Ardbeg 12 year 2005 (North Star Spirits)

Also from the tasting today, this was another exceptional dram. One of my favourites from today

Lekker rokerig!

North Star Spirits tasting night, Sydney, 18 July 2019. Whisky #6 Nose Neat: Smoked fruit (pineapple and grapefruit) and a hint of vanilla. Strong peat-reek and woodsmoke combination with a blustery maritime note of seaweed and shells (iodine and sandy brine). Espresso and burnt match aromas. Nose Watered: The peat smoke greatly develops with the phenolic qualities being highlighted. A plastic/rubber note creeps in, but it's not intrusive. Palate Neat: The arrival is smoky and ashen with billows of peat smoke. It has a dry but rounded character that is almost but not quite sweet - something like amontillado. It's meaty and phenolic, like barbecued pork on a beach campfire, but not hot spicy at all. The alcohol content is only detectable as a drying note and the whole palate is curiously refreshing. Palate Watered: Dilution adds a good deal of sweetness and brings out mustard-seed spice, more maritime notes and a little oiliness. Finish: Long. Ashy smoke with a drying salt-iodine note. Adding water sweetens the finish and lends the aftertaste a warming quality. The prior tastings of the evening were all from North Star Spirits series 007, however this was a "guest appearance" from series 004. Tasted as a first dram of the day I'd imagine this would be quite intense and challenging, however with the palate prepared I found it to be an easily approachable and very satisfying dram. Unusually for an Ardbeg there is little salt or lemon on the nose or palate. It's very distillate driven and comes across as a revealing expression. The cask used was good but must have been refill as there is little wood contribution, but what is detectable is very fine. Independent bottlings of Ardbeg are not rare, but the distillery must charge a fearsome price for their casks and to allow their name to appear on the label, as this is very expensive for a 12 year old CS. I enjoyed tasting this whisky but the elephant in the room is the perennially excellent Ardbeg 10 official bottling, which at less than 20% of the price gets you a dram that is almost as goo. This is really only one for the hard-core Ardbeg collectors. "Excellent" : 88/100 (4.5 stars)