There were two main reasons why Ardbeg were down in London – 1) TWE has just become an Ardbeg Embassy, which mainly means we’ve got a bunch of bottles open for anyone who pops by, and 2) June 1st, the day after the tasting, was the release date of the latest Ardbeg Committee bottling: The Alligator. The Ardbeg Committee is the distillery’s fan club, founded in 1999 with a mission to “promote the advancement of general knowledge and enjoyment of Ardbeg”. They have very much tapped into the distillery’s fanbase, producing a dedicated group who will travel around the world to get to events (our furthest visitor at the tasting had come from Washington DC) and rewarding them with exclusive bottlings before products are unleashed on the public.

Ardbeg itself isn’t a young distillery, with a founding date of 1815 meaning that its bicentenary is only 4 years away. There are records of distilling on the site, although in a slightly less legal fashion , since 1794, but the distillery legally came into being under the management of the MacDougall family 11 years later. Things continued on fairly quietly until the 1970s, when the first commercial single malt whisky bottlings under the distillery’s name appeared – prior to that release there was only one hogshead of whisky going to single malt a year, and that went to the owners. In 1977 it was acquired by Hiram Walker (who became Allied Distillers) and shortly after things started going a bit wrong.

They closed in 1981 and again in June 1996 (after limited production mainly for the Ballantines blends had restarted under Allied Distillers in 1989). It was then acquired by Glenmorangie PLC and reopened in June 1997, ramping up to full volumes by 1998. This means that there is bit of a stock shortage between 1981 and 1996 (as there wasn’t a lot of whisky produced in the 90s which stayed at the distillery) which led to the initial Glenmorangie owned releases being rather special – 1970s vintages which became quite legendary. As the stock gap was filled they produced a number of expressions to show the development of the 1998 vintage whisky, running from the Very Young at 6 years old, through Still Young and Almost There before releasing the new 10 year old  in 2008. Since then they’ve mined the stocks from before the Glenmorangie takeover and continued to produce their own whisky to create a fairly solid range of (mainly) big peat monsters – having the reputation of being the distillery with the highest peat levels doesn’t hurt in today’s peat freak marketplace. LVMH, the current owners of both Ardbeg and Glenmorangie, seem to give the distilleries a good chunk of independence as well as investment – currently most of Ardbeg’s maturation takes place on the island, but not all, and new warehouses are being built to help rectify the situation (even if there is disagreement over whether maturing on Islay really affects the spirit’s flavour in the ways many often claim it does…).

The tasting was led by Mickey Heads, distillery manager and embassy ‘Chief of Mission’, and he was accompanied by a pair of Ardbeg Land Girls, part of the company’s latest effort to show that whisky isn’t only for men of a certain age who like women in cut-off dungarees (SARCHASM). Mickey is a local lad and became Ardbeg manager in 2007, but has a bit of history in the industry, starting at Laphroaig in 1979. From there he moved to Jura, where he stayed 8 years before coming to Ardbeg. Anyways, enough history – on to the booze, all made up of spirit distilled since 1997:

First on the tasting mat was the core of the range – Ardbeg 10 year old. It’s the main focus of the distillery and very much a statement of intent. Ardbeg is one of the peatiest whiskies on Islay, home of the peaty whisky, and the 10 year old is at 55ppm when it leaves the still, which mellows to a ‘mere’ 25 ppm by the time it gets to the glass – a big peaty punch. On the nose it’s big, sweet and smoky, with fruity peat, citrus, a little bit of chocolate, cream, barley, stone and brine. To taste it’s salty with sour limes and coal smoke leading to a finish of prickly pepper, sour fruit and chocolate limes. A drop of water softens some of the prickle in the finish and brings out the creaminess from the nose.

Next up was Uigeadail, ‘That Mysterious Place’ in gaelic, named for one of the two lochs that supply water to the distillery – the other is Airigh Nam Beist, which also had an expression named after it (nicknamed The Beast), although it is sadly gone. This was released in 2003 and is currently made up of whisky around the 12 year old mark with a little bit of older whisky (an increasingly small amount as time has gone by and the Ardbeg stocks have filled in). It’s a 50/50 vatting of whisky matured in oloroso sherry and bourbon casks, and from the flavour I suspect that there’s a good chunk of first fill bourbon in the mix. The nose has vanilla essence and caramel up front, with green veg, raisins, treacle, black bread and coal smoke coming in behind. To taste at first a wave of rubber rolls across the palate, leaving buttery edges on the side of the tongue, followed by coal dust and smoke, lime cordial and liquid smoke. The finish is long, with charcoal, raisins and a hint of lime accompanied by a prickle of alcohol. Water adds a sponge cakiness to the nose and rich caramel to the flavour.

That was followed by Corryvreckan (‘Cauldron of the Speckled Sea’), the replacement for The Beast, named after whirlpool that sits in the gulf of the same name,separating the islands of Jura and Scarba close to Islay. It’s a mix of first and refill bourbon casks, and whisky matured in (very expensive) new French oak. On the nose it has lime and brine, vanilla, fresh sea air, flowers, light fruit and malt loaf. To taste it is malty and sweet, with smoked cheese and ham, pepper, dark stick cherry, tobacco, coffee and coal stoves. The finish isn’t as long as the Uigeadail, but has more bitterness, with coffee and fruity dark chocolate. Water brings out a sweet butteriness to the taste and a whiff of smoke to the nose.

Next was the Supernova 2010 Release, Ardbeg’s second release by the name and their entry in the Islay peating war with Bruichladdich. The latter produced Octomore, at 100+ppm, and Ardbeg produced their Supernovas, with similar levels of peat. The whisky was all matured in bourbon casks, again with a big chunk of first fill if my palate isn’t fooling me. The nose had a fake butter and vanilla smell (diacetyl and vanilla essence) to start with, but that faded quickly in the glass (or my nose got used to it) to reveal lime cream, pepper, vegetal peat, green pepper, molasses and burned honeycomb toffee. To taste it started with big buttery peat, with smoked fish and hints of green vegetables (broccoli and asparagus?) to follow. The finish had smoked butter and perfumed wood, and hung around for a respectable amount of time. It’s really big and smoky, and it’s hard to express that without saying ‘and smoke’ after every flavour…

The last production sampler of the night was the one that we had all been waiting for – The Alligator. Officially released the next day, this is the first committee bottling that I’ve been actively aware of (only having become a fan of Ardbeg and member of the committe since around the time of the Supernova 2010 release) and there’s been talk about it for the last couple of months as details have been very carefully leaked. It comes from a mix of first fill bourbon casks and new oak ‘Alligator casks’. The latter are so called, giving the whisky its name, due to the Level 4 charring they receive during coopering – this is the highest level of char regularly used and is nicknamed ‘Alligator char’ due to the resemblance between the wood after firing and Alligator skin. This extra firing should give a bit more filtering of the spirit, as it passes back and forth through the charcoal layer as it soaks into the wood during maturation, as well as more intense flavours, although it does also increase evaporation from the cask. This initial release is of ‘only’ 10k bottles, with a 40k general release promised in September. I tried to log on to the Ardbeg website on the first day of sale only to find it snowed under with orders, slow and occasionally crashy. I advised people who asked to leave it for a few days, as I didn’t think the 10k bottles would sell out all that quickly, although I will admit that I sat there refreshing the page regularly to try and make sure I got my bottles. On checking while writing up this post it seems that it is now sold out, which is quite impressive. On the nose it had vanilla ice crea, hints of citrus, charred pineapple, cherries, pine, chalky sweets and an alarmingly light smokiness. To taste it had buttery vanilla, chocolate limes (it’s a flavour that I’m coming to increasingly associate with Ardbeg), orange peel and a savoury middle – butter sauce and green veg. The finish continued the veggie motif, with tannic wood and veg slowly turning sweet before fading. Water added more spice, with a bit of fruitcake appearing, as well as some more delicate floral notes.

With those five out of the way we came to the unmarked outliers on the tasting mat, which we learned were cask samples drawn by Mickey a few days before and billed as ‘Something interesting from the warehouse’. First of the pair was cask #2732 – a 1998 refill oloroso cask at 55.7%. On the nose it had similar fake butter and vanilla to the Supernova. Along with that there was smoke, sweetness and maltiness that my slightly wobbly notes list as like ‘a smoked ham and golden syrup sandwich’, as well as some lime and raisins. To taste there was a chunk of pot pourri/air freshener at the back of the palate, with the rest dominated by a sweet and savoury mix, with syrup, smoked cheese rind and leather. The finish had smoked cheese, pot pourri and a lingering coal fire.

The second sample was from cask #2117 – a 1999 first fill bourbon at 56%. On the nose this had a biiig vanilla cream note (written deliberately with multiple ‘i’s in my notes), which combined with some biscuity notes to give me Custard Creams, whipped cream, caraway seeds, nuts, spices and peat smoke. To taste it was strange, with milk chocolate and smoked cheese, blackberries, kippers and a hint of briny seaside air.

The Land Girls then made their way through the assembled throng with buckets of what they described as edible peat and instructions – dip the supplied stick into a jar of manuka honey, poke the stick into the bucket of peat, stick the whole lot in your mouth and follow it up with a dram of the 10 year old. The ‘peat’ was revealed to be a mix of flour, sugar and crushed hazelnuts bound together with some Fuller’s London Porter and and stirred until dry and earthlike. It worked quite well with the 10 year old, matching the whisky’s sweet citrus smokiness with the dry and nutty pretend mud.

Unfortunately for me the evening didn’t end there, with nearby pubs leading to an encounter with a night bus, a nostalgic kebab from the shop formerly known as The Kebab Machine and a walk along a deserted Holland Park Road looking for a bus or cab to get me closer to home. However, I do now have a bottle of Alligator in the post for me as well as five others ordered by people from mainland Europe, hit by LVMH being unable to send bottles to Europeans locations and now using me as a stopping off point and remailing service. Let’s hope that they all arrive intact…

Ardbeg 10 year old
Islay single malt Scotch whisky, 46%. ~£35

Ardbeg Uigeadail
Islay single malt Scotch whisky, 54.2%. ~£50

Ardbeg Corryvreckan
Islay single malt Scotch whisky, 57.1%. ~£60

Ardbeg Supernova 2010 release
Islay single malt Scotch whisky, 60.1%. ~£85

Ardbeg Alligator
Islay single malt Scotch whisky, 51.2%. Was ~£55, now sold out until September 1st’s general release.

As an employee of TWE I not only managed to get a ticket without going through the raffle, I also got in for free. Regular ticket price was £25. I did have to edit Toby’s post though, and buy a round in the pub afterwards…

We were confronted with 6 glasses laid out before us and before we dug into them a bottle of Glenmorangie new spirit was passed around – whisky that was too young to be called whisky yet. I’ve only tried new spirit once before, having grabbed a couple of miniatures of Kilchoman which had been in wood for a week, and this was notably different. I’ve described the Kilchoman as tasting like a cross between cattle feed and death, with a creamy silage taste and peaty kick – I rather like it, although not more than a tiny dribble at a time.  The Glenmorangie barely resembled it – barely peated and never in wood, it had a clean crisp taste with a very light hint of peachy fruit. It tasted like a nice aquavit, drying and cooling on the tongue with a slightly malty aftertaste. Straight out of the freezer I suspect it would cause me great injury and from the large slugs that some of the other attendees were pouring the note I made of ‘MANY DEAD. SEND AMBULANCES’ was not that much of a jump in imagination.

As the bottle circulated Annabel introduced us to the distillery, including the work to increase capacity that has gone on there since my visit in 2004, and moved us quickly to the first whisky of the night – the Glenmorangie 10yr old. This used to be one of my favourite whiskies in the days before I discovered a love of peat, but I’ve not tried it for a while. Annabel explained how the flavour has been changed over the last few years, gradually altering the proportions of whiskies from new and second fill barrels until they got to the second fill heavy mix they have today. On the nose it was quite dry and biscuity, with soft fruit and caramel. This continued in the mouth with some nuttiness appearing, leading to short finish. Water brought out wood on the nose and sweetened the flavour, adding more woody vanilla and, after some prompting from our host, some coconut. It was quite a pleasant whisky, with some of the thick sweetness that I like, although quite restrained.

The second whisky was the Astar, the beginning of their range of more modern whiskies. Matured in designer casks, made from specially selected slow dried trees, after they’d been used to produce Jack Daniels (that last part, at least, a common theme in whisky making). I was quite interested to taste this one, as I’m quite sceptical when I hear of what seems to me to be too much attention to detail. It was similar on the nose to the 10yr old, but with less caramel, more wood and a peary fruitiness. It tasted interesting -  a dose of caramel and hint of banana, cooling on the tongue and fading to a mild bitterness. Water opened up the nose, bringing out more soft fruit and adding a creamy richness to the flavour and mouth feel. It was quite a delicate whisky compared to what I expected and I wasn’t too shocked by its unstated age of 8-9 years – a nice whisky, but not one that I’ll be seeking out.

Next up we had La Santa, the latest incarnation of the sherry finished Glenmorangie that I remember very much enjoying in the past – I think it may have been the first sherried whisky that I knowingly tried, and thus might be considered the beginning of my downfall. The original range of wood finishes was discontinued a few years back (I know of several people who are hoarding the last remnants of bottles of the port wood) and I’ve not had the chance to taste this new version as yet. This was a light gold whisky, richer in colour than the first two, and came from 10 years in regular oak and 2 finishing in oloroso casks. On the nose it was heavy and rich with caramel, although Anna reckoned it was crisp and green. It was quite sweet to taste with a hint of hazelnut and almonds, and a slightly creamy mouth feel leading to a fast fading flavour. With water the nose showed more fruit and a dash of vanilla essence and the taste became more citrusy with orange notes and a hint of tiger balm. The overall flavour for me though was hazelnut, which I didn’t particularly think went all that well with the other flavours. Annabel advised us to keep a little bit for later to compare against the more heavily sherried casks we were going to try, but I’d finished mine and didn’t feel much like revisiting it anyway.

We moved on to the second row and, from my initial sniffing, the ones that were more to my taste – darker more sherried drams. The first was The Sonnalta – the reason for the tasting evening and newest addition to the Glenmorangie range. This was the last whisky I’d known in advance that we’d be tasting and the one that I was most looking forward to – it’s finished in Pedro Ximinez casks, one of my favourite drinks of all time. I’d tried a few PX finished whiskies and been universally unimpressed with them, finding them to be uninspiring sherry finished whiskies, so I didn’t have much hope for this. Following the standard 10+2 first fill/wood finish maturation ratio this was a bronze whisky with a richly perfumed nose – vanilla and menthol that Anna likened to ancient Chanel No 5. To taste it was quite different – thick and spicy, with cinnamon, raisins and fruit cake. I noted down that it was meaty – a chewy whisky that had definite hints of PX to it. Adding water softened the nose, moving it more towards the fruit and caramel of the 10yr old, and opened the taste to more fruit without knocking out much of the richness. I rather liked this, tickling my sherry loving self as well as actually bringing some of the characteristics of PX. One of the ‘keep an eye out’ list. Annabel suggested that it would work well with food, suggesting the (by her own admission) obvious of choice of tapas. The flavour that jumped out to me was Morcilla, spanish black pudding. Umami-laden spicy rich blood sausage in spreadable form to match up with the spices, chewiness and meaty punch of the whisky. I may have to experiment…

Whisky number 5 was a bit of a mystery – Annabel described it as a bit of a Marmite dram, with there being two camps – loved or hated. A non production cask, hidden at the back of the warehouse with (former chairman) David MacDonald’s name stencilled on it, it’s occasional sampled for tastings. It’s currently at 10 years in regular barrels followed by 10 years in sherry. Legally speaking the length of time that a whisky needs to remain in a wood to be said to be finished by it is unspecified (leading to my profit maximising idea of pouring unfinished whisky through sherry barrels to add a super quick finish), so this whisky can still be claimed to have a sherry finish, although it is very much towards the extreme end. Unreduced it smelled of creme caramel with spicy cherries and tasted surprisingly delicate with dark chocolate and a light fruitiness fading to a slightly bitter end. Watered the nose showed more saltiness and the taste opened up to give more soft fruits and a nice fruit cakiness. An impressive whisky and a nice surprise to be able to get to taste.

The final dram of the night was one that some of the Whisky Exchange employees were glad to get a taste of – the £250 a bottle Quarter Century. A combination of whiskies from 25 years old and upwards, with a touch of oloroso finished spirit in there somewhere, it was a deep gold in colour and surprisingly light on the nose with hints of very dark chocolate and garibaldi biscuits. It tasted somewhat different with a muddled pile of flavours to start and a thick caramel sweetness leading to a strangely astringent aftertaste. With a touch of water the flavour widened, displaying hints of chocolate, berries, and a thick layer of slightly bitter sugar brittle. As refined in flavour as you would expect for the price, it’s not one for me to grab a bottle of but definitely one to sneak a dram of if you can.

Overall it was an interesting evening which has definitely had the effect of bringing Glenmorangie back into my mind. Even if I didn’t really get on with their new range of finishes it has kicked me towards the Sonnalta and shown me that they do have a good selection out there, much more than they used to, and are always looking to expand what they’re doing.

Glenmorangie New Spirit
0 years old, 67%(?)

Glenmorangie 10yr Old
10 years old, 40%

Glenmorangie Astar
Unstated, 8-9 years old, 57.1%

Glenmorangie La Santa
12 years old, 46%
Sherry finished

Glenmorangie Sonnalta PX
12 years old, 46%
PX finished (and sold out at The Whisky Exchange that night. Not to me, unfortunately)

Glenmorangie David MacDonald Cask
20 years old, 51%
Sherry ‘finished’

Glenmorangie Quarter Century
25 years old, 43%