Ardbeg Scorch

Neat. Neck pour. On the nose, the sweetness is catching my attention. Everything surrounding the peat is very sweet. The peat is a lovely camp fire, throw some pine cones and fresh wood. The sweetness is brighter than I suspected. It’s like vanilla Royal frosting on top of vanilla ice cream. The fruit is coming through again and that is bright as well. Lemon and lemon zest. Next to the peat is a nice independent layer of oak that lends balance to the whole experience. Lovely creamy mouthfeel. Immediately, it’s just very very bright and sweet. Like a lemon Fun Dip (flavored sugar). Bright sweetness dominates mid palate with all that vanilla. The lemon is morphing into more of an orange. The peat is less aggressive than I expected, hangs on the experience like a thin layer of fog. The finish brings in this nice layer of spice. Pepper and clove. The more I get acclimated to it, it is less bright and the vanilla is less aggressive. I would equate it to licking the outside of a cloved honey baked ham that was maybe baked too long or too high a temp and got a bit charred. Quite delicious. It was not the experience I was expecting based on the name and packaging. I was expecting it to be more aggressive. This is one to take your time with too. 30 minutes into the experience, it really started to change and that brought in these extra lovely layers that were not immediately accessible. No regrets spending $130 on this.

Tasty because I love ardbeg, and you definitely get smoke on the nose and palate, but there’s nothing that lingers. The 10 is much better and a third the price.

A great way to convert the hardcore bourbon drinker to Islay scotch.