'Beistie Boys

The problem with having a whisky fetish is that many bottles are opened, sampled, loved, drunk, loved, drunk, loved... rested. After dusting down several bottles from our cabinet that need to be finished off, we chose to put to bed the Ardbeg Airigh Nam Beist. This whisky is one of the core Ardbeg range currently on offer. However, as with any whisky of a stated vintage stocks will be limited and this fantastic bottling must come to an end at some stage (who knows when...). There have now been three different releases of the Beist, notable by the "Bottled In The Year xxxx" in gold print on the reverse label. So far we have seen 2006 (a 16 YO Whisky, given that is from 1990 stock), a 2007 (17 YO) and a 2008 (apparently the smallest batch, and an 18 YO to boot). The glass that caskstrength.net has in its hands holds the first batch, the 2006 release. If you are lucky enough to have or find a bottle of the '06 stock, it might be worth a place under your mattress...

Ardbeg - Airigh Nam Beist - 46% Vol - 2006 Release - 70cl

Nose: A huge nose of vanilla fudge, dry oak, over ripe plums, pipe tobacco (a fine Balkan blend). Aniseed. This is all the aspects of a whisky nose you would expect to find wafting from a lovely old tweed suit. This may sound wanky, but the overall aroma is that of the Old Kiln Shop at Ardbeg. This is the signature smell of the distillery.

Palate: Fresh green apples, bitter dark chocolate, more fudge, dried vine fruit and drying peat leading into almost fresh strawberries, cream with a hint of medicinal loveliness on the death. (It really does remind me of the wonderful warm day at the end of may sat with our feet dangling off the pier at Ardbeg, greedily pouring generous drams of this)

Finish: Acres of peat, more green leaves and cocoa on the death. Sadly for this bottle, it really is the death. RIP, old friend!!

Overall: It's easy to eulogise about our obvious love for this bottling, but this last dram really does highlight its brilliance. We managed to savour our smaller-than-usual measures for nearly an hour before cracking and allowing the last few drops to slowly slip away. Sensational stuff. Now... what can we put in its place in the cabinet? .... another 'Nam Beist we suspect...!

Feis Ile Day Four (Part 2): Dexy's Midnight Liars

Part Two: Dexy's Midnight Liars

Now the day could begin as we set off, resplendent in our tweed for a tasting with Billy Stitchell, the Operations Manager at Caol Ila. Hidden away in a store house, with casks of Caol Ila around us and their sister distillery, Lagavulin. The tasting comprised of 7 expressions from the distillery, including 2 new-make spirits and a bottling only available at the distillery from 2007’s Feis Ile.

The Distillers Edition (finished in Muscadet wine barrels for six months) was probably the most interesting of the tastings- disappointingly, they had decided to omit the 18 YO which we’d regard as our favourite from the Caol Ila range. (the scoop here is that Diageo need all remaining allocated stocks of 18 YO for their premium Johnnie Walker blends, such as the centenary edition Gold and Blue Labels.

Onward from Caol Ila, to nip around the corner to Bunnahabhain where we tried their Feis Ile bottling:

Bunnahabhain – 21 Yo – OB – Dist 1986 – 512 Bottles – 46.7% Vol – 70cl

Nose: rich sherry and marzipan hit the nostrils like and indulgent Christmas cake, followed by almonds salt and the faintest whiffs of dying embers.

Palate: A rich, oily mouth-feel with masses of honeycomb and chocolate (crunchy bar, anyone?) followed by sweet fudge undertone and hints of malt.

Finish: Long, smooth with hints of woody spice, balanced off with cocoa and raisin.

Overall: A really drinkable and enjoyable dram. The downside here is the price, which at nearly £200 doesn’t mirror the fair play of some of the other Feis Ile releases.

With nostrils refreshed by a swift briney costal walk (god, did we need it after such an early start!) and bellies full of a sumptuous sausage casserole, our next challenge was the traditional blind nosing competition, held at Ramsay Hall in Port Ellen.

The principal was simple- identify 10 island malts from identical blue glasses, including 2 new make spirits, purely by their distinct aromas. In practice, this proved harder than Caskstrength imagined....

After much to’ing and fro’ing from various stalls (and with some light-hearted National Rivalry at stake with some Dutch Malt fans) our choices were made. Some newly made local friends also kindly gave us their entry form (which we filled out and entered as a former Dexy’s Midnight Runner, who shall remain nameless!)

The end result was tensely waited for over a dram of Lagavulin 16.... and.....

Well- we didn’t win, but got a respectable 7/10 which made us nose-happy. Congratulations to Anders who won the event with an amazing 9/10 and Angus with 8.

Avoiding the midges we headed home, proudly patting our prized proboscis’s!!