Ardbeg Day
56.7% abv
Score: 91/100
A limited run of 12,000 bottles meant to commemorate the launch of International Ardbeg Day on June 2nd. You can only imagine how quickly this flew off the shelves. …Or in our case (Canada) never even made it to the shelves. I had to cross the sea to nab bottles of this! Yes…life is rough, I know.
I’ve read reference to this release as very much another ‘Uigeadail’. I can sorta see the rationale for comparison, but here again, as with each Ardbeg release, there is something to differentiate. Sometimes innovation is entirely unnecessary, and it simply makes more sense to find a winning formula and stick with it. Such is precisely the case here. Ardbeg decided to take a damn good spirit (comprised of nothing more than a mix of eight, nine and twelve year old bourbon casks married in sherry butts) bottle it strong and clean and sit back and collect the accolades. If it ain’t broke…or so they say.
The nose is led off on notes of pungent peat smoke, iodine and braised barbecued meat. There is a dry quality to this one. Closest I can come to nailing it down is the smell of wet rock (ever suck on a pebble?), ashes & tar and oysters on the shell. Lemon Pledge and lively eucalyptus. Fishiness meets farminess. A medicinal Band-aid note I’d more closely associate with Lagavulin. A damn good expression of Ardbeg, to be honest, with a slightly odd ashy profile.
Flavour wise…BBQ chips (crisps, for my mates on the other side), weighty in salt, smoke and sweet meatiness. That ashiness follows through here as well. Licorice. A lingering fishy peat and brine.
Recently referred to by a friend as a natural ‘progression of the range’. Absolutely dead on.
Shame this was a limited release.
– Reviewed by: Curt
– Photo: Curt
All Things Whisky 
Been thinking about this one a lot lately. Sigh. Wish there had been more than 12k bottles produced.
Man, I am so glad I’ve still got two unopened bottles in the bunker.
Ditto.
If either of you need help opening the bottles, I volunteer. I’m pretty good at pulling a cork.
Man…that last sentence sounds so wrong.
Only if you believe in collecting and not drinking…
I refer to the underlying sexual connotation, not to cracking the bottle. Sorry…I’m a childish boy at heart.
I was hoping to steer the conversation safely away. Thanks for anchoring it…
Sorry Skeptic but you’re going to need to buy me dinner first.
My sincere apologies for continuing the innuendo. As for my Ardbeg Day bottles, they will be shared with family and close friends in the future.
I’ll MAKE you dinner for a dram of a special scotch I would otherwise never taste…
But further than that, you’d have to check with the wife…