Ardbeg Ardbog

$30 for 1 ounce at Jack Rose Sherried whiskies were better in previous years. This is not me being a snob turning my nose up at modern whiskies. This is the truth. Nobody drinks sherry anymore and the casks have run out. Nobody, at the end of their dinner, decides to enjoy an Osborne VORS sherry to cap off the night. No! Not anymore – tiramisu-eating, ADHD-afflicted fucks. The casks that once contained quality, drinkable sherry have become like a wild white rhinoceros. Modern sherry casks, at least the ones used to mature the whiskies that are still affordable, only contain undrinkable sherry, made to season the wood and be dumped, like a zoo rhinoceros miscarriage. Man, that’s dark. But not as dark as Ardbog (Segway!). You take this sherried beast and you compare it to Dark Cove – fuck it, Dark Cove Committee Release – and you can say to the Dark Cove CR, “Ha! You are not sherry matured.” Ardbog still loses out to the very first Uigeadails ever made. Those precious last few remaining wild rhinoceri, I would pay for a pour what they are charging for a bottle of Uigeadail these days. But decoding the bottle code, and just fucking finding and reading the bottle code, is too much effort for me. Ardbog is my lazy-man solution. I can easily read the label, and it takes me back to a time when Ardbeg still had an abundance of quality sherry casks. This swamp creature is heavy, oily, and peaty. Just layers and layers of mud and smoke on top of savory buttered rabbit braised in the juices of wild berries. Minerality like this will make my bones stronger - sodium and iodine. A coastal, dry sherry influence for an Islay scotch is perfection. This is actually not that complex of a Scotch, but it stands out as a young whisky that marries peat and sherry perfectly, and it is so heavy that it feels as if you accidentally spilled some onto the bar countertop, it would make a dent. There are no whiskies like this anymore. Score: ** (unimaginably good) How much does a bottle cost: $250-350 (secondary market only) How much do I think a bottle is worth: $300

Smoky, sweet, peaty, tons of other flavors I couldn’t tell.

I love the play on words with the bog and indeed it gets showcased with a bit of muskiness. Otherwise, the classic fantastic richness and fruitiness of Ardbeg is there and the 52% is barely noticeable. 95