Ardbeg 10 Year

Strong smoke up front. Sweet, candied orange and twizzlers in flavor. This is so good and complex!

Rating: 16/23 It's hard to believe that it's been years since I've tried a classic like this one, but I guess I'll be remedying that situation now. N: A very dry smokiness. Some nice vegetal grass, a dash of lemon, and herbal peat of course. A hint of just pepper. P: Smoke, pepper, peat, a little candied lemon peel. It's kind of light with still the pungent, tarry, peaty smoke. There's a bit of prinkliness, likely from the slightly high ABV of 46%. Some minerality that veers into the sea spray territory, but also has some sweetness to it. The alcohol and sweetness do reveal a youthfulness, but it doesn't come with any rough distillate. There's a bit of nice vanilla here too. And very faint hints of tropical fruits. Some dry woodiness toward the end helps to express its age. Occasional notes of chocolate. F: Numbing peat with a little lingering clean water sweetness, smoke, and a dash of black pepper. The dry woodiness really makes the finish nice. - Conclusion - This is a very fine dram and a huge step up from Ardbeg Wee Beastie. This is certainly not Ardbeg's top of the line, but it's an exemplary entry level offering. This is less full of flavor than Ardbeg An Oa is, but its flavor is more mature and coherent. I like this one better, though the margin between them is not that large. A key difference is that the youthfulness I get from the An Oa has more of that rough distillate character to it. This is at least a 16. I'm not sure that it beats a 17 though. Side by side, I might take Laphroaig 10 (17) over this. I think that this is about on the same level as Amrut Peated (16), though I'd probably give the win to this. It's a 16 to 17 and I'm leaning toward 16. I can really see this being a 17 though.

I have been tasting more scotch whiskies lately and got a chance to try a glass of this. Taste definitely had some wood and smoke flavors. Fruity and medicinal with black licorice. A really complex whiskey. Smooth as well, but ultimately not for me as a novice scotch drinker.

Horrible

Smoky, Campfire, Clean, Peppery, Fruity