Ardbeg was a spirit that I thought I would hate and never like, judging it based on my experience in my youth with Laphroaig 10, and never tried until a whisky fest one year. The whisky fest was holding master classes for people to sign up and I was late to the sign up roster and all that was left was Ardbeg as the other had filled up, funny to think that it would probably be the opposite now. My friend and I arrived to the masterclass to find that Ardbeg's marketing came up with a virtual reality Islay experience. The VR experience involved three pours of their core range at the time of Ardbeg 10, Uigeadall and Corryvreckan and for each pour you needed to first put on your VR headset, watch the marketing, then get to take a taste. I'm pretty sure there was some brainwashing involved in those headsets because I went into that class not a peathead and left it chasing things like Octomore. Their core range was so good I immediately bought a bottle of Corryvreckan and have kept one in my liquor cabinet since, but have never attempted to give it a proper review besides "Fuck that's good" until now. The nose starts with a burning campfire next to the ocean followed by freshly charred citrus of lemon and orange leading to sour dough bread, then candied bacon wrapped in dark chocolate with bourbon caramel in the middle and finishing with dried fish jerky and a medium ethanol burn. The taste is a medium mouthfeel starting with sweet bourbon caramel and dark chocolate raisins leading to those charred fruits of lemon and orange, smoked fish jerky, ocean brine, candied bacon and pepper with a medium ethanol burn. The finish is medium long with sea salt caramel, dark chocolate, burnt lemon and orange, and campfire ash lingering for minutes. This is just damn good whisky and for the price of 80 dollars, a great VFM one. A friend of mine ended up finding my current bottle for sale at an ABC store for 60 dollars and was kind enough to grab it for me.