Ardbeg Heavy Vapours

This is one of my favorite peaty scotches. I higly recommend you give this one a try if peaty scotches is your thing or if you are looking for a good example. Its a must have in your peaty scotch collection.

@Nitr0

After reviewing my previous reviews, I’ve hit the Perpetuum, Kelpie, Grooves, and the Drum CR so far. These have ranged from solid phenomenal, the Committee Release Drum being my most recent and favorite of the line. Lately, it seems like Ardbeg has gotten wacky with the experimentation here—or at least the packaging. The packaging on this one strikes me as intriguing, and while the story on the box is incredibly corny c the concept is also interesting. Let’s see if the 2023 release stacks up to my previous favorites. Nose: Heavy grapefruit and lemon. White pepper and orange rind. Vanilla custard. Sea salt and seaweed. Iodine and bandaid. Brine. Agave/mezcal. Heavy cinnamon spice. Sugar cookie and heavy butterscotch. Palate: Mint chocolate. More of the grapefruit and lemon. Black bean, red pepper chili. Sun-dried tomato. A combination of campfire and barrel smoke, along with iodine and bandaid. Peat, brine, sea salt, and seaweed. Tennis ball. Agave/mezcal. Ballpark soft pretzel. Cinnamon, white and black pepper, and heavy oak. More of the heavy butterscotch. Finish: Vanilla custard. Agave/mezcal. Grapefruit and lemon. Caramel and milk chocolate. Almond and sugar cookie. Butterscotch and toffee. Orange citrus. Black bean, red pepper chili. Cinnamon, white pepper, and oak. Moderate-long finish. This is a winner for me. I really enjoyed this, as I have practically every Ardbeg before it. I would put this toward the lower end of Committee Release reviews, but that isn’t much of an insult considering the reviews many of those received. It’s a fairly standard Ardbeg profile. It almost feels like the Uigeadail is more of a “limited release” style bottle, while this feels like standard issue stuff. No issue with it staying the way it is by the way. This has the hallmark Ardbeg profile, and definitely punches as hard with the spice, peat, smoke, brine, and citrus notes as any before it. Not as much nuance here. This feels like an experiment that is really more for the distilling staff over at Ardbeg—they get to enjoy the technical elements of undertaking a project like this—more than it is for the consumer. To me, this is just another example of Ardbeg’s ability excellence. At $140, 4.25 is fair. We didn’t break any new ground here but this is a damn fine sipper.