Islay is not a place for moderation. The salt air, the wet stone, the bonfires on the beach that never seem to go out—this is the land that gave us Octomore, the whisky brand that Bruichladdich Distillery openly describes as “The Impossible Equation.” Now, on September 2nd, 2025, the distillery has unveiled Octomore Series 16, a trio of single malts designed to provoke, challenge, and somehow seduce drinkers into rethinking everything they thought they knew about peat, age, and strength.
A Whisky That Shouldn’t Work—But Does
Octomore has always been a contradiction. By the numbers, the whiskies look unbalanced: sky-high peat levels measured in PPMs (phenol parts per million), very young ages (five years, typically), and near cask-strength ABVs. “On paper, it shouldn’t really work—it’s too young, too strong, too peaty,” says Bruichladdich Master Blender Adam Hannett. “But every year the spirit surprises with its depth, its campfire smoke, its incredible flavor profile.”
The distillery leans into this tension, casting Octomore as whisky’s enfant terrible. Each release is meant to be studied like a riddle: malt against cask, smoke against sweetness, the elemental power of barley against the subtlety of maturation.
Octomore 16.1 – The Reference Point
Every series begins with a baseline, and for this year it’s Octomore 16.1. Distilled from 100% Scottish Mainland Concerto Barley malted to 101.4 PPM, it spent five years in first-fill bourbon barrels before bottling at 59.3% ABV. The result is an almost paradoxical Scotch: massive peat smoke that gives way to salted caramel, honeyed melon, apricot, and eventually chocolate and coconut. It finishes with the mineral tang of Islay earth. Price: $204.99.
Octomore 16.2 – Cask Alchemy
Where 16.1 is a statement of intent, Octomore 16.2 takes the same spirit and pushes it into new territory. Matured in a patchwork of Oloroso and Bordeaux casks before being finished in Madeira and Portuguese Moscatel, this whisky bottles at 58.1% ABV. The flavors are rich and baroque: caramelized sugar, roasted nuts, dried fruits, all enveloped in that signature Octomore smoke. It marks the first time Bruichladdich has used this particular cask combination, proof of Hannett’s willingness to experiment. Price: $244.99.
Octomore 16.3 – The Islay Expression
If 16.1 is the reference and 16.2 the experiment, Octomore 16.3 is the soul. Produced entirely from barley grown on Octomore Farm’s Church Field, it embodies Bruichladdich’s obsession with provenance. Malted to 189.5 PPM and bottled at 61.6% ABV, the whisky was matured for five years in Bourbon, Sauternes, and Pedro Ximénez casks. The flavors are elemental: honeyed malt, toasted grain, earth, smoke, and a whisper of sea salt. “For me, whisky should evoke a sense of place,” Hannett says. “16.3 speaks of its island origins.” Price: $279.99.
The Impossible Equation Endures
All three expressions are non-chill filtered, with no added color, and brought to strength with Octomore Spring water from Islay. Together they form a triptych: the reference, the experiment, the terroir-driven expression.
Octomore Series 16 is now available online at Bruichladdich’s website and through specialist whisky retailers, with prices starting at $204.99.
In a whisky world still fixated on age statements and easy drinking, Octomore remains a paradox—young but complex, brutally peated yet balanced, a whisky that by all rights shouldn’t exist. And yet, year after year, it does.
Learn more on last year’s releases, the Bruichladdich Octomore 15 series.
