Octomore, The Founders' Story
- 9 mins
Hear directly from our “wild guys” at the helm in 2001 – Mark Reynier, Simon Coughlin and Jim McEwan – about the origins of Octomore.
In the early 2000s, Bruichladdich Distillery was a crucible of innovation in single malt Scotch Whisky. * We were one of the few independent distilleries in the industry, and we were energised by that. We asked a lot of questions.
After a difficult decade of depopulation and economic doldrums on Islay, we had a groundswell of support from the community. And we had the complete conviction that our broader ideas around terroir, transparency, and experimental flavour (particularly through alternative barleys and innovative cask-ACEing), were the right path. We were moving at speed towards a more interesting and authentic form of whisky making.
This progressive project held several strong personalities in its gravity. Key to this tale are Mark Reynier, visionary and maverick, and Simon Coughlin, his long-term business partner in the wine world and in Murray McDavid, their independent whisky bottling company. Then there was Jim McEwan, Master Distiller, legendary storyteller, Islay born and raised, with 40 years' experience of making whisky.
Jim McEwan, former Production Director and Master Distiller at Bruichladdich Distillery, surrounded by wine casks.
They managed to find a Maltsters, in Bairds of Inverness, who were willing to make malt in small batches, allowing much more diversity of supply than was conventional. We knew that the source of the barley and how it was grown made a difference to the final flavour of the whisky* ; Bairds enabled us to reinvent the supply chain from the farmer up so that we could prove it. Bairds were happy to see barley shift, from being an anonymous commodity, into being part of the burgeoning conversation around single malt whisky. A collaboration began which is still going strong today.*
It was in 2002 that we first commissioned them to make the most heavily peated barley that they possibly could. Barley naturally varies from batch to batch, as does peat, and malting is never a fully predictable process. It can even be affected by the direction of the wind on the day the kilns are fired.
No-one knew quite where the ceiling of maximum smokiness was. Although it got as high as 309.1 PPM in Octomore’s 8th "Masterclass” series, we’re still seeing where it can take us. The point is to try, to experiment, to have the confidence to go beyond precedent and tradition.
Peat burning at Bairds Maltings.
The three founders’ stories all agree that they were encouraged to rip up the rule book after they’d created Port Charlotte. In Simon Coughlin’s words, “I think Octomore came about because of the success of Port Charlotte's spirit… We were just completely blown away how beautiful it was…
“That first distillation produced a very elegant, fruity style of smoky whisky without that big, heavy iodine hit - partly because of the slow way that we distill and partly because of the shape of the stills - the very tall, narrow-necked stills. We get a much fruitier note off it.”
Simon Coughlin, co-founder of Bruichladdich Distillery.
Mark Reynier suggests the spirit’s style of smoke could be due to a combination of still shape and peat type. “The unusually tall stills of Bruichladdich’s original 1881 design were an evolution from the short, dumpy stills, shoe-horned into 17th century Hebridean byres,” he says. The extra height creates “greater reflux, literally more refinement, thus elegance over weight.” Meanwhile, the peat itself varies, he explains, “from Fibric to Sapric, depending on decomposition and organic material. There’s a brown, minimally decomposed, friable texture full of fibrous heather roots called Fibric; and a smooth, black, mousse-like, almost 'un-set' coal, called Sapric. Because of Bairds’ location in the Eastern Highlands, the peat was the Fibric variety… Thus smoke sweetness, without the iodine, medicinal, petroleum spectrum. The PPM could go up without making it undrinkable.”
Mark points out that the distillery had actually been built in 1881 to run on coal rather than peat. Coal could be brought in by steam puffers to the very shore in front of the buildings, part of “the Harvey Brothers’ inspirational design of Bruichladdich.” Coal was “calorifically two times more efficient than peat - for both producing steam to drive stills, and warming air to dry barley. The kiln itself stood in the centre of the courtyard, seaward of the mill house.”
Mark Reynier, co-founder of Bruichladdich Distillery.
So there was an element of defiance about the new team creating smoky whisky at all, as Simon explains. “Bruichladdich was never known for peated whisky. The other distilleries always looked down on it a bit - “It’s not a real Islay.” So you know what? Let's see if we can even make the most heavily peated as well, to really prove that we know what we're doing.”
Jim recalls, “It was so good when we brought out [Port Charlotte] because all the people who said Bruichladdich is not a true Islay malt because it's not peated... “Right. Try this!” And then I really thought, “F*** it. I'm going to go to the end of the earth with smoke…”
Mark was always the type to embrace the next challenge. “With PC right out the door, I thought, “we could do better than that!”. There was an element of competition within the Islay malts. As a bit of a joke, it started a PPM arms race - and I have to confess we couldn’t help ourselves … Octomore was always intended more as a curiosity: you want peat? We’ll give you peat…”
He remembers “the little catalyst” for Octomore came during a celebratory after-work dram with Simon and others in the Port Charlotte Hotel bar. There were spent cigars on the bar and the thought struck him, “Just how far could you go? Logically, if the peatiness of PC was achieved with a day of peat smoke, what happens if you smoke it for it for a week? Is it even possible?”. Simon refers to the occasion as, “One of our ‘What if’ sessions…”
Jim has another memory of how he got the idea for longer, cooler kilning. It involves his relationship with a local man who had a smokery exporting Scottish fish all over the world - take it away Jim! “I said, "How did you get that amazing flavour into the kippers?" He said, "Jim, there's no heat at all. You only bring the heat on at the very end. You just simply put it above the smoke with very, very little heat. And that smoke, the oak, permeates right into the heart of the fish. Then just dry it on the outside… We don't want to cook the kippers, do you understand?" So I thought, "Jesus, that is so simple. You're curing it. You're not cooking it… And Octomore was born.”
Wherever the inspiration came from, once it was distilled, just as with Port Charlotte, the surprising achievement of Octomore was not its elemental earthy, fiery, peatiness, but its elegance. The rich texture from those tall stills described by Simon make it supple and absorbing. Under Jim’s, and then Adam Hannett’s, attentive and innovative cask management, the smoke becomes just one slow-burning star in an expanding universe of other impressions.
Our founders’ “What if…” curiosity and can-do attitude was propelled by a hunger for more flavour - “to go where no malt had gone before,” as Jim would say. Octomore has proved to be an exquisite and compelling manifestation of this. As Rob Draper of Single Malt TV’s 2006 interview with Mark reveals [link: ] “We did it because we can. And why not? What we want to do is lay down as many different variables as possible. I don't see the point in sticking to one thing when we've got the power and the ability and the desire to lay down as many variables as possible. Variety to me is the spice of life… It’s like a boy in a sweet shop…”
Hear from our founders for yourself in this short montage of archive recordings...
