Origin: Isle of Islay (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 46.2%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry
Chillfiltered: No
Additional coloring: No
Owner: Moet Hennessy
Average price: € 240.00
Official website: www.ardbeg.com
An annual appointment with Ardbeg’s almost 20-year-old, offered each time with the same ageing and strength details, which has maintained a fairly high quality (at least to my taste) since its debut in 2019.
The price has also remained more or less the same, so in perspective, you could say that it has become more and more affordable every year!
Here are our inescapable thoughts on the previous batches: one, two, three, four and five.
Tasting Notes
On the nose it pushes on iodine and minerality, ocean and sea rocks in the glass with tropical fruit (grapefruit, lime, pineapple), apple, nuts (almonds, pistachios) and a noticeable pastry component with cream tartlets and sweet liquorice. A touch of nutmeg and black pepper. The sulphurous, barely tarry peat is well integrated, leaving room for the fresher notes, which become more ashy and mineral with time. Pungent.
The palate has an almost spring-like lightness, not in the body, which has a good consistency, but in a sparkling composition of flavours framed by sweet paprika and black pepper. The fruit is still tropical and citrusy, finding close accomplices in green apple and tamarind, always with a good dose of nuts (almonds in crescendo, even marzipan), sweet liquorice, aniseed, cloves and candied ginger. All immersed in a sea of iodine and mineral notes, very pronounced, with oysters, smoked mussels, grilled herring and lots of charcoal, with just a little piece of tyre to sizzle.
The finish is long and citrusy, with coastal minerality, chewy smoke, salt, almonds, apples.
Identical on paper to last year’s and yet completely different, better or worse is a matter of taste, but the level remains very high, this time with a very pleasant and damn drinkable freshness.
Vote: 88/100