppm

Color:  pale chardonnay - a cliché, I know, but well warranted here.  Rich pale gold.

Nose:  putty, library paste, mineral clay, a hint of garage (motor oil, diesel, and petrol) and some maritime ocean air with notes of salt, iodine, and sea spray.  Further nosing reveals straw, dry malt, and some cut grass.  There is a hint of cereal sugars, but the nose is for the most part dry, mineral and industrial in feeling.

Chardonnay colored in the glass

All whisky progresses across the palate, but Octomore 01.1 divides the three phases of tasting (entry, mid-palate, and finish) into totally divergent personalities like Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Entry on the palate opens with a razor sharp burst of fresh clean vegetable sugars like treacle.  This sweetness is big - carried on the wings of a ton of alcohol intensity.  This sweetness is more than big; it is huge - and unexpected from the dry nose.  The sweetness steps aside 15-20 seconds into the sip and then the mid-palate explodes with rich peat.  Earthy, smoldering, notes of tar, clean hot burning anthracite coal, tire rubber, and oil coat the tongue and mouth.  Then 20-30 seconds later, at the turn to the finish, the big tar and fiery earth turns to ash, dense and with an almost bitter cast.  Over the next few minutes the ashes fade to a wistful echo of the piercing sweetness of the opening.  There are herbal notes in the sweetness of the long long finish.  A few minutes after the sip your palate is like a motorcyclist who has tumbled on the roadway and skidded many yards to a halt through the grassy margin and emerged scraped but unscathed: a bit raw but exhilarated (and perhaps a little freaked out).  There is char and herbs and a raw feeling on the gums, cheeks and tongue - the burn of 63.5% abv.  Better have another sip.  There's the putty, clay mineral and petrol nose.  Then WHAM, the huge razor sharp and extremely intense pointed sweetness of the opening and then the rich creeping triumph of huge mouth coating tar, anthracite coal and burning smoldering earthy peat fading gradually to ash and then wistful echo.  It's like the emotional progression of the Great War, from resolve to the wings of hope to the immolation of destruction to a melancholy burning rawness after the conclusion.  Ok, granted it's not an ordeal on that scale - but it is a wildly divergent set of fairly intense experiences. 

Samples bottled for the open shelf life experiment

Yes, drinking Octomore 01.1 is like a big journey from the heights of the most intense sweetness like angel's wings to the depths of fiery hell with the most char I've every had imprinted on my tongue by any whisky. 

How about a drop of water?  Water loosens the putty note in the nose and adds a distant bit of citrus and also some larger hint of the sugars.  Sweeter, fruiter, and a bit piquant; but still with that bit of garage and petrol.  The water does nothing to restructure that stately progression from intense sweet to intense fire to intense ash.  So I try adding even more water - about 10 drops total.  Now the nose is losing it, getting noticeably weaker but floral notes and sea moss have joined the citrus and clay and petrol.  But on the tongue the sweetness is less razor sharp and more lusciously honeyed.  The transition to the peat attack of the mid-palate is more gentle and gradual, and the peat attack itself is a bit softer with the vegetal notes and wistful sweetness showing up almost at the start of the finish so that the honeyed sweet entry almost seems to hand directly off to the ashy herbal sweetness of the finish.  Water makes it less intense, but no less lovely - perhaps even more so.  This is one of the very few drams I might actually prefer with a good drop of H2O.  

Comparing this to the Octomore 04.1 I'm struck more by the family resemblance than the differences.  Both are pale, powerful, razor sharp, and intensely sweet up from with huge earthy peat in the middle and huge coal ash at the end.  The 01.1 is has more motor oil, petrol, and mineral in the nose and midpalate.  04.1 is more earth and a more restrained refined aspect.  However they are clearly kin.  Both are exceptional experiences.  Both are extreme experiences.

Highly recommended, if you think you can handle it.  And if you can find it.  Try Park Avenue Liquors in NYC.

*****

This bottle will be part on an ongoing series of open shelf life experiments inspired by the fascinating series of experiments on the effects of oxidation and evaporation on whiskey left in open bottles performed by Ryan of Value Whisky Reviews / Value Bourbon Reviews.  Follow the link above to read his 3 posts on the topic.  The experimental methodology is to fill samples when the bottle is first opened and then compare them with the bottle over time as its contents oxidize.  I'll be performing these experiments on an ongoing basis.  Thus, when I opened this bottle I filled 5 two oz. sample bottles and will compare them with the remains of the bottle over time.  I'll be looking at mouth feel, aromatics, nose, and flavor and will use Ryan's five point scale of discernible affects.  I'll try to do comparison tastings at 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and a year. 

Octomore 4.1/167; peat monster or gentle cask strength dram?

Octomore 4.1 is the 5 year old version of the extreme peated expression of Bruichladdich.  It is bottled at 62.5% abv and, famously, boasts peat levels of 167ppm - currently tied with Octomore 4.2 as the highest measured peat levels of any whisky... ever.  I certainly enjoy peated malts and I'm a big Bruichladdich fan - so why haven't I tried every one of these Octomore expressions?  Fear maybe - or just frugality.  They go for $150-$200+ a bottle around here.  The 4.1 expression here is $175 at Park Avenue Liquors.  That's beyond where I'm usually willing to stretch.  Enter samples from Belgium's http://whiskysamples.flyingcart.com/  

They sell inexpensive 30ml samples.  I'll be trying a number of these over the coming weeks.  I started with the Octomore 4.1 because the curiosity is burning in me - like a raging 167ppm fire.

Color:  pale chardonnay

Nose:  Peat (duh), but less than I was expecting.  It's a clean simple earthy peat on top of some spirit heat, very reminiscent of Connemara Turf Mor - but more.  There are iodine medicinal notes, and a slightly sweet vegetal quality like watercress, juniper, or gentle cilantro.  With extended time in the glass some sweetness comes to the nose - integrated into the peat like sugar beets in the earth.  Its a warm and pleasant nose - but remarkably simple and gentle considering the fearsome reputation that precedes this dram.

Entry is richly sweet, razor sharp and big.  Cereal sugars and rich malt toffee are the dominant first note.  The midpalate expansion is like a rip roaring explosion.  This is clearly a very young cask strength expression.  Peat comes on like a wave at midpalate, but gently.  The peat's presence builds and builds - first notes of peat in the earth with sea breeze above, then it evolves on the coated tongue into a rich savory of road tar, then ash, then finally a bituminous coal combustion note (that I've come to know and love as a characteristic of the new Jim McEwan Bruichladdich - and not just the peated ones.  Even the unpeated Rocks expression has that coal note.)  There is more going on here - vanilla notes from the oak are felt, and the oak is detectable on the finish.  But sip after sip the peat marshals its forces and sweeps the field.  The peat is gentle and late to arrive but this is the king of the peat monsters and its eventual victory is as inevitable as the tides or as the rise of the Sun after a long and dreary night.  The peat grows sip after sip, slipping its tendrils into your nose and throat.  As I work my way through my dram the peat begins to own every phase of the flavor blast - yet even in the road tar ash of the decaying finish everything is well behaved.  It's not bitter or overbearing.  It's powerful and yet graceful.  The peat monster as a kind of Michael Baryshnikov.  

Scotch of this powerful cask strength suggests a drop of water.  Doing so lightens the already light nose into a more subtle and even more youthfeel feeling state - not a benefit in my book.  On the tongue, however, a drop of water moves the sweetness into a more heathery floral direction.  The heathery ethereal meadow of the forepalate now floats above the roaring wall of massive peat that dominates the midpalate expansion and then settles back into the slow burn from earth to tar to ash on the palate that progresses in a stately manner over the next 3-5 minutes.  

Do I need to say that this whisky has a long finish?  I can't imagine a longer finish.  I suspect I'll be tasting this for days.  Yet for all its power, Octomore 4.1 wears its youth on its sleeve.  It's raw, sweet and simple.   Those expecting a ton of complexity will be disappointed.  What it lacks in sophistication it makes up for in raw power, but also restraint and grace.  Bottom line, it's a nice sweet dram that's quite tasty to drink - but with a wicked kick and a monstrously peaty finish.  I have no qualms immediately giving this five stars.  I better start saving up...

How does this compare to the younger Octomores - or the 4.2 expression that came after?  Not having tried them, I cannot say.  Based on my extensive tasting of the Port Charlotte line (which has many similarities), however, I imagine that the vanilla note from the oak is stronger now and the intensity of the peat has diminished (scary).  I look forward to learning more.

*****

update 4/1: Octomore 0.1.1 and 4.2 Comus were recently reviewed (click on the links at left to see them).  More 4.1, 2.1 and 2.2 Orpheus are in the house and will be reviewed soon.  Look for more reviews and comparisons in the near future.