Serendipity

This...this was a strange little thing. So, this was a creation of sheer human error. Ardbeg 17 accidentally got mixed with some Glen Moray. I’m not sure the age of the Glen Moray (12?). But instead of throwing away the batch, they bottled it. Heck, anything with the name”Ardbeg “ will sell. They can mix shoe polish with Ardbeg, and some bloke reviewer will write “ amazing aroma of tar and diesel, with a palette of classic machine shop oil mixed with brine “ bullshit, and it’ll sell for $1000. This here comes by through a generous sample sent by my friend @LeeEvolved. What started off as a mistake sold for £30, and now commands well north of a few hundred £ . But...Ardbeg or not...this wasn’t for me. I felt as if it lost the Ardbeg brawn in totality. It was soft and smooth. Gone was the smoke and tar, and it was emasculated to a rather run if the mill bakery shop palette. I think if the accident happened with a 10 yr Ardbeg that retained its aggression, maybe the outcome would’ve been better ? As a collector’s item, this is probably one of ages. It’s rare as hell to see an accident like this bottled up and sold. Needless to say—-I’m I’m immensely thankful to Lee—-I don’t think I’d get ever a chance to have an accidental rarity like this. Thanks Lee !

This is a very interesting drop courtesy of @LeeEvolved as leee notes zesty lime and a type of floral something or other i can't put my finger on. Interesting experiment but not one for me as not a profile which floats my boat. To be fair it did come after Compass Box Stranger and Stranger which was fantastic.

Such a lovely and light whisky. Aging quite well as I periodically pour some every few months since first opening two years ago

So, you may have noticed that I haven’t written a review in almost 3 weeks. Why? Well, my buddy @Generously_Paul started a whisky review channel on YouTube and asked me to help create some content to help get the channel, Dapper Drams, off the ground. I made the decision to combine my 500th Distiller review and a segment on the channel, called Fresh Takes, simultaneously. This was the bottle I used to kick things off. The video is also live so check it out: https://youtu.be/yncYKtWFxHc Anyway, a little about Serendipity: it’s a blend of very old Ardbeg and some Glen Moray 12. Why would they choose to blend those you might ask? They didn’t. It was an accident at the bottling plant: while bottling Ardbeg 17 back in 2005 the vat operator accidentally dumped the Glen Moray into the vat BEFORE the Ardbeg was done. Well, Ardbeg wasn’t about to dump all that whisky (14,000+ bottles worth) so they bought out Glen Moray’s part and bottled it as a blend for their Committee Members. It was offered at £30 back in early 2006. Needless to say, many bottles have found their way to U.K. retailers and auctions. That’s where I got my bottle for around $170. Serendipity is straw gold and makes some thick, undefined legs in the Glencairn. It leaves behind a watery rim without any droplets after a quick spin. The nose begins with some very faint oak, light sherry and some grape must. There’s little to no smoke, initially, along with no heat- because it’s bottled at 40% ABV. After some significant time, over an hour, the sweetness faded and some BBQ smoke was finally released. The palate is all Ardbeg: BBQ brisket and bacon that seems heavily salted. It’s ultra smooth with some minerality lingering well past mid sip. There’s a tiny amount of zesty lime and a faint sweetness on the back end (from the Glen Moray, I presume). Again, no heat whatsoever, so don’t add water at all (why would you at 40% anyways). The finish is medium length and quite buttery and tame. It leaves behind an oily mouth coat with a little bit of smoke and ash to contend with, but it’s very mild. It’s the dram’s only possible fault IMO. Overall, it’s not the 5 star-surprise, smoked sherry bomb I was hoping for, but the two malts do play well together. There’s one major surprise I discovered about this malt while researching it, but I’m not going to tell you what it is here in an effort to blackmail you faithful readers and followers to check out the Fresh Take video on Paul’s YouTube channel- Dapper Drams. Please go check it out, give it a like and maybe subscribe to his channel. Tell a friend and check out some of the other videos we’ve done, as well. You can even check back often as we try to post a new video every 9-10 days. Thanks. As for a score, well I think it’s easily a 3.75 star dram, and after you find out the secret about this bottle, I think that’s worthy of a .25-.5 star bump. So I’m giving this 4.25 stars. Thanks for reading and following me through my 500th official whisky review. I look forward to 500 more (if my liver can take it, lol). Cheers, my friends.