diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c053225102..a9c878e77d 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ More information:
 
 ```
 # to build a local m3dbnode process
-make m3dbnode
+make m3dbnode (note that we currently require at least Go 1.10 or higher)
 
 # run it with the sample configuration
 ./bin/m3dbnode -f ./src/dbnode/config/m3dbnode-local-etcd.yml
diff --git a/src/query/models/tag.go b/src/query/models/tag.go
index fde458ac7f..1c6aa3d303 100644
--- a/src/query/models/tag.go
+++ b/src/query/models/tag.go
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import (
 	"hash/fnv"
 	"regexp"
 	"sort"
+	"strings"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -147,7 +148,25 @@ func (m Matchers) ToTags() (Tags, error) {
 
 // ID returns a string representation of the tags
 func (t Tags) ID() string {
-	b := make([]byte, 0, len(t))
+	var (
+		idLen      = t.IDLen()
+		strBuilder = strings.Builder{}
+	)
+
+	strBuilder.Grow(idLen)
+	for _, tag := range t {
+		strBuilder.WriteString(tag.Name)
+		strBuilder.WriteByte(eq)
+		strBuilder.WriteString(tag.Value)
+		strBuilder.WriteByte(sep)
+	}
+
+	return strBuilder.String()
+}
+
+// IDMarshalTo writes out the ID representation
+// of the tags into the provided buffer.
+func (t Tags) IDMarshalTo(b []byte) []byte {
 	for _, tag := range t {
 		b = append(b, tag.Name...)
 		b = append(b, eq)
@@ -155,7 +174,18 @@ func (t Tags) ID() string {
 		b = append(b, sep)
 	}
 
-	return string(b)
+	return b
+}
+
+// IDLen returns the length of the ID that would be
+// generated from the tags.
+func (t Tags) IDLen() int {
+	idLen := 2 * len(t) // account for eq and sep
+	for _, tag := range t {
+		idLen += len(tag.Name)
+		idLen += len(tag.Value)
+	}
+	return idLen
 }
 
 // IDWithExcludes returns a string representation of the tags excluding some tag keys
diff --git a/src/query/models/tag_test.go b/src/query/models/tag_test.go
index c7dd9f3cf8..ee25f371d5 100644
--- a/src/query/models/tag_test.go
+++ b/src/query/models/tag_test.go
@@ -115,7 +115,17 @@ func createTags(withName bool) Tags {
 
 func TestTagID(t *testing.T) {
 	tags := createTags(false)
-	assert.Equal(t, tags.ID(), "t1=v1,t2=v2,")
+	assert.Equal(t, "t1=v1,t2=v2,", tags.ID())
+	assert.Equal(t, tags.IDLen(), len(tags.ID()))
+}
+
+func TestTagIDMarshalTo(t *testing.T) {
+	var (
+		tags = createTags(false)
+		b    = tags.IDMarshalTo([]byte{})
+	)
+	assert.Equal(t, []byte("t1=v1,t2=v2,"), b)
+	assert.Equal(t, tags.IDLen(), len(b))
 }
 
 func TestWithoutName(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/src/query/storage/m3/storage.go b/src/query/storage/m3/storage.go
index bd7109756b..76b4afb851 100644
--- a/src/query/storage/m3/storage.go
+++ b/src/query/storage/m3/storage.go
@@ -269,13 +269,25 @@ func (s *m3storage) Write(
 		return errors.ErrNilWriteQuery
 	}
 
-	id := query.Tags.ID()
-	// TODO: Consider caching id -> identID
-	identID := ident.StringID(id)
+	var (
+		// TODO: Pool this once an ident pool is setup. We will have
+		// to stop calling NoFinalize() below if we do that.
+		buf   = make([]byte, 0, query.Tags.IDLen())
+		idBuf = query.Tags.IDMarshalTo(buf)
+		id    = ident.BytesID(idBuf)
+	)
 	// Set id to NoFinalize to avoid cloning it in write operations
-	identID.NoFinalize()
+	id.NoFinalize()
 	tagIterator := storage.TagsToIdentTagIterator(query.Tags)
 
+	if len(query.Datapoints) == 1 {
+		// Special case single datapoint because it is common and we
+		// can avoid the overhead of a waitgroup, goroutine, multierr,
+		// iterator duplication etc.
+		return s.writeSingle(
+			ctx, query, query.Datapoints[0], id, tagIterator)
+	}
+
 	var (
 		wg       sync.WaitGroup
 		multiErr syncMultiErrs
@@ -287,7 +299,7 @@ func (s *m3storage) Write(
 		datapoint := datapoint
 		wg.Add(1)
 		s.writeWorkerPool.Go(func() {
-			if err := s.writeSingle(ctx, query, datapoint, identID, tagIter); err != nil {
+			if err := s.writeSingle(ctx, query, datapoint, id, tagIter); err != nil {
 				multiErr.add(err)
 			}