This review is for the special committee release of Kelpie from Ardbeg. I believe the only difference is the ABV. This one is bottled at 51.7% vs the standard version that is 46%. Non chill filtered and natural color. Being that it's a higher strength, the color is slightly darker color. This one appears as a champagne gold. I had a much different experience with this one vs the standard version. Let's break things down a little. The nose opens with peaty grilled lemons and apricots. Vanilla cream with what I can only guess is spearmint. Oak and pickled ginger. Black pepper, salty sea air and, as Dreaming of Islay so aptly described, warm salty pretzels. Even though there was no wine maturation at work here, I got subtle white wine notes. Cinnamon dusted nuts and a little toffee/butterscotch. This has a strong resemblance to Machir Bay from Kilchoman, but with more peat. I have to say it took much more concentration and digging to pull out these nosing notes than it did with the standard version. The palate is smoky citrus, lemon custard and peppery oak. Not quite as smoky as the standard version, but there is no doubt that it's there. The standard version was like sitting in the middle of the smoking section at a restaurant (when that was still a thing), where this one is like sitting at the table next to the smoking section (credit to my wife for the analogy). BBQ brisket, brine, tar, ashes and a little iodine. There is also some sourdough bread that was unexpected, and I would say neither a good nor a bad thing. Full bodied mouthfeel that is oily but turns a little dry. The finish is long with peat smoke, citrus, pepper. A little dry but not bad. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm just not in the right mindset to fully enjoy this one tonight, but I just didn't find it as good/complex as the 46% version. At $200 per bottle vs $110 for the standard release, its that much harder to get behind. Still it's a good dram. For me, it comes off like an Ardbeg/Kilchoman hybrid. Thanks to Lee for the generous sample. 4.25 Cheers