This Bruichladdich 3D3 is the third bottling in a series of peat experiments in which heavily peated Port Charlotte was blended with Bruichladdich whisky of lower peating levels. 3D3 stands for 3 vintages, 3 warehouses and 3 peating levels. It was composed by Jim McEwan as a tribute to Norrie Campbell, the last traditional peat cutter on Islay.

3D3 contains regular Bruichladdich (unpeated), Port Charlotte (40ppm) but also the first Octomore ever (80ppm), distilled in 2002 and only 3 years old at that time. The spirit was matured in a combination of bourbon, sherry and madeira casks.

Bruichladdich 3D3 ‘Norrie Campbell’ (46%, OB 2006)

Nose: like hanging over a chimney: big, powerful peat as you could expect. Burnt vanilla. Freshened up with some lovely notes of green apple juice and citrus. A bit grainy with hints of dry straw. Really dense and dark peat. Mouth: ashes, coal, peat smoke and sweet toffee. Big. Sweeter than on the nose, and although quite smokey, rather gentle at the same time. Interestingly, there are hardly any medicinal notes so it’s “clean” peat in a different way than Laphroaig or Ardbeg. Getting quite peppery. Finish: pepper again, toffee and of course lots of peat smoke.

It’s multi-layered, but also quite rough. The peat doesn’t allow much other flavours to shine through. There’s some mighty young Octomore together with fruity notes of the other Bruichladdich spirit and sweet sherry and madeira notes. For peat lovers and chain smokers only. Around € 45.

Score: 85/100