The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that this is the first post on the blog in almost three weeks. I’m sorry to say that I had a death in the family. This meant a return to Delhi at the end of the month to join my family in the mourning period. And since getting back to Minnesota last week I have been submerged in both jet lag and work, not having been able to get anything done for quite some time. It will probably take some time to return to the normal blog posting schedule but I did have this review done a while ago and so here it is. This is a review of a standard release, a classic: the Ardbeg 10. But it’s not a recent release. This is from 2008 (the L8 bottle code), which was from the first release of the 10 yo made from spirit distilled under the Glenmorangie ownership which had begun in 1997. The “Very Young”, the “Still Young”, the “Almost There” and the “Renaissance” were the special releases that had led up to this first regular release of the new 10 yo. Despite having consumed a few bottles of this over the years, I’ve never reviewed it. I guess I must have assumed I already had. Anyway, I’m glad to have caught the omission now that I’ve opened my last bottle. This review will slot in between my reviews of the 2007 and 2009 releases.

Ardbeg 10, 2008 Release (46%; from my own bottle)

Nose: Cereals, lemon, big carbolic peat (Dettol). Sweeter on subsequent sniffs with a bit of vanilla even as a bit of tar emerges. The peat mellows out with time. A couple of drops of water pull out more of the vanilla, and some cream to go with, and toast the cereals.

Palate: As advertised by the nose but with a load of ash over it all. A very good bite at 46% and good texture. The peat doesn’t back down here at all with time; if anything it gets tarrier. But the lemon and vanilla stick around too. Water makes it both sweeter and tarrier.

Finish: Long. The peat crests slowly and for a long time; cracked black pepper emerges as it fades. More tar here too with time but also a lot of salt. As on the palate with water.

Comments: A direct peat assault but lots of softer, mellower accents to keep it interesting. A classic. I guess I should try the current version at some point. Maybe this year.

Rating: 88 points