cascode
Ardbeg 12 year 2005 (North Star Spirits)
Single Malt — Islay, Scotland
Reviewed
July 23, 2019 (edited July 27, 2019)
North Star Spirits tasting night, Sydney, 18 July 2019. Whisky #6
Nose Neat: Smoked fruit (pineapple and grapefruit) and a hint of vanilla. Strong peat-reek and woodsmoke combination with a blustery maritime note of seaweed and shells (iodine and sandy brine). Espresso and burnt match aromas.
Nose Watered: The peat smoke greatly develops with the phenolic qualities being highlighted. A plastic/rubber note creeps in, but it's not intrusive.
Palate Neat: The arrival is smoky and ashen with billows of peat smoke. It has a dry but rounded character that is almost but not quite sweet - something like amontillado. It's meaty and phenolic, like barbecued pork on a beach campfire, but not hot spicy at all. The alcohol content is only detectable as a drying note and the whole palate is curiously refreshing.
Palate Watered: Dilution adds a good deal of sweetness and brings out mustard-seed spice, more maritime notes and a little oiliness.
Finish: Long. Ashy smoke with a drying salt-iodine note. Adding water sweetens the finish and lends the aftertaste a warming quality.
The prior tastings of the evening were all from North Star Spirits series 007, however this was a "guest appearance" from series 004. Tasted as a first dram of the day I'd imagine this would be quite intense and challenging, however with the palate prepared I found it to be an easily approachable and very satisfying dram.
Unusually for an Ardbeg there is little salt or lemon on the nose or palate. It's very distillate driven and comes across as a revealing expression. The cask used was good but must have been refill as there is little wood contribution, but what is detectable is very fine.
Independent bottlings of Ardbeg are not rare, but the distillery must charge a fearsome price for their casks and to allow their name to appear on the label, as this is very expensive for a 12 year old CS.
I enjoyed tasting this whisky but the elephant in the room is the perennially excellent Ardbeg 10 official bottling, which at less than 20% of the price gets you a dram that is almost as goo. This is really only one for the hard-core Ardbeg collectors.
"Excellent" : 88/100 (4.5 stars)
540.0
AUD
per
Bottle
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@Whiskali @PBMichiganWolverine - I think you guys are on to something. :)
@Rick_M a glutton for punishment? Nothing wrong with that...there’s an entire subculture that’s a multi-million dollar industry built on punishment. Involves latex , whips, and sometimes hot wax. At least Ardbeg didn’t do that...😊
@Rick_M so if I’m picking up what you’re putting down, the moral of the story is to learn more languages and become the interpreter?! ;)
Ardbeg is the distillery I love to hate. 2 years ago we took a flight to Heathrow from Boston. Then another flight to Glasgow. Then drove to the west coast to take a ferry to Arran, then took another ferry to the Kintyre peninsula, then another ferry to Islay. Then we drove to Ardbeg only to be told that they didn’t want to fill the distillery tour because the group of Frenchmen needed an interpreter and they thought it might be too hectic for their group. So we get stiffed by Ardbeg yet I still go out an buy both their Twenty Somethings, both their Grooves, and both their Drums since then. So I ask you, is there something wrong with me? Please don’t answer, I already know the verdict. :)
@PBMichiganWolverine ha! I’d say that represents Macallan moreso and they quite often do 🤭 but, yeah, that price is off-the-charts cringe status.
@PBMichiganWolverine - best reply ever
@PBMichiganWolverine Lol
@cascode and it’s an ARDBEG. They can bottle cow piss and it’ll sell at absurd prices
@Rick_M Well, it is a cask-strength single cask out-turn, not just a run of the mill 12 year old single malt. However I agree, comparing it to the price of similar 12 year olds from Cadenheads, G&M etc it's still pretty expensive.
That’s equivalent to $372 US. That might be a new world record for a 12yo.
I'm surprised Iain chose to acquire this cask, but I guess when you are a small operator and have the rare opportunity to acquire a cask of Ardbeg you grab the chance. Even if it's out of the price range or interest sphere of most folks it still gives the North Star brand some street cred to have an Ardbeg in their stable.
@LeeEvolved @cascode I was surprised by that price. Generally, this IM is quite reasonable. At this price, it makes no sense to have this over the regular Ardbegs
Wow, I was going to ask how you thought this would stack up versus the official 12yo CS they release annually- then I saw the price and knew the answer. At 3x the official distillery bottling, there’s no question this isn’t for average Ardbeg fans, heck even diehards should probably look elsewhere. Great review, however. cheers.
@cascode - yes, Ardbeg is Gaelic for highway robbery. :)