Ardbeg Dark Cove

The story and name behind this NAS offering is very reminiscent of the old moonshiners from the American South: Islanders waiting until the cover of darkness along the rocky coasts of Islay to run supplies onshore for the distilling of fresh "hooch". Ardbeg says this is the darkest whisky they've ever released and from what I've seen they are correct. Instead of the typical, straw yellow this one is a deeper, golden color. It's oily and produces a ton of long, skinny legs on the Glencairn. It smells just like every other Ardbeg: salty and smoky, albeit a bit sweeter. The smoke is, at first, restrained on the tongue. The sherry cask influence takes the stage, front and center, which is a bit different from most other Ardbegs I've had. It feels like a melted toffee candy has been folded inside an oily rag that was used to tamp out a campfire. Very rich, but not overly complex. The finish is also muted, for an Ardbeg, but incredibly smooth. The smoke is complimented by a slight bitterness and heat so that it doesn't just wash away. It lingers on until the burn from the alcohol evaporates. Overall, I don't necessarily think this was a big departure from your standard Ardbeg offering. It's not experimentally blended like Uigeadail or Corryvreckan, it's on par with the 10 year old. Which begs the question "why was this a special release?". It would make sense if this was whisky that's younger than 10 years and they are trying to get some NAS product out there that's more on par with the base juice. That's where this "fails"- I shouldn't have to pay $100 for something so close to the 10 year old in flavor. It's good stuff, just too boring for a special release. I think that's why it's still sitting on a lot of store shelves. I wish I had left it there as well. The 10 year is a 4 star whisky to me, so I'm subtracting 1 because I had to pay way too much for this bottle. I think that's fair. Cheers, my friends.