Ah, a pure old Ardbeg! It’s not that I don’t like the sherried ones, but I’m always more interested in the ‘naked’ versions. Let’s taste this one now… Colour: pale gold. Nose: wow, lots of lemongrass and grapefruit juice at first nosing. The peat is soon to arrive but it’s a very elegant one, far, very far from the trendy ‘smack in your face’ kind of peat promoted by… Ardbeg (Very Young, anyone?) Some great notes of seaweed, sea-urchins, oysters… The lemony smells strike back after a moment, and then the peat smoke again, and then the sea elements… And all these aromas finally melt to give us something really beautiful and unique: an old and pure Ardbeg. Wow! Mouth: oh, what a stunner! A sweet and almost funnily lumpish attack on apple pie and pink grapefruit, which doesn’t manage to hide the big, bold, yet elegant peat blast for very long. Sneaky! It then gets both extremely lemony and smoky, like if you were enjoying some smoked oysters with lemon juice. And no sign of over-ageing whatsoever! Perhaps it’s not extremely complex, but it’s superbly compact and amazingly satisfying. The finish is very, very peaty and again, lemony (or rather on grapefruit). Ah, I’m so glad this ‘Ardbeg for France’ isn’t a sherried one! Austerity at its best!

---

Show more

---

---

Show less

---