The nose isn't quite what I'd expect from an Ardbeg -- fruity, smoke of course, and something like tomato sauce. The palate is YUMMY. It starts quite sweet, with lemons and honey. The smoke takes a moment to show up, but when it does, it continues to assert itself and stays forever. The finish on this thing is like a day or two. You want smoke? Welcome to heaven. Adding water brings out that musty/dusty quality that I find a dependable Ardbeg characteristic. Water also increases quaffability while sacrificing no flavors (just intensity of course) although I don't really find any new elements emerging. In all, it's not necessarily much smokier than anything I've tried before... however, I think the super-peating is what leads to the marathon finish. Are there big dimensions to this whisky? Not really. Does it have character? Absolutely. A superb, peaty treat.
Nose is not overly huge but the palate sure is, obvious big peat but not over the top, balanced by an equal sweetness. Lemon sugar. Need to brush your teeth to get this one out of your mouth. Now with a few drops of water... Whoa, gets fruity floral, still massive. Tasty stuff.
Nose: Peat. Palette: Peat. Finish: Peat. It's definitely Ardbeg. After 50 ppm phenol (Ardbeg 10) I don't know I can taste much difference at 100 ppm. Not bad at all. Very drinkable. I agree with Chris -- the taste won't leave you until you brush it out.
Nose is strong. Superbubble bubblegum, lemon pine sol and briney air. Taste is, wow, agressive. Reminds me of a PC6. The peat is there, but the 100ppm isn't the big player here (ie, 60 ppm would be similar). The pine sol sticks to the back of the palate and stays until you wash your mouth out. The sweetness is fleeting, which is a drawback for me. Water only makes the bitter-leafiness more prominent.
This is another case of too much pre-taste hype. It is great and I really liked it but it just didn't live up to the 100ppm, "most heavily peated whisky ever" kinda talk that was going around.
The peat seems to have diminishing returns and does not seem to get much more peaty as the ppm goes up. But does that all really matter? It's really good whisky. The peat IS heavier than normal but not really.... stronger...? Well, it seems like there is more of it but not really more intense....I just guess this is hard to put into words. The gun-powder/metallic undertones kinda kept this from getting into the A- category but but by a hair....it almost got there but the failure to meet the hype may have affectd my score.
The nose is sweet with smoke, but the smoke is not overwhelming. The first thing to hit the tongue is sweetness, followed immediately with a blast of smoke. The mouthfeel is intriguingly slick and oily. The sweet and the smoke are intertwined throughout, from start to finish; it's like a smoky candy - liquid smoke + simple syrup. Then, the smoke degrades a bit into bitterness and coal on the late palate/early finish. The final exhale, though, is pure smoke. A good Ardbeg, but not as well put together as their best.
Peat peat peat! Huge on the BBQ ham and bacon scents. The medicinal iodine notes are there but aren't too aggressive. Surprisingly there is sweet maltiness underneath all the peat and matchsticks. The peat continues and attacks your palate with a stinging sensation. But there's nice oily vanilla notes that gives it nice sweetness and texture. Finishes with some brine and citrus.
You'd think the high peat content would really make this a one trick pony but it has alot to offer and is fairly complex.
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