Tastes

Fantastic. Its everything I love about the standard 16 year Lagavulin - the mellow BBQ campfire smoke without the phenolic notes which dominate Laphroaig or Ardbeg - paired exceptionally well with Sherry. Roughly $20 more than the standard 16 year old, and well worth it.

As a relative newcomer to Scotch, I came to Uiegeadail with some trepidation. Ardbeg had been sold to me as a dram out there on the peat monster fringe, a hardcore dram for people who would just as soon add a lump of coal to a tumbler as they would ice. And the first few glasses lived up to that. Coal. Pure coal. A phenolic blast so intense that if there were any other flavors to be found, they were buried forever under unrelenting asphalt. Not my thing. I was ready to write it off, but now with half the bottle gone, and perhaps the increased volume of air mellowing the spirit a bit, my opinion has changed. I'm seeing those fruit notes starting to emerge and the coal smoke starting to settle. I was ready to give this 2 stars and move on, but it's really getting to be quite nice. I'm just not sure I want to drink half the bottle for my appreciation of the dram to improve, you know?

Another bottle purchased almost solely on the basis of the buzz surrounding it's release. It hits all the right notes for me - the brine & cereal notes I associate with Springbank, with some citrus and the ubiquitous "dried fruit". Pepper dominates the finish, but not unpleasantly so. It didn't quite live up to the hype for me, but perhaps that will change as I get further into the bottle. If you dig Springbank's usual bottles, Kilkerran 12 will feel familiar.

Butterscotch, vanilla and "baking spices" are the star of the show here. A whisky for bourbon fans, it's a delicious after dinner dram. Definitely on the sweeter side, but not cloyingly so. It has a fantastic "chew" and long finish typical of Compass Box's higher end offerings. The cost gives me pause though. Is this worth double the price of Spice Tree? Or some of the nice bourbons it resembles? Hard to say.