Tastes

The immediate nose is banana! And caramel? Bananas foster! Wild! Obviously above 40% from the nose, but nothing crazy. The flavour of bananas carries through the palate with some chocolate and coffee flavours. The finish is a bit hot and long lasting, lovely lingering sweetness. I didn’t know an American single malt could be this great!

Thin and wispy, but strong banana and peat notes. Not the most successful special edition but it’s ardbeg, still better than a lot of swill out there

This is fantastic stuff. Throughly Ardbeg with some extra punch. The signature smoke is there with a whole lot more. The bitter tea flavours really jumped out at me. The tea flavours and the peat combined into a kind of pine-y spruce-like flavour. I am a big fan. Would love to spend some more time with this. PS: go to Grey Tiger

Is this the best whisky in the world? Nope. Is it even the best bourbon? Probably not. But it IS most certainly what it IS. Like Guinness is to stouts. This is kind of the bog standard of the style, and that is not a bad thing! Ever dependable and readily available, often at very good prices. It is alright neat, great on ice, and excellent in cocktails. If I need a bourbon for the bar cart this is what I am reaching for 9 times out of 10. Sure there is better juice out there. Stronger, more flavourful, more complex, but this does its job and does it well!

After letting this breath a bit I like it more and more. The wine finish lightened for me; it takes a back seat to the subtle clean smoke and peat. The classic peat vibes backed up by the richness of the wine finish with some signature Bruichladdich funk is heavenly.

At first the wine finish put me off. But this stuff rules. Firmly in favour of the new bottle design!

Pretty boring, bog standard rye. Better than the usual swill Canadian Club produces. Sips OK but really shines in cocktails. Spice is nice but leaves you wanting more complexity. Value per $ is top notch. But it is hard to grab this when you can have Lot 40 or Northern Harvest for just a twoonie or two more.

I kind of hate the Olorosso finish on this.

Kind of.... boring? Reminds me of Highland Park 10 but sweeter and more oily. I can see this as being a nice intro scotch, but nothing I would go out of my way for.