Jim McEwan Signature Collection 1.3 Octomore 2007, First Fill Sauternes barrique, 13 years

Jim McEwan Signature Collection 1.3 Octomore 2007, First Fill Sauternes barrique, 13 years 57.5%

First Fill Sauternes barrique, 13 years, 57.5%. Distilled on 19th December 2007 this whisky spent its whole 13-year life maturing in cask #3807, maturation taking place in a 1st fill Premier Cru Supérieur (Superior First Growth) Sauternes cask.

The château which this cask originated was the only to be given this ultimate status in the 1855 Official Classification and still commands the highest regard and prices for any wine of this type. Few Octomores have been matured in such casks, and official bottlings have only been partially aged in Sauternes casks. Two independent bottlings have come before, both bottled at six years old. So it seems safe to say that rarity and age are both on this spirit’s side!

Bottled in February 2021 as Release 1.3 of the Jim McEwan Signature Collection, like all bottlings within the collection, it was bottled un-chill filtered, with no added colour and at natural cask strength of 57.5%, it yielded only 290 bottles.

Jim’s tasting notes;

The spirit is muscular, smoky and intriguingly sensuous. This is the most heavily plated malt in the world yet the sweet notes of the wine calm this giant and give a flavour & texture that blows your senses into a place never before experienced.

Your expectations of a brutal smoke-induced monster are shattered. This is the sexiest spirit ever created. The intense smokiness has been seduced by the sophistication of the wine. It should not be possible to calm the beast, but it has been tamed and the result is absolutely amazing! It opens on a heat haze of peat fires and sweet oak, bog myrtle, heather flowers, wild thyme, and then the beauty that is the wine, emerges with style and grace totally blowing your senses apart.

The sweetness of the greatest sweet white wine in the world totally seduces the giant and the result is amazing. The smoke and marine notes pay homage to the cask and it’s a case of spiritual seduction and the beast is transformed into a gentle giant. Now the aromatics and flavours emerge with hints of wildflowers and plants from the peat field; heather, primrose, buttercup, wild lilies which in turn, merge in harmony with the intensity of the wine’s sweetness. It’s only when you taste the spirit that your senses go into a hedonistic aromatic trance; plums and soft green grapes mingle with a slipstream of cooling marine sea breezes. French oak, peat smoke, sweet barley are all created by the super-slow distillation and maturation on the West coast of Islay, where the air is pure and the casks breathe in the salt-laden air.

Without doubt, this is one of my cherished children and in 55 years of distilling, this beautiful spirit is what has made my spiritual journey complete.