Ardbeg are the latest Islay distillery to join the 'single digit age statement' movement, and it's a permanent addition to their core range - so it's not going to go mental like the limited editions do. Well, hopefully...
Ardbeg have been quite busy over the last couple of years, between the recent An Oa core range bottling, two batches of the Traigh Bhan 19-year old annual release, and a few 'Twenty Something' older bottlings, plus the pending release of a core range 25-year old bottling, they haven't exactly been resting on their laurels. That's not including the two versions of the annual 'Ardbeg Day' bottling - with the pinot noir cask-finished Blaaack being the latest iteration, and I'll be surprised if we don't see more Supernova bottlings in the near future - just remember that they're no longer all distilled from 100+ ppm malted barley, they're now a mix of that super-heavily peated spirit and casks of regular 50-55 ppm Ardbeg that the distillery found to be 'particularly peaty'. Thankfully, the venerable 10-year old, Uigeadail and Corryvreckan are still with us as well, and let's hope they don't go anywhere! Ardbeg 10 Year Old is still one of the best bang-for-buck Islay single malts out there, particularly when you consider the bottling strength of 46% and the lack of chill filtration or added colouring - there really aren't many distilleries that can tick all of those boxes at the same price level. They're also working on a significant expansion of the distillery, including the addition of a second pair of stills which are expected to fire (or should that be steam) in to life in mid-2021. Adding to all of this excitement is the recent arrival of a new Distillery Manager, ex-Lagavulin manager Colin Gordon, following the retirement of Mickey Heads, although Mickey will continue to chair the Ardbeg Committee fan club / loyalty program. Colin has also managed the Port Ellen Maltings, so it's safe to say that he knows his malt!
As is the case with everything Ardbeg does, much marketing noise was made about this most recent addition to the distillery's 'core range' of permanent expressions. The email broadcasts, video advertisements, press releases, pre-release reviews and social media promotion were all coming thick & fast. But the news was good, because most of the 'Ardbeg haters' have always had one major sticking point that they can't seem to get over: the lack of age statements in the distillery's core range of permanent bottlings. Indeed, prior to this release and aside from the aforementioned Traigh Bhan and 'Twenty Something' annual releases - which means they're not core range bottlings - the only permanent release of age-stated Ardbeg was the 10-year old. Personally I've never had a huge concern over NAS whiskies, provided that the whisky itself doesn't suffer (as in decent strength, non-chill filtered and natural colour) and that the quality is left intact. And with Ardbeg's NAS bottlings that does tend to be the case - in fact they're probably one of the better performers around by that criteria. But as more distilleries have ramped up production to meet the ever-increasing demand that has exploded over the last decade or so, and as the spirit made under that increased production comes of age, we're seeing more distilleries from all walks of Scotland bringing age statements back into the fold. And regardless of what that number is and regardless of the other qualities of the whisky itself - remember that age and maturity do not always go hand in hand - it does seem to be working. Although I'm sure those same Ardbeg detractors will dust off their soapboxes when the next NAS Committee Release is announced!
Wee Beastie is a 5-year old single malt, which Ardbeg claim to be the youngest they've ever released, although technically 2004's 'Very Young' cask strength bottling was also 5-years old - there's no exact age statement on that one, but as printed on the label it was distilled in 1998 and bottled in 2004, which constitutes a 5-6 year old age statement in my book. The distillery also claims that they set out to produce "the rawest, smokiest Ardbeg ever", which to the casual observer / imbiber would be expected from a 5-year old peated whisky, even before the whisky's name is mentioned or the pretty and very emotive packaging is seen. But that's not necessarily the case, and in my opinion this is far from the smokiest Ardbeg ever made. It is certainly raw, though, and it does offer a very different experience from the rest of the distillery's range, but this is no massive peat monster. Wee Beastie was matured in both ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, but there's no mention of whether of not they were first-fill casks. In my opinion, based on smell & taste, there weren't many (if any) first-fill casks of either variety in this mix. And that's fine, of course, and it probably adds to the punchy, raw, unapologetic nature that they were looking for with Wee Beastie - and that approach certainly works for the likes of Lagavulin 8-year old. It also helps this 5-year old whisky stand further apart from Ardbeg 10, which uses a roughly 50/50 mix of first- and second-fill ex-bourbon casks. Wee Beastie is bottled at a slightly higher strength of 47.4% ABV, and is non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. Stock has finally landed in Australia in decent quantities, where it's selling for around $85 AUD - and that puts it on par with the 10-year old, which instantly puts a rather large obstacle in its path. Let's see how it fares.
Matured in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, presumably refill. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.
Colour: Medium-gold. A good shade darker than the 10yo.
Nose: Hot tar, fresh plastic / silicone (e.g. tupperware), wood ash and sour lemon juice. Green banana and smoked unripe pear. A bit of a prickle with hot chilli flakes and a little table salt, and some green pepper. Hints of hessian sacking and dark chocolate underneath.
Texture: Light-medium weight. Sweet, raw and immature - spirit-led, which is not usually a bad thing, but in a raw, under-cooked way here. Tongue-tingling heat but it fades quickly.
Taste: Raw, sweet and straight-forward. Thinly flavoured, if that makes sense. Thin, runny caramel, a little vanilla, some heat rub (e.g. deep heat), more green pepper, verging on green chilli flakes. Hot tar again, more plasticky pear & banana, and some vegetal peat and more hessian sacking underneath.
Finish: Medium length, raw & herbal. More hessian and table salt, sweetened plasticky fruit and sour lemon. A little ashy smoke, vanilla, and a hint of salted butter. Dried green herbs and green pepper again, turning slightly bitter.
Score: 3 out of 5. Almost a 2.5, but extra breathing time (both in the glass and in the bottle) helped.
Notes: Well it's certainly improved after a month of breathing time in the bottle. That plasticky, raw, under-cooked thing has been subdued a little, but it's still very much there. There's only a little discernible cask influence, which does make me think it was mostly refill cask-matured, and there's not a lot of character or depth & complexity on offer. So this Ardbeg is very spirit-led and quite clean, which is not not normally a bad thing, but without the balancing effects of cask influence or the calming effects of prominent peat influence, and if you ask me it also hasn't had quite enough time in casks for the extractive and oxidative processes to do their thing - see Lagavulin 8 or 12, Port Askaig 100 Proof, or even the regular Caol Ila 12 for good examples of what I'm talking about there. I've had plenty of younger whiskies (and some that weren't old enough to be whisky) at higher strengths that had more depth and more character, and were more rounded - and they didn't have this raw, green, thin, under-cooked thing that shows through in the Wee Beastie. So this is not age-ism by any means. But to be fair, most of those did cost significantly more than $85 AUD!
The casks just haven't added much depth, balance, richness or maturity to this young whisky like they could have if there were more first-fills involved - see the aforementioned 'Very Young' and 'Still Young' Ardbeg bottlings (which were both cask strength) for reference if you can find them, or the likes of Kilchoman's Machir Bay and/or Sanaig for example - in fact Kilchoman even use the same malt as Ardbeg and the pricing is much closer to Wee Beastie, so they're perfect examples. Now I need to try some Ardbeg new make spirit, just to see how much difference the five years have made to the Wee Beastie. It's not exactly a beast, in my opinion, but it's certainly raw, powerful and clean. For my money though, it doesn't challenge the 10-year old's crown. Ardbeg 10 is still the leader of the sub-$90 (AUD) Islay category, and let's hope it stays that way!
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Share your thoughts & opinion on my opinion!