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Ardbeg Ardbog – Boggin’ but great

So on June 1st, it’s once again Ardbeg Day known as “Ardbog Day” this year, when the world prepares itself for some shooglin and dramming (that’s dancing and drinking) with “Embassies” across the world springing up to host the Ardbog Day release. Last years offering was reviewed by me here, this year it’s called Ardbog and I’ve already dug it.

Ardbog Day is best experienced at the distillery itself where they really throw quite a party (as well as some peat). There are numerous additional tastings and tours to join but for the more active among you, why not try one of the many other shenanigans on offer- such as The Peat and Spade Race, The Ardbeg Wheelbarrow Race, The Peat Sack Race, Boggy Welly Tossing, Dribbling Ardbog style, Bog of WarNot to name just a few. If Islay is just a bit too far from home, check out where your nearest Embassy is and join them for a dram or two. If you are in London, then sign up for the Ardbog Day March and get your hands dirty with whatever they have planned. I’ve heard sheep walking over a Thames bridge, but my source is unreliable at best.

Anyway, enough about the party, what about the whisky?

Ardbog is a 10 year old single malt which is a combination of spirit matured in both Ex-Bourbon American oak and Ex-Manzanilla Sherry butt.

Dr Bill Lumsden, Director of Distillation and Whisky Creation said about Ardbog “At its heart our hallmark smoky yet fruity and floral spirit has been matured in Spanish ex-Manzanilla sherry casks for ten years, which has then been wrapped with traditional Ardbeg of the same age that is matured in American ex-bourbon oak casks. The Manzanilla maturation weaves salty flavours through the whisky which is then balanced with the maple syrup creaminess of the first-fill ex-bourbon casks.”

Ardbeg Ardbog Single Malt Whisky

10 year old

52.1% ABV

Non-Chill Filtered

Release date: 1 June 2013

RRP £79.99

Appearance: Rose gold with polished bronze

Nose: An inviting nose, rich and complex with both soft floral and deep earthy notes. Honeycomb with dark chocolate deepens to liquorice root dipped in caramel. Freshly dug peat combines with gentle smoke and a hint of carbolic soap creating an earthy tone with a savory edge like pata negra ham. To the end, and with a splash of water, its cider apples rolled in ash.

Palate: Creamy and full, the rich palate delivers much of the notes from the nose, swirling and drifting between sweet flowers into earthy herbaceous tones. Mid palate is hit with a salty, brine like twist wrapped in gentle peat smoke and prickly spice. Cinder toffee, clove, salted almonds and a side of grilled artichoke in peppered olive oil. Quite a mouthful!

Finish: An oily finish, lingering peat smoke and a constant sweet/savory battle in the mouth

Summary: I was quite taken aback by this one, softer than expected and a fabulous mixture of twisting sensations. Nothing really takes over, everything seems to harmonize so well. This is nothing like the standard 10 year old Ardbeg, it’s much more refined, rounded and complex.

MindBOGglingly good!

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Posted by dramaticwhisky on May 21, 2013 in Education, Marketing, Reviews, tasting, Whisky

Tags: 10, America, Ardbeg, Ardbog, Bill, bog, bourbon, butt, Cask, chill, dancing, Day, distillery, Dr, dram, embassy, Festival, filtered, islay, limited, London, Lumsden, malt, manzanilla, march, non, nose, notes, oak, Old, party, peat, race, release, review, sample, Scotch, Sheep, Sherry, single, smoke, tasting, throw, traditional, wheelbarrow, whiskey, whisky, year

Talisker Storm – a new front approaches.

21 Feb

In many of the events held by Dramatic Whisky around the UK we often ask if any of our guests have visited distilleries and most will answer with a handful of Speyside examples, or often the more accessible ones such as Glenkinchie, Dalwhinnie as well as some of the central examples like Auchentoshan and every now and again an Islay will pop up. But rarely does the Talisker distillery get a mention, but when it does, you can see the beam of pride on the face of those who have.

Talisker distillery is sited on the Isle of Skye, part of the cluster of island of the west coast of Scotland know as the Inner Hebrides. It was always a destination you had to make an effort to see, it’s not so much getting to the island, but the drive across the highlands which was taxing. It’s easier to get to now since the building of the bridge although the 500 meter ferry crossing wasn’t too bad really.

Talisker has always been a sought after dram and has many a follower. It’s the younger expression which gains such high applause amongst its fans so when introducing something new, unless those lovely Distillers Editions and those with good age, I think its always best to compare it to the 10y year old.

So first, a quick recap:

Talisker 10 yr old. 45.8% abv RRP £32

Appearance: Rose gold with light straw.

Nose: Fresh brine and sea air before cracked black pepper on mackerel fillets on a beach BBQ. Underlying elements of orchard fruit keeps the smoke and spice in fine check.

Palate: Rich peat smoke takes hold, but again is kept firmly in place by the balanced salty edge. Fresh capsicum, warm nutmeg, ginger and white pepper all seem to roll around in the peat smoke coming to the fore one by one. Complex and always entertaining.

Finish: The lingering malt peat smoke and gentle pepper just keep giving.

The above tasting notes are from 2001

So, onto the newest release which has no age statement (so i’m expecting younger than 10) and is a marriage of selected mature Talisker casks of “rejuvenated” American oak, refill European cask and refill American cask. I’m not quite sure what “rejuvinated’ means in whisky terms? Cracked old casks with a couple of new staves added or some picked up at the garden centre and given a quick rinse out but surly a cask is either fit for purpose or not? Anyway, with refills being used isn’t that technically rejuvenated?

Talisker Storm Single Malt Scotch Whisky RRP £39

No age statement 45.8% abv

Appearance: Rose gold with bright hay.

Nose: Rich notes of tarry rope, flamed orange zest, mace, charred creme brulee, sweet malt and light clove/menthol roll in behind. Manuka honey with a nut oil base all dusted with fresh black pepper corns and a waft of seaside air make up this complex nose.

Palate: Sweet arbroath smokies rolled if peated malt with a lovely salt edge. There is plenty of underlaying fruitiness also with ripe pear, mandarin and a roasted butternut earthyness. The classic peppery element shines throughout with an extra hit of smoke towards the end.

Finish: Malt with balanced pepper, spice and smoke. The sweetness is short lived, as is the underlying fruitiness which tuns it more into the standard 10.

Summary: There is certainly youthfulness on both the nose and the palate, but fortunately it is well placed. It is always going to be hard to see past the value for money that the original Talisker 10 offers and I’m not entirely sure this quite does it. Bigger smoke, slightly sweeter with parts offering more complexity but rather short lived. Talisker fans will of course welcome something different to try but Im unsure if this will be different enough for them to keep coming back to it. One can only assume that as with many brands struggling to find stock for their age statement whisky, we could soon see the 10 Year old disappear from our shelves to be replaced by this. A Storm in a teacup then perhaps?

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Posted by dramaticwhisky on February 21, 2013 in Marketing, Reviews, tasting, Whisky

Tags: 10, American, auchetoshan, bridge, Cask, coast, coastal, dalwhinnie, diageo, distillery, dram, edition, european, ferry, fine, glenkinchie, Hebrides, inner, Isle, malt, New, notes, Old, outer, pepper, rare, refill, regions, release, released, review, reviewed, salt, Scotch, Scotland, sea, single, skye, Talisker, tasting, travel, whiskey, whiskies, whisky, year

The Day will come…Ardbeg Olympics

24 May

So as London prepares its aged system to cope with a bit of an increase in folk for July and Augst…wait, a BIT of an increase! who are we kidding!? This city is going to be brought to its knees with an influx of tourists in numbers never before seen in London. The transport system, already groaning and creaking under the weight of its current use will fail, crumble and disintegrate into one mass cube of metal and rubble quicker that a Jamaican man can run a straight line.

The Modern Olympics requires a modern city to host it, or at least one that can build a modern infrastructure to cope, not just polish up an old one.

Might sound like a rant ( and it is) but i had to travel from the West of London today to central, Chiswick to Soho Whisky Club to be precise, and was faced with delayed trains, failed signals and inconsiderate commuters who insisted on reading their newspaper in the middle of the carriage whilst others breathed salty air from the armpits of squished travellers as they crammed themselves into the carriage. I am the person on a train, whom without reservation, will tell those of a less considerate nature to “move inside the train and put your newspaper away” I think the Scottish accent helps drive home fear at times.

The reason for my olympic dash across London was to ensure I made it to the launch of a new Ardbeg release. The Ardbeg Day. I simply couldn’t miss this chance to be amongst the first to taste this new expression, sweaty or not (me not the dram).

Each year on Islay sees a celebration called Feis Ils, the Islay festival of music and malt. Whats not to love? This year sees Ardbeg take over an entire day,June 2nd, with a number of Olympic themed events taking place all with a whisky theme. Ardbeg release something a wee bit different at the festival, normally reserved for those on the island and in small enough quantities that its doubtful to see it elsewhere. But not this year.

Dr Bill Lumsden, master distiller at both the Ardbeg and Glenmorangie camps has created a dram which will be available to more than just those with a stomach for travel and adventure (its no easy trip over to Islay)

“Ardbeg Day” will be available outside the island to all the Ardbeg embassies and limited to 13,000 bottles which means a few more folk than normal will at least get to try it.

Bill took us through the 10 year old then the Alligator, the latter of which which he explains was inspired by the 70′s TV show The Sweeney, and in particular his love of the Granada Ghia from the series. As he said “the epitome at the time of upgraded class and cool”- this release was his vinyl roofed, fluffy diced, leather seated version of Ardbeg. A whisky inextricably linked to one of the coolest cars ever to grace british TV? that has to be good. Pity it was limited release which has long since gone but thankfully, there is a new release to take up the baton.

Ardbeg Day is made up from parcels of Ardbeg selected by Bill and using ex-Uigeadial sherry butts for 6 months, this is really a delicate step forward from the 10, before the spicy character of the Uigeadail bursts in.

Ardbeg Day

Non chill filtered 56.7%

non age statement

RRP £60

Ex bourbon cask and refill olorosso sherry

Nose: A delicate start on the nose of warm woody spices, treacle and soft vanilla wrapped in lightly smoked newspaper with a light citrus burst.

Palate: Big mouthful of sherry note at first, with dry spice of cinnamon, pepper and ginger before mellowing into baked fruits of cinnamon dusted apple pie. There is a balanced smoke and salted caramel towards the end but the ever-present citrus of orange and lime ensures nothing gets too carried away.

Finish: Like all Ardbegs, it hangs around continuing to deliver those salted citrus fruits and in particular with this expression, a drying smoke which cleans the palate as it goes.

Overall a splendid little dram, and sits well within the current range. There will be small numbers of these bottles available through an Ardbeg Embassy near you very soon.

Hopefully we will see more releases soon from the creative, if a little nostalgic, Dr Lumsden. Now, I am off to find my running shoes, see you on the 2nd somewhere enjoying an Ardbeg Day dram.

1 Comment

Posted by dramaticwhisky on May 24, 2012 in Reviews, tasting

Tags: 10, Ardbeg, Bill, butt, Club, commuter, embassy, event, Feis Ils, ford, ghia, Glenmorangie, granada, islay, limited, London, Lumsden, malt, modern, Olympics, release, Scotch, Scotland, Scottish, Sherry, single, Soho, sweaty, Sweeney, tasting, train, Uigeadail

Top 10 Women and Whisky

02 May

So, quite often, I find myself thinking about new things to write and more often than not I start something, read it over, decided it’s rubbish and bin it. And of course, I always try to find a new angle to write about, otherwise it bores me. So, during a conversation this morning on twitter with the very talented Katie Antoniou who had posted her list of most admired women after the controversial FHM award to Tulisa Contostavlos for being the hottest woman in the world with which, by the way, neither of us agreed. We swiftly set about putting the wrongs to right. It seems we have quite similar taste in beauty and despite the Megan Foxes of the world and the Giselles, it was pretty straight forward. We think its intelligence and talent that makes “hot”. Just to make it a bit more interesting, I though I would add a whisky to salute the selected few…so here goes in no particular order:

Liv Tyler – A dazzling woman and smart to boot. It would have been easy to start listing connections to The Lord of the Rings or Stealing Beauty but I thought the fact that she is the daughter of legendary rock king Steve Tyler, who no doubt has seen his fair share of bourbon during his career would be better. So, to Liv I raise a glass of Hudson “Baby” bourbon from the small distillery at Tutthilltown, new, exciting and cutting edge it is a perfect accompaniment to Livs otherworldly beauty. A rich and spicy bourbon, first since prohibition to be made in New York. If you need more info, I reviewed it here

Penelope Cruz - Well what can you say about this Spanish firecracker. Never one to keep her Mediteranian passion at bay, this hot and spicy, full on woman surely makes you sit up and take notice. Like a charging bull at a matador, every inch of her is Carne Trémula. So, what to choose? what matches the fire of Penelope? the full on personality and Spanish richness? Well, I choose the Aberlour A’Bunadh.

Full Spanish sherry cask and at cask strength, I reckon it has it all.

Scarlett Johansson- It’s the husky voice, plump lips and classy, sassy attitude that makes Scarlet stand out. You can imagine her out till the small hours, a speakeasy somewhere. Obvious whisky choice was Suntory to follow her Lost in Translation role, but decided to go for something a bit different from the norm, as she definately is. Balvenie 15yr old single cask, , delivering a surprise every time, just like Scarlet.

Kate Winslet -Now, I’ve met Kate, and I can tell you, she can command a room with her looks and personality. A strong woman with a funny, tender side she is quite the complete package. Again, there is an obvious link with the movies, and since its not been too long since the centenary of the Titanic sinking, it simply has to be a glass of single cask, Glenrothes Titanic limited edition. no ice of course!

I recently reviewed this dram and would like to think Kate would find a lot to enjoy in it.

Selma Blair- Associated with a sort of preppy geeky ness in most movies, and shooting to fame with “that kiss” in Cruel Intensions, Selma has only gone and grown up! her last role, in HellBoy II sees her smouldering with sexiness and brimming with confidence. Yet, you still cant help feel that she would be the perfect girl to take home to your parents and get approval. Still an American sweetheart. That’s why I chose the Glenlivet 18 to toast Selma, an all rounder and definitely the whisky which everyone can nod with approval for.

Eva Green- Well HELLO! Here comes trouble. Eva doesn’t smoulder, she is a full on inferno. Careful of those Medusa like eyes for they will turn you to jelly with a single look. Such a chameleon of character, but never quite able to shake off the sense of forbidding and danger, thank goodness! With her goddess like figure and dark sorceress image I can imagine conjuring imagine her sipping a Bowmore Tempest.

Stormy, dark, and mysterious. We salute you Eva.

Maggie Gyllenhaal- Oh Maggie, with those doe eyes and full lips beneath plump cheekbones, you are really spoiling us. It’s the voice also, could lull a tiger to sleep. Yet it’s not all about looks, this girl is razor sharp too, educated, cerebral and non-conformist she was renowned for picking out independent classy films to work in (ok, forget Batman).

So, which dram? Well, got to be independent, little known and as with Maggies surname, tricky to pronounce- BenRiach 18 it is then.

Kelly Brook – Ah Kelly, the English rose. Always smiling, always bubbly and thankfully not ended up part of the stick thin brigade…Kelly has curves like a woman should. She reminds me of a pin-up from the 50′s, when girls didn’t need to get naked to be sexy. OK, so she did playboy,page 3 and topped FHMs hot list, but we can forgive her right?

It also goes without saying that one English rose deserves another so we raise our glass of The English Whisky Chapter 6.

Juliette Lewis – Can you see a pattern forming here? Sultry dark eyed hell raisers? Juliette first caught our attention in Cape Fear, but it is her career since that seems to have suited her style best-Natural Born Killers, Kalifornia for example? plus her rock band Juliette and the Licks isn’t known for love ballads. Could have gone down the bourbon route again, maybe a spicy rye heavy version, but no.

This one was easy. For Juliette, it’s Compass Box Headonism.

Eva Mendes – really? I mean you really need an explanation! Despite her casting and looks, she was born in Miami to Cuban parents. Safe to say her early acting career wasn’t a trail blazer (mostly B movies) but she has become a household name after roles in Training Day and Once upon a time in Mexico.

Staying firmly on the Cuban theme, we opted for the Dalmore Cigar Malt and a fine Partagas no.4 cigar.

So there it is, the Dramatic Whisky list of our top ten women. It’s not complete, and will no doubt change again in a year or two, but at least we now know which bottle to reach for if ever they come round to the DW offices!

Oh, and Sienna, if your reading this, we still love you.

dramaticwhisky

Tag Archives: 10

Ardbeg Ardbog – Boggin’ but great

Talisker Storm – a new front approaches.

The Day will come…Ardbeg Olympics

Top 10 Women and Whisky

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