Ardbeg 17 Committee Exclusive (2024)
Bottled 2023 (Released 2024)
40% abv
We screamed for years for Ardbeg to give us back the 17 instead of another cleverly concocted (and marketed) limited release*. It seems our pleas have not fallen on deaf ears or, more likely, the good people at Ardbeg were already miles ahead of us. I’d almost given up hope of seeing this ever come to fruition. Needless to say, this is a warmly welcomed return, 20 years after the original 17 was retired. In my humble opinion, anyway. Unquestionably, the best modern 40%er I’ve tried in recent memory. Well done, Ardbeg. Now, this homage was cool, but how about a 46% version?
Nose: lime margarita, or rather, mezcal-rita, but with very retrained agave notes; melon; tangerine; starfruit; starfruit; brioche; white pepper; mineral notes, slightly slate-like; potter’s clay; and a wee bit of vanilla wafer cookie doused in pool water. Palate: more tangerine; cantaloupe; shellfish; brine; salt licorice; a decent smokiness; clean malty notes; sadly, very thin. Finish: I love the way the melons linger with that ashy smokiness; a bit of sharp greens married to mint; and then those mezcal-ritas again. Thoughts: Elegant. Somewhere between the new and old schools. The old 17 meets Airigh Nam Beist meets a touch of the Lumsden era distillate. Others haven’t been quite so generous, I hear, but despite the baseline abv… 89/100

*We’ve also been clamoring for a Ten Cask Strength. Y’know… essentially ‘Renaissance Redux.’ (a not so subtle hint, hopefully – CR)

(CR)