Ailsa Bay Single Malt Whisky

Yeah I'm with Telex on this one dry bitterness makes it an unbalanced dram. It's like they made the cut to late when they were heading into the tails phase. When I saw the 3.2 rating I thought uh oh and yeah I am not a fan. I had to wash my mouth out with Talisker 57 North to get the taste out. Its like a younger thinner batch of Ledaig which went slightly wrong. I couldn't even finish it in the end. 2 - 2.5.

Hmm, inaugural releases can be fun. Let’s see here. The nose brought a slight welcoming peat smoke right from the get-go. Leather, tea, vanilla, and subtle pine and lemon notes. The palate adds a nice hit of smoke, along with mint, cream, but fades away quickly. I’ll blame the dry, bitter finish on age, I think. The ABV is nice, but the water didn’t seem to bring any added characteristics. Not great, but not bad either. It’ll be nice to see a 12-15 year at some point. The theme to this dram should be “The Rookie” by The Chainsmokers. 2.75. Thanks so much for he sample @PBMichiganWolverine!

Stop number 85 on the SDT is Ailsa Bay. This single malt newcomer to the Lowland region is actually owned by Girvan and the entire distillery is located within the Girvan facility. Ailsa Bay was created mostly to be used in blends so that Balvenie could be freed up for more single malt releases. This NAS is their inaugural release and is peated to a level of 21ppm. Bottled at 48.9% ABV and is most likely non chill filtered and natural color of golden straw. Matured in a combination of refill American oak, first fill bourbon and smaller barrels (possibly quarter casks) to speed maturation. The nose is sweet lemony peat smoke, typical of many young bourbon matured scotches. Smoky lemon bars dusted with powdered sugar. Lots of melted butter drizzled over dried apricots and tangerines. Chimney ashes, a mix of fresh cut oak and pine, vanilla custard, buttercream and faint caramel apples. The palate hits hard initially with strong smoky pepper and sharp oak. More smoky than peaty. Light lemons and vanilla, white grapes, plums and faint almonds. Ashes and campfire remnants. Not much else sadly. A fairly simple palate. A medium bodied mouthfeel that is fairly dry. The finish is long and short. Everything but the smoke is pretty much gone a few seconds after you swallow it, but the smoke lingers on a while. This needs a few more years in the cask, but it shows promise. Not very complex and the palate and finish leave much to be desired. It’s also on the pricy side for what you get. At $65 (plus international shipping as this isn’t available in the US), it’s not a great buy when you can get a good Kilchoman or BenRiach for the same price and get better quality. 3.25 and a thanks to @PBMichiganWolverine for the sample. Cheers

The review transferred over from the Barreled App: It's now time for another special dram that isn't available in the U.S: Ailsa Bay Peated Lowland single malt. This is a newer distillery located in the Lowland region of Scotland and was built in 2007 by William Grant & Sons. It was built to help supply single malt scotch to WG&S for their blended scotch offerings. The stills are copies of the ones that Balvenie uses and it is believed they built this facility to lessen their need for Balvenie malts for their blends. However, for 2 weeks a year they distill a peated single malt and have decided to bottle this under their own brand name. This is the first bottling and I believe this was distilled in 2011/2012, thus making this only 3-4 years of age. Near the bare minimum time required to call it a scotch whisky. It comes in at a nice 97.8 proof and I believe a bottle runs about $55 over in the U.K. and Western Europe. Like most peated and Lowland malts it is very light in color. It produces very thin legs in the tasting glass and upon nosing it there is a nice burst of grassy, earthy peat. The medicinal "band aid" and briny sea salts are unexpectedly missing, but it doesn't take away from the taste at all. In fact, it's quite eye-opening. There's also a nice, floral aspect keeping the overall impression very light and airy. Surprisingly, for a whisky this young I don't get much oak barrel. Interesting. The first sip is actually quite decadent. There's a strong hit from the peat and a pleasant pop of toasted almonds to go along with the fresh oak. It's a lively dram (as it should be) and all those flavors really flow into the long, warm finish. It's not overpowering despite being almost 100 proof, but it isn't butter smooth either. Very solid execution. With this being a Lowland whisky it really shocks me that such a great flavor profile is coming from a distillery this new. Hats off to the head distiller here. Well done. I have to hope that production ramps up enough to where some of this gets shipped over seas and remains relatively cheap. I would certainly buy a bottle of this for those times I want a peated whisky without the heavy feel of a Laphroiag or an Ardbeg malt. A big thanks to @PBMichiganWolverine for sending me a pour of this back in 2016. He is also providing another pour of this for the guys in the SDT in the final round, I believe. Cheers.