Ardbeg Kelpie (2017 Committee Release)

I've never tasted a whisky that I can get so many of the flavors mentioned in the distillery's tasting notes. The only one mentioned that I really couldn't taste was smoked fish. Plenty of seaweed, chocolate, and black pepper on the nose. Tons of bacon, chocolate, and coffee along with a taste of black olives. The toffee and oily finish lingers for a long time. This is so good that I ordered another bottle.

I held off opening this for 24 hours for fear that it would disappoint. The committee releases are consistently interesting, and yet my cynicism about the industry's ever more extravagant barrel tricks and elaborate marketing has me bracing for that moment when Ardbeg jumps the basking shark. Dr Lumsden, please forgive my lack of faith. From the moment the mustard color spirit hits the glass, it's clear we're in new waters far from last year's Dark Cove. Shimmering aromas of herbal lozenges and zesty wood hint at the surprises to come, even as undertones of dark chocolate wave the Ardbegian flag. By surprises I mean, wow. An unexpected explosion of flavor from the first sip: bright citrus notes, creamy and peppery. A dazzling burst of light when I was anticipating darker sherry shades. A couple of drops of water accentuates the chocolate flavors. It finishes in a complex wave of tart and tangy chords, with those herbal flavors again, then a coda of tanins and a not unpleasant sourness. It's a dazzling turn by Ardbeg, like a Radiohead album that eschews precedent and expectations for new experiments. And yet it all makes sense when one's curiosity about this mysterious republic called Adyghe yields a Wikipedia article listing its main produce as grain, sunflowers, tea and tobacco. Coincidence or not, there's terroir in this glass.