Ardbeg Traigh Bhan 19 Year Batch 2 (2020)

Mild peat on the nose with some sweet fruit notes as well. The palate is canned peaches, orange blossom, peatsmoke, and oak. Just a hint if spearmint. The finish is long and of ash and leather.

On the nose there is a sooty sweet pineapple smell. The mouth is sweet and leans quite heavily towards anise, turning into a bit sour and spicy oak tingling on the tounge. Aftertaste is quite long and spicy. It is good and mature in the profile, but compared to the standard bearer Corryvreckan it is no match.

Amazing scotch. Smoky fruit

Smoky peat nose. Mild peaty taste, unlike the usual Ardbeg smoke. Exceptionally smooth. Finishes with a decent amount of heat.

"Traigh bhan" is the gaelic term for "white sands that sing beneath your feet". That is a magical way to start this review of a 19yo Ardbeg, something that is very luxurious on this day and age, where 5yo Ardbegs are as expensive as any other 12yo whisky. Traigh Bhan is actaully pronounced "tri-van" and it is the beach located next to the distillery. This is my review from the Batch No. 2, bottled at 46.2%abv, with a pale straw color. On the nose, a very complex and fun Ardbeg. Swamp, Merthiolate and pineapple. Wood polisher, pharmacy and gooseberries. The second aroma was wonderful:  coconut dessert, vanilla Ice cream, smoke and a horse sadle. On the palate it is very simple, but also it is fantastic. It has this out of this world flavor of coconut milk, grated coconut and vanilla. Sawdust. In Ecuador there is a very cheap handcrafted brand of ice creams called "Ideal", it is exactly like that. Grandma's drawers (you know exactly that note). Aftertaste follows the same profile. Grated coconut, sawdust, mild smoke and soap. Overall, this one was simple but awesome. I get that sometimes older single malts tend to be easy drinkable and sometimes boring, because most of the times they are intended to big pockets who don't necessarily know a lot about whisky. This is not entirely the case, because even if it is not very complex, and it is a little straightforward, this is very well crafted, it is just delicious. I can also see some hardcore Ardbeg fans hating it due to a lack of power or heavy smoke. For me, it was great and my score for it is a well deserved 94 over 100.

Nose: overall subtle and nuanced profile. Peat and clean wood smoke. Trace of crisp sweet green apple. Hints of spices like cardamom and cinnamon with pepper. Aged leather and tobacco. Palate: light bodied but smooth velvety texture. Peat and smoke forward Finish: peat and smoke linger forever. Black pepper forward but subsides. Saline. Late hints of spices from the nose. Overall, wow. Complex and beautifully put together.