Ochdamh-mòr 07.4 7 Year Old Virgin Oak

The latest radical expression, Octomore 07.4, was distilled from barley peated to 167ppm and matured in virgin oak. A first for Octomore. In 2008 the distilling team quietly laid down another “what if?” project in the far corner of their 1845 Port Charlotte warehouses. What if to put 167ppm Octomore spirit into virgin oak casks? This was uncharted territory, the first time that spirit distilled from Scottish malting barley and peated to these colossal levels had been matured in fresh wood.

An early 2016 release of Bruichladdich's extremely peaty Octomore series. Octomore 07.4 has endured quite an interesting maturation - 25% of it was aged entirely in virgin oak casks, while 75% of it spent 3 years in first fill bourbon casks, followed by 2 years in virgin oak casks and then 2 more years in first fill bourbon casks. 

Like its Islay neighbour Bunnahabhain, Bruichladdich has traditionally been an un-peated single malt, mostly owing to its requirements by the blenders who owned it. The last of these was Whyte and Mackay, who eventually shut it down in 1995, deeming it surplus to requirements. They sold the distillery to Murray McDavid in 2001, who launched the peated Port Charlotte and heavily-peated Octomore single malts in 2006 and 2008. A recommissioned Lomond still also now produces the popular Botanist gin there.