Ok, lets restart the counter, this is my whisky review 1001 and it is a new beggining. In my visit to Ardbeg, i convinced a guy in the distillery to let me taste one of their old special expressions, and i got lucky since i had the chance to taste the famous Ardbeg Renaissance. This single malt, was part of a collection that was released to commemorate that Ardbeg was reopened in 1997, and they made 4 whiskies, "very young", "still young", "almost There", and this one, "Renaissance". As the name suggests, this whisky celebrates the reborn of Ardbeg, in hands of Glenmorangie Distillers, later to be owned by LVMH. It has been bottled at 55.9%abv and it has one particular characteristic: it was bottled from the first new make spirit made in 1998, as soon as it was 10 years old in 2008. This is, the first new Ardbeg. On the nose, it is actually super sweet. Red fruits, vanilla cake, almonds. Deep nutty cake, pine, grassy. Very herbal. Coffeee and black pepper. It can be described as herbal peatiness. On the palate it is ok. Vanilla cream, chocolate cream, salty. Sulphur and metallic. Actually very salty and maritime. "Swampy". I liked the aftertaste more than the palate. Smoked metals. Copper. Black pepper. Meat balls. Maritime salty water. Overall, this is not the best Ardbeg out there, but it that does not mean it is bad. It is actually very enjoyable, but lacks some complexity and maturation, it feels young. Having said that, it is undoubtedly a piece of history. My score for it is a well deserved 88 over 100.