The Douglas Taylor & Co business has been working in the scotch whisky industry for the best part of a century. The business has evolved from a store in Glasgow to a global entity with a whole site in Huntly, Aberdeenshire (Speyside) built for purpose with its own warehouses, bottling facility, cooperage, and soon… its own distillery.
Amongst the various brands that Douglas Taylor release (Black Bull being a firm favourite blended scotch), the Octave is probably their most recognised offering as an independent bottler with a twist. All releases have featured an additional maturation in small casks in an attempting accelerate and/or intensify/develop the profile of the original whiskies.
Here we have one such example, distilled in 2008 from the Glentauchers distillery. The distillery itself is near Keith and with only a seldom-seen standard single malt offering, [ed: try saying that 10 times fast], most its spirit going off to Chivas blends, making their single malts the darling of independent bottlers.
This whisky has spent 15 years in a hogshead before its requisite final 3 months in Duncan Taylor’s signature octave barrels. Only 79 bottles were produced from the run, captured at its cask strength of 54.2% ABV – retailing around £125 per 70cl bottle.
Nose
A wonderful sweet start to proceedings. Tropical fruits and lemon drizzle cake spring immediately to mind. Sweet, light, and citrusy pudding notes lift out of the glass. A little cinnamon heat.
Taste
Honey, lemon, pineapple, egg custards, buttery crumpets, tangy marmalade – just loads of sweet treat flavours serving after one another. A served with an early grey tea! A soft body and gentle spices round things out.
Finish
The high alcohol level and oak spices leave a perfume-y citrus and pear drop flavour behind. It evaporates away quite quickly.
Verdict
A very enjoyable and dangerous whisky. The 54% is not that noticeable as the flavours all zip off the tongue. It has perfumey light nose, and the lemon/citrus notes mask the booze content. Discovering cask strength whiskies that don’t feel like they’re being led by their cask strength is what makes a good indie bottling in my book.
This is my first experience of a Glentauchers single malt and I’m hoping that the light and fresh influences of tropical and citrus fruits is their signature profile! It has left me with a need to discover more.
I tasted this as part of a Tweet Tasting event and a lot of the notes from other people mentioned a tea flavour. I just couldn’t detect it. Then someone mentioned earl grey tea, and given the numerous citrus notes I’d written down I just latched onto it straight away. It’s funny how that happens during tastings. I once attended a tasting where someone said “baby sick” and no-one could that taste or image out of their head. Anyway, none of that here. Just lots of desserts and flavours that would suit any time of the year really, but summer in particular. A good tasting and another pair of rabbit holes to explore: The Octave & Glentauchers.
M
Sample disclosure: This sample was gratefully received as part of a promotional Tweet Tasting event run by The Whisky Wire for Duncan Taylor via The Spirits Embassy using #DuncanTaylorWhisky on Twitter/X. All notes here are not intended as promotion but as an honest, fair, and independent review of the whisky itself. Please drink responsibly. Please drink wisely.
whisky unplugged 
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