Laphroaig? Is that you? No sir, it isn’t. It’s his next door neighbor. The color is really light. It’s like a gentle white wine - the type that your chill 10th grade teacher would drink in the bathtub. I guess scotches tend to be lighter colored than bourbon, and since artificial coloring is permitted in scotch, I’d guess that this one has no added color. The smell is briny, smoky, peaty and delicious. Some weird odors emerge the longer you let it sit. I detect something like apple cider vinegar and something peppery. The weird smells don’t really detract from the drink, rather they simply reinforce its complexity. It tastes the way scotch should. Is it better than Laphroaig? No, probably not, but it’s still phenomenal. The biggest difference between the two is the variety of flavors present. For me, this makes Ardbeg slightly inferior since some of the flavors aren’t my favorite, but I can definitely see how some might prefer this to Laphroaig.