Let’s stick with peated whiskies to close out the month and let’s stay on the south coast of Islay. You will recall that I have previously reviewed two Laphroaigs this month (this 9 yo and this 14 yo, both released in the early 2010s) and also one Lagavulin (this 17 yo for the Islay Jazz Festival in 2013). We’ll now move to the end of that famous road of distilleries to Ardbeg.

I’m afraid this is not a timely review either. The Ardbeg Day was the distillery’s Feis Ile release for 2012. It’s been followed every year since by other releases on Feis Ile’s Ardbeg Day that have not borne that name. Such were the Ardbog (which was released in 2013),  the Grooves (2018) and the Drum (2019), to name only the ones I’ve previously reviewed. I mostly stopped keeping track of Ardbeg that decade as the silliness around their various special releases went through the roof (and prices rose as well). I never heard anything about the intervening special releases to make me think that I was missing anything. Anyway, the Ardbeg Day now looks like a completely old-fashioned whisky: it was put together from a number of bourbon casks that were then married and double-matured for six months or so in refill sherry casks that had previously been used for the (then still excellent) Uigeadail. I purchased a bottle upon release and then lost track of it completely on my shelves. Here now, 14 years later, are my notes from the open bottle.

Ardbeg Day (56.7%; from my own bottle)

Nose: Bright, carbolic peat off the top along with lime and a fair bit of salt. Some sweeter notes on the second sniff as the citrus moves towards hard candy and is joined by a bit of clover honey. Vanilla here too with time. With a couple of drops of water the citrus turns to citronella and sweeter fruit emerges (peach, apricot) along with floral notes.

Palate: Comes in as indicated by the nose but there’s a floral sweetness here. Very approachable at full strength; rich texture. On the second sip there’s some pencil lead as well and also some vanilla. Some cracked coriander seed emerges as it sits and it gets sweeter. Brighter with water and less vanilla.

Finish: Long. The peat and salt are dominant here along with white pepper. With time the graphite pops out too. As on the palate with water.

Comments: This is rather nice. Too bad Ardbeg accelerated down the gimmicky road not too long after this. I look forward to seeing how this develops with air in the bottle. I also note that it’s been 10 years since I reviewed the classic Ardbeg 10. I should really try it again soon.

Rating: 88 points.