750 ML
Tasting note from distillery:
Aroma- A burst of intense smoky fruit escapes into the atmosphere-- peat infused with zesty lemon and lime, wrapped in waxy dark chocolate.
Bold menthol and black pepper slice through the sweet smoke followed by tarry ropes and graphite. Savour the aroma of smoked fish and crispy bacon alongside green bell peppers, baked pineapple and pear juice.
Add water and an oceanic minerality brings a breath of cool, briny sea spray. Waxed lemon and lime follows with coal tar soap, beeswax and herby pine woodlands.
Toasted vanilla and sizzling cinnamon simmer with warm hazelnut and almond toffee.
Taste- An explosion of crackling peat sets off millions of flavour explosions: peat effervesces with tangy lemon and lime juice, black pepper pops with sizzling cinnamon-spiced toffee.
Then comes a wave of brine infused with smooth buttermilk, ripe bananas and currants. Smoke gradually wells up on the palate bringing a mouthful of warm creamy cappuccino and toasted marshmallows.
As the taste lengthens and deepens, dry espresso, licorice root and tarry smoke develop coating the palate with chewy peat oils.
Finish- Long and smoky with tarry espresso, aniseed, toasted almonds and traces of soft barley and fresh pear.
Ardbeg Ten (46%; L2422842; 14 May 2021)
Nose: Sooty, slightly mechanical, quite salty. Seaweed, miso soup, sweet and tangy barbecue sauce, apples and pineapples offered to buddha (with old incense ash and all)… play dough, smoked dates, vegetable oil, sawdust, dark chocolate with caramel filling, pork floss, slight game meats, cocoa. I’m smelling some Benrinnes actually… With water, little bit fresher, brighter—more citrus, cinnamon, anise, eucalyptus, lemongrass, camphor, basil, slight mint, stinky tofu, only less pungent. Sulphur, ammonia, some chlorine maybe—slightly reminiscent of a swimming facility changeroom…
Palate: Very sweet, touch sour and salt, malty. Vanilla cream, yuzu, orange zest, pineapple, caramel, muffins, lemon juice, eucalyptus, fish sauce, ash. Vanilla, spice, ash and lemon zest in the finish.
88; very nice—always a stalwart