In 2008 our distilling team quietly laid down another “what if?” project in the far corner of our 1845 Port Charlotte warehouses. What if we put 167ppm Octomore spirit into virgin oak casks? What would the combination of smoke-rich Octomore and sweet, honeyed vanilla derived from the great French oak forests of Allier produce? This was uncharted territory, the first time that spirit distilled from Scottish malting barley and peated to these colossal levels had been matured in fresh wood.  For seven years, our head distiller Adam Hannett carefully managed the heavyweight flavour profiles in play during the development of this uber-experimental dram – and he has now released just 12,000 bottles at 61.2% vol.