Tasting Notes

• Tasting Notes by The Whisky Exchange

  Nose: Damp peat and sea spray, sour cream, grass and mint. Straw follows along with coal smoke.

  Palate: Orange peel leads, with damp earth, peat smoke, liquorice, cherries and bitter dark chocolate.

  Finish: Sweet smoke, dark chocolate and ash, with lingering menthol.
  

• Producer's Tasting Notes

  Aroma: Intense zestiness of smoked lemons and pears, lemongrass and pine needles, embedded in a deep, resinuous, sticky waxy base.

  Taste: Distinctively peppery, spicy and electric. Powerful peppermint, antiseptic lozenges and other familiar, medicinal tones. Dark, dark birch tar intermingles with spicy-sweet chilli flavoured chocolate, while the entire mouth and palate are coated in luscious linseed oil.

  Finish: Rich flavours of tar, creosote, briar wood, spicy tobacco and liquorice root.
  

• Tasting notes by Billy A

  Nose: Big mulchy peat, with sweetness and brine. There are some soured cream notes, with grassiness and a touch of herbal mint. More savoury herbal notes come in, along with coal smoke and burning seaweed. There's also a bit of straw and hay, adding to a decently farmy background.

  Palate: Softer than the nose suggests, at least at first. Gentle, sweet orange peel starts, but intensifies with charred peel, damp earth and pungently sweet peat smoke. Liquorice notes sneak in behind, with ferns, TCP and brine. Dark chocolate bitterness is joined by a hint of cherry fruit, with rich loam and wood smoke adding a dryness.

  Finish: Sweet smoke - both peat and wood - dark chocolate and ashy touches. Menthol hints linger.

  Comment: It's quite light in colour, and relatively fresh on the nose, but it's still a bit of a beast. There are darker notes underneath the initial feisty smoke, and a decent amount of complexity. It's Ardbeg looking fondly back on the crazy days of late noughties.