Always very happy to find a new Ardbeg to add to the stack of black boxes building on my scotch shelf section. One of my favorite things about Ardbeg is the short 3-6 word tasting notes right on the front of the box/bottle. I don't normally like having tasting notes up front, but given that the lads at Ardbeg truly have some quality whiskey and care very much for it, it's nice to see what they can narrow down each batch to on their palate. Honestly though, with a cask strength Scotch, I know I'm already going to enjoy it after this particular stressful day. Wow, the color on this is shocking; this could easily be mistaken for a 8+ year American whiskey out of level 4 char barrels. I didn't think the bourbon barrel aging would impart that much, but it has at least for the color tone. Barbecued and smoked meats for certain on the nose, but some of the smoke is swallowed up by a salty seaweed note. There's a bit of sweetness here as well, but it smells more like strictly sweet oak than anything artifical or additive. My initial sip really dug quickly into the gums, so much so that the shock and surprise caused me to miss any initial tasting notes. My second sip imparted raw dark corn syrup, moderate smoke (from a smokehouse that normally smokes meat, but all meat was removed when you happened to visit), sweet oak, and a bit of florality that seems to also circle back to the beginning of the next sip. Of course, the finish is fairly hot and lingers, but isn't sticky, and allows the mind to focus back on the flavors just had without being distracted. Not at all surprisingly, this is a wonderful Ardbeg, and is pretty unique as compared to some of the other batches. The meat smokiness is not as heavy here as Wee Beastie, but definitely more refined and rounded. The saltiness is not as potent as An Oa, allowing more barrel flavor to come through. Really though, being a cask strength just allows the Ardbeg profile to shine through better without being bogged down. All of these classic black box offerings really prove that Ardbeg produces a quality scotch, but knows how to properly play around with it to make it unique and different, and yet still represent, well, a fantastic fucking whiskey.