Ardbeg Day

The 2nd June marks a special day on the island of Islay.  As part of the the annual Feis Ile (which we are visiting again for the 6th year now) Ardbeg have decided to rename the 2nd June as an official Ardbeg Day.  Quite whether they've approached the Queen to get the name changed is another matter (she's quite busy at the moment, I believe) and I'm not sure it will count as a national holiday, for those of you having to work. However if you are attending the Feis this year, the line up, which Ardbeg have thrown together looks like a lot of fun indeed -  Olympic-themed japery including phenolic gymnastics, sheep tossing, (one of Joel's favourites) bog snorkelling (another one of Joel's personal favourites) and terrier racing (canine permitting)

Alongside the events is the traditional bottling, which is produced especially for the day.  In the past several years, the Ardbeg releases have been exceptional single casks and very limited release bottlings, resulting in long queues outside the distillery from an early hour.  We've been in those queues - dependent on the weather, it's actually quite fun.  This year will be a little different.  Although the heart of Ardbeg Day will be directly at the distillery, around the world, separate splinter events are happening from everywhere between Vancouver and Vietnam (quite possibly) and for the 99.999% of Ardbeg fans out there, the good news is that the bottling will be available across the globe from a number of Ardbeg Embassies just for the day.

1,100 cases of this special Ardbeg Day bottling will be produced (which in real-person-speak means around 13,000 bottles), so the outturn is relatively on a par with that of some of the previous Ardbeg Committee bottlings and also the Laphroaig Cairdeas bottlings, which were released alongside the Feis Ile.  The bottling is selected and married using several parcels of refill sherry casks, which were previously used for Uigeadail and the ABV will stand at 56.7%

We were lucky enough to spend some time with Dr Bill Lumsden this lunchtime and get a sneaky peak at the whisky, alongside several other expressions of Ardbeg including the 10 year-old and the mighty Alligator (which Bill describes as his 'Sweeney' version of Ardbeg, for reasons too long to explain in this post.)

Ardbeg - Ardbeg Day Bottling - 56.7% - NAS - 70cl.  RRP £60

Nose: Hearty notes of dry ginger, woody spices, hints of golden syrup and fragrant vanilla. With water, the spice notes develop and the sweetness gets more syrupy.  

Palate:  A superb dryness hits first (making one think about rich, dry Oloroso sherry) with more dried ginger, cinnamon, peppered meats, a hint of apple pie and a dusting of dark sugar.  With water, there is also a creaminess, perhaps reminding the palate of some of the Ardbeg bottlings of the last few years -  Uigeadail, Airgh Nam Beist and Alligator.  In fact, the dried fruit, chocolate gingers and orange zest notes are very reminiscent of the snappily titled bottling of last year. 

Finish: Lingering notes of dried fruit, with a touch of the ginger and a little menthol creeping in.

Overall:  Another highly drinkable Ardbeg, which sits firmly in the flavour camp of many of the distilleries favourite bottlings.  It is powerful without water, but doesn't lose its dynamic when a touch is added.  If you liked Alligator, you'll definitely enjoy this.  Question is, would you be prepared to undertake a bog snorkelling session for a bottle?   

I guess we would.  Zip up Harrison. We're going in.

oooh, what could this be? An Ardbeg Playing Card perhaps. Click on it for some fun, fun, fun...

oooh, what could this be? An Ardbeg Playing Card perhaps. Click on it for some fun, fun, fun...

The Twelve Drams Of Christmas - Part Seven

After Olly Smith's brace of liquid beauties, we bring you three cracking suggestions from arguably the most respected whisky writer on the planet and all-round raconteur, sartorial sage and friend of this website, Mr Dave Broom.

Dave has been busy working on a brand new whisky education concept - the World Masterclass. Consisting of a number of online lessons and DVDs, the comprehensive training programme aims to enrich users with a new level of knowledge about whisky production. Sounds like a cracking idea to us. You can get more info about the World Masterclass by visiting:

www.theworldmasterclass.com

Now, Dave has more pressing this to tell you about - namely his choice of festive drams!!

"I've mulled this over along with some suitably seasonal spices (for the annual Christmas Confusion Dram). This is a season of pickled walnuts and walks on the seashore, nose being nipped by the frost, head being nipped by the previous night's festivities. Outdoors, I'd go smoky for the hip flask - Bowmore Tempest or Ardbeg Alligator - but when safely ensconsed once more in Broom Towers it is something richer, fruitier, thicker, I'd reach for. Bring me something to warm the toes, to bring a Claus-like ruddiness to the cheeks, bring me Redbreast 12yo cask strength say I and make it a large one!'

Splendiferous choices, I think you'll agree.

Ardbeg Alligator – Committee release – 51.2%

Nose: Immediate spicy/ fruity notes, with rolled oak shavings, BBQ charcoal, stewed apples, white pepper and hints of strong tea and fresh bourbon. With a dash of water the whisky really comes alive with wonderful rich vanilla tones, chocolate orange notes and hints of copper.

Palate: Big, resonant and dry, leading into more of the chocolate orange notes, sweet vanilla, hints of Five Spice and more stewed apple. Then the smoke arrives, soft, aromatic and gentle at first, giving this a superb complexity.

Finish: The sweet vanilla develops alongside the soft smoke for a very lengthy and pleasing finish.

Red Breast - 12 Years Old - Cask Strength Edition - 57.7%

Nose: This high strength dram makes its presence known immediately. It has a firey top note, which dies away quickly to reveal notes of fresh plums, a little dustiness, some clean linen, dessicated coconut and a lingering creaminess, akin to dairy fudge.

Palate: Powerful and coating, the tongue gets the first blast of wonderful sweetness, more of the dairy fudge, followed by some cornflake notes, creamy vanilla, golden syrup, a deft hint of floral apple peel (Pink Lady?) and some black cherries.

Finish: Lengthy and creamy, with the emergence of the apple again on the death.

Join us soon for part eight and some wonderful choices of dram from a very aptly named band!!

BiG Award 2011 the Winner is announced!

With the taste of 10 great whiskies still lingering in our mouths, we're pleased to announce the overall winner of this year's Best in Glass Award, which was no doubt, the biggest and best we've been involved with.

Not only was the competition extremely stiff between the ten short-listed whiskies, but the wealth of experience from our judging panel was a real force to be reckoned with.

Many thanks to our generous hosts The Albannach in London's Trafalgar Square for providing such excellent surroundings for the event and to the esteemed judges themselves for giving up their time and expertise.

This year's BiG Award panel consisted of the following keen noses and palates:

John Glaser, founder of Compass Box Whisky

Sam Simmons, The Balvenie Global Ambassador and the irrepressible Dr Whisky

Ed Bates, independent drinks consultant and former spirits expert for Berry Bros & Rudd.

Hannah Lanfear, bar manager of Boisdale, Canary Wharf

Ryan Chetiyawardana, manager of The Whistling Shop bar and cocktail maestro.

Ben Ellefsen, director of Master Of Malt

Darren Rook, former manager of the SMWS and now independent spirits consultant

Carey Willetts, bass player and songwriter with the UK band Athlete and whisky enthusiast.

Cat Spencer, marketing manager of The Albannach bar.

The ten whiskies were all judged blind, with three rounds to get down to our overall winning Best in Glass whisky.

So without further ado, the final 3 whiskies were as follows:

Ardbeg Alligator (highly commended)

Tomatin Decades (highly commended)

The 2011 Best in Glass Award winner goes to:

Black Bull 40 year old blended whisky - Batch 2

The panel were wowed by the balance of this superbly put together whisky, which demonstrated incredible fruit, vanilla and complex, aged oak notes, with a rich and highly moreish character. For a full review click here:

So it's congratulations to the team at Duncan Taylor. Once again, the BiG Award has demonstrated that it is possible to select 10 great whiskies, wildly differing in style, put them in the same room, with a bunch of like-minded imbibers and select an overall winner.

On receiving this year's award, Scott Watson, CEO for Duncan Taylor Whiskies commented:

“It’s tremendous to see Black Bull 40 year old recognised with a prestigious Best In Glass award from Caskstrength. To come out top in a blind tasting from such an esteemed panel of judges is a great honour and a fantastic testament to Black Bull’s boldly independent character."

Stay tuned for next year's awards....

Islay day 9 - You Cant Beat A Bit Of Bully...

So here we are, the final fun packed day on Islay and the home straight in what has been a highly enjoyable trip to this wonderful island. Ardbeg have historically been the distillery to close the Feis celebrations and as a result, you always expect something special. This year was possibly the best yet and… against all odds, the sun actually appeared to want to play along.

The distillery had gone the whole hog (or should that be bull?) with a Spanish theme, from the huge imposing bull sculpture overlooking the coastline Flamenco dancers and traditional costumes for all the staff members taking part. They’d also hired in a mechanical bull, which sent shivers down the spine of caskstrength, as memories of drunken stag weekend injuries loomed into view. But not ones for turning away from a challenge, we vowed to prove our rodeo prowess, escaping chafed thighs in the process.

El Ridley clearly mastered the snake-hipped Toreador technique and hung on for a highly credible 25 seconds, but it was a disaster for El Harrison, whose premature ejection from the bull after just 1 second earned him the nickname ‘El Burro Muerto’ for the rest of the day. Tossed off in a second… clearly a word of warning, ladies.

The Spanish theme also stretched to the whisky events during the day and Mickey heads lead a number of enthusiastic Ardbeg committee members through some interesting sherry influenced cask samples, including demonstrating the heavy, rich Pedro Ximenez casks used to mature this year’s Festival bottling, which we reviewed earlier in the week, the notes of which can be found here.

One masterclass that really caught our eye however was a scientific look into the main component of Ardbeg - its wonderfully peaty character. Phenols clearly play a huge part in the development of Ardbeg and a specific discussion into the chemical compounds, which make up smoky aromas and flavours (C6H50H) was held up in the old floor malting warehouse.

Bryony Macintyre (fresh from finishing her dissertation on the science of whisky) led our group through a fantastic tasting, bringing the science to life. Bryony is clearly destined for big things – Mickey, you should start watching your back!

But perhaps the real highlight for us was a chance to try one of Ardbeg’s newest creations side by side against one of their most legendary drams. Ardbeg Alligator is to be the next committee bottling, released on the 1^st June and is the latest in a new line of wood experiments from Dr Bill Lumsden. A number of heavily charred (level 4) first fill bourbon casks have been maturing since 2000, peated to the standard Ardbeg level of 55ppm. Having tried some of Ardbeg’s heavily toasted cask experiments (single casks 1189 and 1190 from 2009’s Feis Ile) we were itching to see how the heavy char affected the whisky. Here’s our thoughts:

Ardbeg Alligator – Committee release – 51.2% - around 10,000 bottles

Nose: Immediate spicy, fruity notes, with rolled oak shavings, BBQ charcoal, stewed apples, white pepper and hints of strong tea and fresh bourbon. With a dash of water the whisky really comes alive with wonderful rich vanilla tones, chocolate orange notes and hints of copper. Sterling stuff.

Palate: Big, resonant and dry, leading into more of the chocolate orange notes, sweet vanilla, hints of Five Spice and more stewed apple. Then the smoke arrives, soft, aromatic and gentle at first, giving this a superb complexity.

Finish: The sweet vanilla develops alongside the soft smoke for a very lengthy and pleasing finish.

Overall: What a mega whisky. We were critical of the last committee bottling (Rollercoaster) and its apparent lack of consistency and overly youthful tones, but Alligator is just brilliant. Rich, complex and spicy, it puts Ardbeg right back up there in terms of how to construct a highly drinkable and complex smoky whisky. Miss this one at your peril.

Next up, a dram we’d wanted to try since this site began…Pray silence please for Ardbeg Provenance…

Ardbeg Provenance - 1974 - 55.6%

Nose: Walnut husks, firm asparagus, overripe plums, melted marshmallows and a faint whiff of BBQ. The peat smoke is wonderfully delicate, soft and medicinal, without any overpowering notes whatsoever. With a dash of water, hints of old leather armchairs and polished oak come to the fore, but by then, you're completely taken in. We could smell this all night.

Palate: Sweet chocolate and walnut cream - basically like biting into a Walnut Whip. The delicate smoke lingers, with hints of baby back ribs, BBQ sauce and tobacco notes.

Finish: Lengthy soft smoke and rich vanillas, leading into some dried fruit notes. Superbly balanced.

Overall: Without a shadow of a doubt, this is a masterpiece of whisky making. It fetches a high price now on auction sites, but mid 70's Ardbegs have such a magic about them, which gives them such a desirability. If you can beg borrow or steal, get one of these for your collection and open it, don't stick it in a dark cupboard. Whiskies as good as this need to be enjoyed, savoured and remembered for the spirit inside the bottle, not just their aesthetic beauty.

Once again, Ardbeg have delivered a great open day and we very much look forward to next year's Feis. Come and Join us!!

Tomorrow we head over to Arran for the distillery's open day and to pick up a bottle or 92...