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| Hi, this is one of our (almost) daily tastings. Santé! |
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November 16, 2018 |
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Nothing to add. One needs Ardbeg from time to time, you know. |
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Ardbeg (50.9%, That Boutique-y Whisky Company, batch #2, 422 bottles, +/-2012) 
Time to try this older one that wasn’t bearing any age statements (they did put things straight later on). Colour: straw. Nose: of course. Smoked ginger, camphor, bandages, damp hessian, those famous tarry ropes, smoked almonds, whelks and clams, and burning kelp. To old whisky enthusiasts, this noses like… home. With water: gentler. Marzipan and barley water, then charcoal, beech-smoked salmon and Cadum. New Wellies, but small size. Mouth (neat): of course. Lapsang souchong, lime juice, ginger tonic, kippers, cough syrup, grapefruit peels, smoked salmon. With water: natural rubber (chewing rubber bands at school), kippers, almond paste, Seccotine. Did you know of Seccotine? Finish: long, smoky, salty, almondy, rather less lemony than other Ardbegs. Comments: of course, Ardbeg.
SGP:367 - 90 points. |
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Ardbeg 18 yo 2000/2018 (55.9%, The Whisky Show London, 225 bottles) 
New regime Ardbeg at a proper age, this should be interesting (now was the purifier on or off?) Also love the extremely understated – and minimalist - packaging. Colour: gold. Nose: cigarette smoke (dear Stuart Thompson’s?) plus smoked salmon and damp hessian. This is millimetric, totally vertical, and utterly brilliant. No further literature needed, I would say. With water: damp old fabric, hessian, and halva/turon. Mouth (neat): ah and ha. Now go try to describe this… First, it’s not Ardbeg as we all know it, it’s sweeter and fruitier, even kind of lighter (so the purifier was on, I would guess). In fact, it’s almost Kildalton-style Ardbeg, with these notes of melons and plums, but there’s some big smoke as well. Rather troubling, this one, but very good it is, no doubt. With water: don’t add too much H2O, it actually doesn’t need any. I know, 55.9%. Finish: long, rather more medicinal. Iodine and green chartreuse. The aftertaste is a little bitterer, as if you had just quaffed a pint of Underberg. Comments: it wasn’t that immaculate, after all, but it remains one of the greatest distillates in Scotland. Now, HP, Clynelish, Springbank, Lagavulin, Ben Nevis, Mortlach, Benromach… Well, the fighting’s getting thicker!
SGP:377 - 89 points. |
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