Laddie Legends: Black Art and OBA

When the first Black Art was created in 2009, our reputation for transparency was so well established that we could invert it. We were the distillery who disclosed as much of the full provenance of our spirits as possible, even before we published our own recipes in 2016. So to release Black Art, a cuvée drawn from a secret combination of old stocks, was an anomaly for us.

Leaning into the mysterious nature of the bottling, Black Art’s packaging borrowed from obscure codes of alchemy and counterculture. Guessing at the cask composition became part of the game for an increasingly whisky-literate online audience. There were hints towards a sherry profile in the name “Black Art”, following some well-renowned Islay releases in the mid-1990s, and our own riff on Oloroso maturation in Blacker Still in 2006. But Master Distiller Jim McEwan’s aim was complete creative freedom, a sort of exhibition malt that demonstrated his blending skills and the ACE-ing (Additional Cask Enhancement) programme he had pioneered.

This first decade of the millennium was easily the most transformative era for whisky maturation in the history of Scotch. Jim was an ex-cooper who described himself as “a kid in a sweetie shop” with all the Premier Cru wine casks he had at his disposal at the new Bruichladdich. By pushing the boundaries of cask maturation (alongside other issues like transparency and the importance of barley) we cracked open the field for other blenders, brands, and especially independent bottlers, to tackle the question of finishing in their own ways.

The regulatory body, the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), initially responded to this period of innovation with a crackdown on the rules in 2009, through a Technical File. Distillers were only legally allowed to mature whisky in oak casks that had “sufficient evidence of traditional use” within the industry; otherwise, their products couldn’t be sold as Scotch whisky. It was another 10 years until the SWA relented and rewrote the law in response to pressure from modern distillers. The historic 2019 amendment was the first time the concept of “finishing” was explicitly addressed. Distillers were permitted to use a wider variety of casks, including those which have held agave spirits and calvados, for the first time.

Jim retired in 2015 after editions 1 - 4 and the series passed into the hands of Bruichladdich’s second generation Head Distiller (and now Master Blender), Adam Hannett, for Black Art 5. He has continued to experiment with Black Art, using the creative license Jim secured to express his own ideas about Bruichladdich’s rich DNA. For Adam, Black Art offers a very special opportunity: the chance to create something both unforgettable and unrepeatable, using Bruichladdich’s extensive library of cask types.

Adam applied the Black Art cuvée treatment to Octomore and treated fans to a sample at the Fèis Masterclass in 2016. “The age doesn’t matter, the PPM doesn’t matter… this whisky twists and it turns, it opens up and opens up…” says Adam in the live tasting . The complexity of the intertwining older Octomores, certainly blew away the peat fans in the festival audience, who quickly began clamoring for its release. Following the festival, German whisky retailer, Whiskyhort Oberhausen, printed t-shirts stating “Octomore Black Art Fèis 2016… we want more!”.

It wasn’t long before their request was granted. In 2017, a beautifully proportioned 500ml frosted glass bottle was packaged in a suitably experimental bright orange tin. With Octomore’s cult following, there was such an immediate rush for the 3000 limited edition bottles that fans temporarily took out the distillery website.

The community love this bottle still. Nearly a decade on from the release of such a limited amount of liquid, Octomore OBA Concept OBA/C_0.1 continues to receive rave reviews on Whiskybase from fans who have been lucky enough to try a sample of a whisky which has become legendary amongst fans:

‘The tasting knocked me off my stool!”

‘The complexity is enormous, so much variation.’

‘A dream dram.’

‘One of the legends, and it delivers.’

That first OBA was not the last - some of you will have had the chance to get your hands on 2026’s festival bottle, OBA Redux. It’s back in the familiar 700ml Octomore format, with artwork inspired by a light-speed journey through the racking in our newest warehouses at Coultorsay, opened in 2016, the same year Adam conceived OBA, and also the year we began publishing our recipes online. As per its predecessor, OBA Redux was tasted by fans at Adam’s Festival Masterclass, which is available to watch here. But if you are expecting Adam to give away even the slightest hint of detail on what the whisky contains, you’ll be disappointed.

OBA remains a paradox within our range, as a distillery that continues to push for transparency and to provide a level of detail that will satisfy the most dedicated whisky fans. But despite this, we have to admit that occasionally, things are better left a mystery.