Soba45
Ardbeg An Oa
Single Malt — Islay, Scotland
Reviewed
October 14, 2017 (edited November 3, 2018)
Interesting, interesting. I bought a bottle of this and the Kelpie today (which I tasted and loved on Ardbeg day). Lemony pepper, Ardbeg 10ish is the profile I got out of it. If I was being cynical (and honest) I'd say it's an Ardbeg Ten with a bit of a twist at a higher price point which allows them to discontinue the 10 yr eventually, free up more casks for their NAS range and justify the overall rolling price increase of their core range. So do I like it? It's not bad. Would I buy another bottle? No. Back to back we paired it against the Redbreast Lasatau (and several other 50ml whisky samples) and we kept going back to the RBL. I'll give it a 3.25 rounding down to a 3. Initially I had rated higher but having drunk it a few times more it's to similar to the thin lemony pepper profile of the 10 yr which I'm not a huge fan of vs the viscous tarrish sherrish profile of the Ugie or the rich oily peaty sweetness of the Kelpie. So in summary 2nd to last (b4 the 10) in my Ardbeg favourite list.
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I agree with all these comments. It’s very enjoyable and I would never turn it down, but in this price range the uigeadail wins (love it). Interesting points about phasing out the 10. Hope that doesn’t happen!
If you like the 10 then start stocking up....hahaha :-)
I had the exact same thought when I tried this. Will type up a longer review a bit later, but it's so similar to Ardbeg 10, my mind immediately jumped to, "Oh boy, they're phasing out A10." This is a little richer and deeper, but a little pricier as well. Honestly if they dropped the 10 but dropped the price of this by $5, I'd accept it. If not, then there will be no Ardbeg available at that comfortable $50 price point, and that's a shame.
@Soba45 stop making so many good points, you're ruining my day!
Yeah bit of wild unsubstantiated speculation on my part :-). But thinking about it Ardbeg is owned by LVMH a company used to flogging a product for the max $, in an environment where distilleries are getting stupid prices for younger whiskies e.g. Lagavullin 8 & 12 vs 16, for a distillery with only 1.25 mill litres production pa and high / fanatical demand, with a NAS focus and their core similar NAS yet higher priced product sold out repeatedly on debut. But it is a big step to cut all your aged statement products and it's a 10 year not say a 16 year like Laga so....
Hmm... Ardbeg and their fancy NAS bottlings. Not a fan of this Islay distillery, to be honest. The 10-year-old is very solid and the Uigeadail one of the few NAS that are worth buying a bottle of, but beyond that: excessive marketing and lots of young whiskies with fancy names but lacking in intrinsic quality and way overpriced. Just my 2 cents :)
I thought this was an extension to the core range, not to phase out the 10
I sure hope your inkling about them phasing out the 10 is incorrect. While I fully believe that it's more about what is IN the bottle and not what is printed ON the bottle, but having a baseline expression with an age statement gives up all a reference point with which to compare all of the other expressions.