I am an Ardbeg fan, a committee member, and a peat head. I know what to expect when tasting a new Ardbeg, which is something like a whisky creature from hell, in a nice way. But this, this was quite a rollercoaster. Blaaack was released to commemorate the 20th anniversary of its committee, and has been marketed as the "black sheep" of Islay. They even matured this spirit in new zealand pinot noir wine casks, since new zealand is the only place, like Islay, where there is 7 sheep for each person. So, Pinot Noir meets Ardbeg... let's see what happens: Bottled at 46%abv, this is the standard release, with a burnished gold color, which is darker than most Ardbegs. On the nose, crazy stuff. Starts with Red fruits and shoe polish. It smells like cows and a farm. Hay. Salty, it has this aromatic grassy note. After the first sip it gave me seaweed, vanilla; and salt, but (and i don't know if this even exists) it is like old and damaged salt. Very weird stuff. On the palate, it is fantastic. White chocolate, mild pepper, a pleasant sulphuric note. it is super sweet, very lovely. Then, the aftertaste. It is a hell fire. Very sulphuric, pepper, salt and iodine. Meaty, like lamb. But after the first sip... it became amazingly sweet, with cotton candy, red fruits and nougat. Overall, i dont know what to tell you. In my tasting, the other 26 people loved it, but for me, even if it is a good, interesting dram it feels unbalanced and just crazy. It feels like it wanted to be complex with lots of flavors and aromas, but instead of developing them systematically, they just threw all notes in there with no order. That doesn't mean it is bad, it is actually pretty good, but unbalanced. At least for me it is. My final score is 90 over 100, and it is the first time the "balance" criteria of my scoring system is lower than the palate, nose and aftertaste.