SMWS "Festival" Three-Way Whisky Review!

"Festival Three-Way" actually sounds a bit like an SMWS bottling label, doesn't it? But no, this is a three-for-one review of three different SMWS bottlings from their 2022 "Festival" releases. 

Why am I putting the word "Festival" in quotation marks? Well, because the concept is a bit of a stretch, in my anal-retentive / anorak opinion, and an unnecessary one at that. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, a.k.a. SMWS or "The Society" is an independent bottler, who sources casks and/or spirit from distilleries, brokers and other companies from around the world. To be fair, many other independent bottlers also release special bottlings for various whisky festivals, and they often host events during those festivals where they launch or at least feature these particular bottlings. For 2022 the SMWS has released six single malt whiskies as "Festival" bottlings, covering each of the official Scotch whisky production regions, while also doubling-up on Islay. They also departed from their standard operating procedure of (mainly) single cask bottlings by releasing all of these whiskies as vattings / batches of single malt, each consisting of 1,100-2,600 bottles. I have no issue with that myself, although some of the Society's more dyed-in-the-wool members might. Single cask releases are extremely variable since no two casks are ever exactly alike, and while that natural inconsistency forms a large part of the appeal of single cask independent bottlers like the SMWS. Releasing small batch bottlings / vattings of single malts instead gives their blenders a chance to work their magic, and when done well the result can become more than the sum of its parts. A cynic might think that those blenders have just thrown some casks together and hoped for the best, or even that some (or all) of those casks weren't up to the standard required for a single cask bottling. But that's not likely to be the case here given all of these SMWS "Festival" bottlings featured the same cask types, and all carried age statements. So it's more likely that they found / were offered larger parcels of casks from a broker or brokers, were able to play with some of them in the blending room, and then release them simultaneously around May/June 2022. 

The three SMWS bottlings that I'm reviewing here are from two different regions; the Highlands represented by an 18-year old Glen Garioch (a.k.a. distillery 19 in SMWS code), and Islay, represented by both a 17-year old Bowmore (a.k.a. distillery 3) and an 8-year old Caol Ila (a.k.a. distillery 53). All are cask strength, non-chill filtered and natural colour, and with age statements. Unfortunately these "Festival" bottlings don't have cask details printed on the labels like the rest of the SMWS range, but a quick google search remedies that - just like a quick google search remedies the code system that the Society uses! Speaking of which, for obvious reasons these small batch bottlings don't have cask / bottling codes like the single casks do, they only have the distillery code and their typically evocative SMWS names; in this case "Hazelnut Bubble Gum", "Fruity Time Travel", and "Throw The Cork Away!". There's also some rather abstract artwork in place of the usual tasting notes and cask information. Yes, I would've preferred the latter instead. Let's get this three-way underway! 

And my apologies for the whiskybase.com images. 

Glen Garioch, pronounced "Glen Geery" is a largely underrated distillery, particularly here in Australia where Beam Suntory's importer - a tiny little company called Coca Cola Amatil - chooses not to bring any into the country, at least on a regular basis. Just like they don't bring us any Laphroaig Cairdeas or Cask Strength 10-year old, or any age statement Ardmores, or any special release Bowmores... A few enterprising retailers do parallel import some Glen Garioch official bottlings, mainly of the core range, but if you're looking at a Glen Garioch single malt in Australia, it's probably an independent bottling. The distillery actually got some financial investment and media attention recently, both possibly for the first time in its 225-year history, when the floor maltings were reinstated and the wash still was converted back to direct-fire heating. Obviously it'll be at least a few years before we see any of the results in liquid form - if any make it to Australia at all - but it's still exciting to see. This SMWS Glen Garioch release for the 2022 "Festival" is an 18-year old, distilled in February 2003 and matured in first-fill ex-bourbon barrels, and dubbed "Hazelnut Bubblegum". Pricing for this one was around $270 AUD, which I wouldn't exactly call a bargain, but isn't terrible considering what this independent bottler and many others are now trying to charge for "sexier" distilleries at similar ages. 1,128 bottles were released at a cask strength of 55.6% ABV. 

Colour: Medium gold. 

Nose: Nutty, dry, minty & oily. Dry-roasted hazelnuts & almonds, new stone pavers, spearmint bubble gum & fresh grapefruit rind. Hints of clean earth and toasted oak. Time brings out strawberry & cream lollies (Allens), some dry wood spices and a flash of bitter dark chocolate. 

Texture: Medium weight, oily, dry & spicy. No heat at all. 

Taste: Dry-roasted nuts again, but adding a few peanuts this time. Touch of savoury honey and dried mint, unsweetened bubble gum. Fresh grapefruit rind around the edges. Clean malty oils and drying wood spices. 

Finish: Short length. More malty oils, wood spices, and dry-roasted nuts. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: This is actually the second time I've tried this whisky, and while my palate was definitely the worse for wear on the first occasion I also think it's opened up considerably since then. Never forget folks, breathing time, both in the bottle and in the glass, can have a huge effect on many whiskies! This is a lovely spirit-driven, dry & oily dram. It's not hugely complex, but it "does what it says on the tin" - Hazelnut Bubble Gum is definitely a fitting name. The nose is certainly the star of the show, and the palate doesn't disappoint, but the finish does. Unfortunately it just doesn't have the stamina or staying power that I would've liked. Hard to believe this whisky has spent 18-years in first-fill bourbon casks too, there's no vanilla, caramel or coconut to speak of, and it's very much spirit-led. But that's not a complaint by any means, merely an observation - whatever those casks did or didn't do, they've let the spirit shine through nicely. Official bottlings of Glen Garioch do tend to be quite wood- and/or cask-heavy, so this is a refreshing change of pace! 

Next up, Islay's Bowmore. This one is named "Fruity Time Travel", a 17-year old that was distilled in April 2004 and matured in second-fill ex-bourbon hogsheads. There have been a raft of 17-year old Bowmores released recently by almost every independent bottler in the industry, all from refill casks, which makes me think that either the distillery sold off a heap of casks, or a broker released a big 'parcel' of stock at once. That doesn't mean that they're not great casks or great bottlings of course, although they certainly aren't / weren't cheap, ranging from $350-500 AUD on these shores. This SMWS example was slightly more reasonably priced at $350, which is still a good chunk of money, but is just under what now seems to be the going rate for anything decent from this distillery. Bowmores tend to lean into their tropical fruit flavour profile around this age, particularly when matured in first- or second-fill bourbon casks, so once again the name of this SMWS bottling is quite fitting. As they often are, at least when the tasting panel hasn't had too much coffee - or too many drams - that day! This batch bottling consisted of 1,326 bottles at a cask strength of 57.0% ABV. 

Colour: Pale gold. 

Nose: Medicinal, fruity & buttery. Tiger balm ointment, black pepper, old bandages & voltaren gel (topical gels for muscle pain). Mango skins, coal dust, cold burnt toast and a touch of sweet pineapple.

Texture: Medium weight. Buttery, medicinal, peppery. No heat at all. 

Taste: More juicy mango skins, melted salted butter on burnt toast, briny seawater and more old bandages. Coal dust, black pepper, and more voltaren gel. Touch of sweet & acidic juicy pineapple. 

Finish: Long length. More melted butter on burnt toast, black pepper, coal dust, and acidic pineapple juice (unsweetened this time). Mango skins, and a touch of guava. Medicinal ointments and briny seawater to finish. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Delicious medicinal, peaty, fruity Bowmore. There's a surprising amount of peat still kicking along here, and very little cask influence, letting the spirit do its thing. This would have to be the most medicinal Bowmore that I've tasted, and one of the saltiest / briniest too for that matter. Still expensive, yes, but great stuff. Official bottlings of Bowmore, please take note! Leave your spirit alone, present it properly - higher ABV, non-chill filtered and natural colour - and without a ridiculous marketing story, a stupid-looking decanter or some fancy wine cask finishing (or, god help us, virgin oak), and it can still be magnificent. Or for an easier option, just bring back the Tempest / Dorus Mor series...

And last but not least, the second Islay bottling in the bunch, the Caol Ila. While still not exactly a bargain, at $199 AUD this was one of the cheaper bottlings in the "Festival" line-up, and the equal-youngest at 8-years of age. It was also the only cask finished / secondary cask matured bottling of the six (although another was triple cask-matured), with initial maturation in ex-bourbon hogsheads before being transferred to first-fill American oak oloroso sherry hogsheads for "more than two years". In my experience Caol Ila in first-fill sherry casks is much better served as a shorter finish/secondary maturation rather than full-term maturation, which often overwhelms the spirit and can leave it almost entirely devoid of character. Which shouldn't be the case here! 2,677 bottles were released at 58.4% ABV.  

Colour: Amber. 

Nose: Dirty, deep & rubbery. Soy sauce, beef stock cubes, and bonfire smoke. A big pile of drying kelp and salt-laden driftwood. Fatty bacon, cigar ash, salted caramel fudge. Spicy peat further in, and a touch of ginger. 

Texture: Heavy weight. Dirty, salty & pungent. No heat at all. 

Taste: More soy sauce & beef stock cubes, fried mushrooms, salted caramel fudge, and dried seaweed with extra salt. A little rubber (bicycle inner tubes) and fatty, oily bacon. Salted dried lemon behind. 

Finish: Long length. More salted caramel fudge, seaweed, black olives, and a touch of yeasty bread. Black pepper, bacon rind, and salted dried lemon. Dirty bonfire smoke to finish. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. Only just over the line, though. 

Notes: Right on the border of the sherry casks overwhelming the spirit in my amateur opinion, and approaching the line of being a little too dirty, at least for my tastes. Mega salty too, and quite funky. Sherry influenced Caol Ila is often dirty, but I can see this one being quite divisive. At times this one feels slightly too youthful, but then perfectly mature at others, and I wouldn't have wanted any more input from the sherry casks. I don't mind a dirty, funky Caol Ila at all, but I'm not sure I'd be throwing the cork away here. In my book this is more of a final dram to finish a night or to close a session. There'll be plenty who disagree with me there, though!

Overall Notes: Three totally different whiskies, of course, and even the two Islays are worlds apart. I can see why they chose to include both in their "Festival" release line-up. The Bowmore is a clear winner from these three examples if you ask me, and it's a great example of what the distillery / spirit can do when it's left alone, and when it's properly presented. If only the distillery owners would realise that... Oh well, at least we have the independent bottlers to save the day!

Cheers!

Old Master Spirits 1982 Armagnac Review!

Another non-malt first for Peated Perfection, once again courtesy of Old Master Spirits: My first Armagnac review! This isn't just any armagnac though, in typical Old Master fashion this is a 39-year old single cask. These guys don't do things by halves! 

Armagnac is often thought of as cognac's poorer cousin, which is an unfair and very incorrect assessment. Just as cognac is a type of white wine-derived brandy from the Cognac region (AOC/DOC) of south-western France, armagnac is a white wine-derived brandy from the Armagnac region of southern France. To think of armagnac as being inferior to cognac would be like thinking every single malt Scotch whisky is better than any other single malt whisky; it's just not the case, and blanket statements & misconceptions like that only serve to give you tunnel vision. Cognac is certainly the "sexier" of the two cousins though, largely thanks to the marketing efforts of the big cognac brands. It's not my preferred music genre by any means, but I can't say I've heard any rap lyrics bragging about an expensive armagnac, or seen any armagnac brands being thrown about in their videos. But then I can only name one armagnac brand off the top of my head. Marketing is a funny thing! Armagnac is often cheaper than an equivalent cognac, which might benefit the discerning drinker, but doesn't help its comparative image as far as glamour and "luxury" goes. Much like cognac, armagnac is split into different production regions within the area of the AOC, with Bas Armagnac being the largest and most commonly seen. Haut Armagnac and Armagnac Tenareze are the other two official appellations, both of which are considerably smaller and rarely seen in comparison. "Bas" is pronounced "Baz" and translates to "low" in English, but that only refers to a lower altitude above sea level and certainly not quality. "Haut" is pronounced "Ugh" and translates to "high" for the same reason, and "Tenareze" region is believed to be derived from "Route of Caesar", as in the Roman Emperor.     

Aside from geography, the main difference between these two brandies lies in the distillation, where cognac must be double-distilled in copper pot stills by law, armagnac is typically produced in a column still - although as you can see from the image below, they're a far cry from the massive industrial column stills that we know from the world of grain whisky and other mass-produced spirits. These rustic copper stills are known as 'Alambic Armagnacais', where a dry acidic white wine is continuously fed into the still for distillation, but on its way down it also serves as the cooling liquid to condense the spirit vapours back into liquid as they leave the column - as with cognac, this happens in a tightly-packed worm tub condenser rather than a modern shell & tube design. A single distillation run in these short columns with a small number of plates (typically less than ten) produces a far less refined spirit than a modern column still, and results in a much lower spirit strength, often just 50-60% ABV. While pot stills are also legally permitted for armagnac production, their use is very uncommon and is considered untraditional. Aside from the distillation, armagnac also uses some (but not all) different grape varieties to cognac, most commonly the ugni blanc and baco varieties, while like cognac maturation happens in French oak, but matured spirit is often transferred to glass demijohns for storage, which is considered part of the maturation and can be (but is not always) included in any age statements. Also like cognac, armagnac producers are permitted to add caramel colouring, sugar, and 'boise', the liquid wood extract which adds colour and flavour to the spirit. Thankfully the latter two are used less often in armagnac than in cognac, but it does still happen with some mainstream brands. Also much like cognac, the vast majority of armagnac is blended together using spirits from different distilleries / houses, although single vintage bottlings are more common in armagnac, with any age statement referring to the youngest component in the spirit. 

Much like the two cognacs I reviewed here, this independent bottling from Melbourne's Old Master Spirits is a single cask, single producer armagnac, bottled at cask strength and without chill filtration, and without any added colouring, sugar, or flavouring. This is a 39-year old Bas Armagnac from Chateau Bordeneuve, who label their official bottlings as Baron de Sigognac, named after one of their prolific cellar masters. This 'Armagnac House' is privately owned by the Gausch family, and dates back to the 1800s. They only produce Bas Armagnac, and every step of the production process happens on site, from harvesting the grapes - primarily ugni blanc and baco varieties, grown on site - to pressing, fermentation, distillation, maturation and bottling. Speaking of maturation, Baron de Sigognac only use French Limousin oak casks, mostly refill but also including some virgin oak, which are matured in a stone-walled, earthen-floored cellar dating back to 1840. This single cask bottling of Bas Armagnac was distilled in 1982 from 65% baco, 25% ugni blanc, and 10% folle blanche grapes, and has been matured in French oak for the full 39-years. The cask yielded 122 x 500ml bottles at a cask strength of 47.6% ABV, and it'll be released on Old Master Spirits' website on Thursday the 25th of August (2022). Pricing is extremely reasonable for a 39-year old single cask spirit at just $249 AUD - imagine what that figure would look like if this was a 39-year old single malt! Let's see how it fares.  

Colour: Dark bronze. 

Nose: Rich, weighty & dense. Warm wood spices, juicy sweet oak, sweet floral spirit around the edges. Sweet orange, lightly acidic. Soft old leather and fruit & nut chocolate further in. 

Texture: Medium weight. Sweet, spicy & nicely oaky. No heat whatsoever. 

Taste: Juicy sweet oak, touch of bubble gum, warm wood spices. Sweet grape syrup, more soft old leather & sweet orange. 

Finish: Medium length. Wood spices, dark chocolate, old leather & toasted oak. 

Score: 4 out of 5 (bearing in mind my limited armagnac experience). 

Notes: Dessert in a glass. Lovely stuff! Not a huge amount of complexity maybe, but what it does it does extremely well, and it's ridiculously easy drinking without being overly woody - this armagnac has spent 39-years in French oak, remember! By far the best armagnac I've tasted to date, and I have come across quite a few - more than I have cognac, so far at least. This Bas-armagnac proves, again, that Old Master Spirits really know what they're doing. They're waiting for the right cask of the right spirit to come along when it's ready, without any commercial pressures or greedy shareholders pushing them in any direction. And they clearly have some great connections. They're all about quality spirits and reasonable pricing, and it seems to be working wonders for them! 

This is definitely one to look at for if you're a brandy and/or cognac/armagnac fan, and it won't last long with only 122 bottles at $249 AUD. For a great quality 39-year old single cask spirit of any description, that's some serious value for money!

But that's not all folks. We have another 'malternative' for dessert. An Australian rum! This is a single cask dark rum, distilled at Black Gate Distillery in Mendooran, New South Wales, and again bottled by Old Master Spirits. This is a sugar cane molasses rum, double-distilled in Black Gate's direct-fired copper pot still (pictured below) and aged for three years in a single French oak ex-shiraz wine cask, sourced from Huntington Estate Wines in Mudgee, New South Wales. Just 84 bottles were available, priced at only $115 AUD, and I've said "were", because they sold out in less than an hour a few weeks ago. So you probably won't be able to buy this one! I'm not going to score this rum since it's my first semi-official rum review, and it's already sold out regardless, but I was very curious to try it, and I had to share the results!

Colour: Copper. 

Nose: Dark, rich & heavy. The molasses is there, and there's a big dollop of "rum funk" - acetone, oil paints, over-ripe banana. But there's a lovely rich caramel fudge too, and it's quite fruity underneath with plums, sweet apricots in honey, some artificial strawberry syrup and oily furniture polish. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Rich, funky & fruity. Very slight touch of heat. 

Taste: Mint, dried plum, black tea leaves, caramello koalas (caramel milk chocolate) and some eucalyptus. The over-ripe banana and solventy "funk" are these again, but they're more in the background here. 

Finish: Medium length. Leather, over-ripe banana, mint and more caramel milk chocolate. Touch of that oily paint and a little burnt toffee to round things out.

Notes: Certainly a funky rum, with a good whack of "Australian-ness" to it, but in a good way. I'm far from an expert on the subject, but I'd say this Black Gate rum from Old Master Spirits is skirting the line between a funky Jamaican rum and an Australian dark rum, plus the added fruit from the wine cask. And it does work well! As I said above, I'm not a huge rum fan personally, the molasses sometimes gives me flashbacks to a darker and rougher (in terms of drink!), pre-whisky era of my life, and a faint whiff of one particular brand is often enough to send me running for the hills. I've only come across a few rums that I've enjoyed in the last ten years or so, mainly of the Caribbean variety - one SMWS Caroni, one Master Blender's Reserve blend from Black Tot, and a Havana Club special release that was matured in ex-Bowmore sherry casks - so that last one probably doesn't count! 

Black Gate's spirits are intentionally "rough around the edges" in terms of character, probably a result of the hot climate maturation and also the direct-fired still, which gives them plenty of substance, both in texture and in character. Young, rich and powerful, and packing a flavour punch, and this rum is no different. It's been rounded nicely by that wine cask maturation though, even after a relatively short period of time, giving it an extra fruity edge without taking over completely. This is certainly an Australian whisky drinker's rum, and a funky one at that!

Thanks to Deni from Old Master Spirits for the samples for these reviews, and for his open & professional communication once again! Be sure to sign up to the mailing list on their site for the launch of the armagnac and future releases.  

Cheers!

Ardbeg Ardcore Committee Release Whisky Review!

Heavily roasted / chocolate malt in an Ardbeg? Consider my curiosity piqued. Although the official tasting note / marketing snippet from Dr. Bill Lumsden, "like biting a spiky ball", which is not exactly tantalising!

As much as I still love the distillery, Ardbeg's special releases have always been hit & miss. Actually, let's say they've always been a rollercoaster ride. To be fair, for a long time the highs were quite high with the likes of Ardbog, Dark Cove CR, Grooves CR , while the lows like Auriverdes, Kelpie and Drum weren't really that low in the wider whisky world scheme of things. But since those earlier days the waters have been muddied by the regular addition of more & more special releases in addition to the "Day" / Feis Ile bottlings, and the pricing on those has sky-rocketed in comparison. Take Arrrdbeg and the recent Fermutation for example, which were both lacklustre whiskies with greedy price tags. Then the distillery redeemed itself with the 8-year old "For Discussion", which was both great quality and great value for money, and is still readily available. On the other hand we've seen three batches of the 19-year old Traigh Bhan hit the shelves, where while the quality is great the local pricing has increased by $100 AUD each time, for an identical specification - the third batch is now $500! Like I said, a rollercoaster ride. For the distillery's relatively small output of around 1.25-million litres of spirit per year - although that recently climbed to over 2.4-million litres with the new still house - and considering the constant & significant demand for the core range offerings in the 10-year old, Uigeadail and Corryvreckan, Ardbeg does manage to release a huge amount of different limited releases. And most don't seem to be very "limited". Let's not forget that they continue to release two different versions of their Feis Ile / Ardbeg Day releases every year, and have done since 2015, with the higher strength un-packaged & modestly labelled Committee Release soon followed by larger amounts of the 46% ABV standard version with its more elaborate labelling & packaging. In Australia at least, the stock of both does seem to be hanging around longer & longer with each year that ticks over. I can't say if that's down to larger amounts of bottles in the releases or just a larger local allocation of stock, but I suspect it's also because many whisky enthusiasts have a bit of Ardbeg fatigue these days. Then again, any losses there have probably been taken up by the increased number of flippers, speculators & investors that the pandemic has spawned, and Ardbeg is always near the top of their lists!

Personally, I'm still falling victim to some of these releases, so I can't knock the distillery team for doing their jobs well. The production seem to find/design a unique selling point each time that is both appealing to the long-term Ardbeg fans and the novices, and even some of the cynics. The distillery's corporate marketing team then run wild after taking their daily dose of LSD, resulting in stories about sea monsters, hippies, dragons, and punks, and other totally unnecessary crap that has nothing to do with the whisky itself. The real USP with these Ardbegs is usually just a case of throwing some different casks in the vatting, or occasionally they play with the spirit itself instead. With this 2022 Ardbeg Day release "Ardcore", they've played with the spirit again, but this time with the barley itself. I'm sure most of us are familiar with Glenmorangie's very successful Signet expression, which uses roasted malt a.k.a "chocolate malt" as an unknown portion of its mash bill. That roasted malt is similar to what a brewer would use to make a porter or a stout, and it gives Signet chocolate & coffee flavours in the spirit itself. Glenmorangie is Ardbeg's sister distillery, with the same "mad scientist" Dr. Bill Lumsden overlooking "whisky creation" at both sites, so it was almost inevitable that Ardbeg would do something similar one day. And that's essentially what we have here, an Ardbeg that was "created with roasted black malt", which is even more heavily roasted than the chocolate malt used in Signet. Much like Signet, we don't officially know exactly how much of the malted barley was roasted - although according to Distillery Manager Colin Gordon via YouTube, that proportion was 25%. It's virtually impossible to use 100% heavily roasted malt in a mash bill since it creates problems with milling and mashing, and particularly with fermentation - after being kilned the black malt is extremely dry, and there's much less fermentable sugar available for the yeast to feast on, so it has to be mixed in with regular malted barley for the sake of proper fermentation and a decent yield. Also according to Colin Gordon the remaining 75% of the malted barley used in Ardcore had a lower peating level than Ardbeg's standard 55 ppm specification, and I'm only speculating here, but that could also mean that it didn't come from Ardbeg's usual source, Port Ellen Maltings. 

As is often the case with these limited release Ardbegs, we don't know what type of cask/s Ardcore was matured in, or how long it has been left to mature in those casks. Presumably it's all ex-bourbon casks, and I suspect most (if not all) of those were refill. I also suspect it's quite a young whisky, based on smell & taste, and also the colour, which is paler than the 10. I'm guessing we're looking at less than 8-years here. And maybe that's why Ardcore is being described as "the most hardcore Ardbeg ever". We're looking at the Committee Release version of Ardcore here, which was bottled at 50.1% (but not cask strength), is non-chill filtered and natural colour. Local pricing on the Committee Release was reasonable at $225 AUD, while the standard version at 46% is less reasonable at around $230 AUD - and it's still readily available. Let's find out just how spiky this ball is!

Ardbeg Ardcore Committee Release, NAS, 50.1%. Islay, Scotland.

Ardbeg Day release 2022. Distilled from 25% heavily roasted black malt, 75% malt peated to less than Ardbeg's usual 55 ppm. Unknown cask type/s but presumably refill ex-bourbon. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Very pale gold. White wine. 

Nose: Definitely very young, sweet and quite raw. Settles & opens up with extra breathing time, but it's still very young & raw. Dark cocoa powder, new plastic tupperware, milky caramel espresso (i.e. with a shot of caramel syrup added), glue, aniseed & charcoal briquettes. Burnt rubber, hot tar, new bandaids & hot smoky peanut oil. Some green banana, smoked pear and lemon rind around the edges.   

Texture: Light-medium weight. Oily & juicy entry but it thins out & fades very quickly. A slight heat but not harsh, and fades quickly. 

Taste: More caramel espresso, but no milk this time. Charcoal & tar again, plastic, new rubber and a touch of aniseed. Soot & ash, smoked pear, and a touch of salted bitter lemon. Hot smoky peanut oil and a touch of toffee stout in the background. 

Finish: Short length. Aniseed & caramel espresso, but with milk again this time. Turns creamy with a little vanilla, unripe pineapple, rubber pencil eraser and hot peanut oil. Tar, bitter charcoal & lemon rind. 

Score: 3 out of 5, but not miles away from a 3.5. 

Notes: So we haven't been entirely punked with the Ardcore Committee Release, but it was close. Thankfully it did open up with extra breathing time, but there are definitely shades of the very lacklustre Wee Beastie here. That plasticky sweetness and the pear notes seem to show the youth and immaturity, which are also present in that 5-year old example. Thankfully Ardcore does have more character than Wee Beastie, but I don't think it's much older. I understand why Ardbeg would want to fill this into mostly (if not all) refill bourbon casks and to bottle it young, since they want that black malt to show through as much as possible, which means keeping the spirit front & centre in the finished product. Personally I would've preferred a few slightly older first fill bourbon casks be thrown into the mix, which would've helped give it some more weight & depth, and a longer finish, in my amateur opinion. Even if they were casks of "regular" Ardbeg mixed in with the 25% black malt spirit. That used to be the standard procedure with these special releases, they'd be vattings of "regular" bourbon cask Ardbeg married with whatever cask that year's point of difference was. But the distillery seems to have moved away from that practice now, even giving us a cask finish at one point (Ardbeg Drum) - which has historically never been the case with Ardbeg, they were always marriages / vattings of separately matured casks, even in the core range.

Still, Ardcore Committee Release is a pleasant experience, more so than Wee Beastie if you ask me, and that black malt does show through with the extra caramel, aniseed & rubber notes. There's certainly a noticeably lower peat influence compared to regular Ardbeg, which makes sense given the lower peating level of the malt used for the 75% peated malt, in addition to the 25% unpeated black malt in the mash bill. It's certainly not my favourite Ardbeg Day / Feis bottling, and as usual, the biggest enemy of any limited release Ardbeg is the Ardbeg core range. That's fine at the original retail pricing on the committee release since they're aren't too far apart, but I wouldn't be paying more than that on the secondary market given the difference in quality. Despite the swings in quality & flavour over the years, Uigeadail and Corryvreckan are still forces to be reckoned with when you need an Ardbeg fix. And frankly I'd take a dram of either of them, or the 10-year old, over this Ardcore. 

Cheers!