The auction ended up messing up and tricking me into bidding on (and ultimately winning) two bottles of this rather than the one I needed, so the other one will be kept closed for a while, but this one is open for enjoyment and now review. While this isn’t technically an Ardbeg Day release, I’m reviewing it now as it was the annual special release the year before they formally started that series. At the very least, the cask situation is interesting. Some of the maturation in the batch was done in casks so heavily charred that the wood begins to resemble the hide of an alligator, thus the nickname for that level of char and where Ardbeg got their name for this release.
Minutia: Matured for about 10 years in virgin oak casks charred as described above and married with the standard 10 year ex-Bourbon casks for about a year before bottling in 2011. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn.
Color: Mahogany, 1.6.
Nose: Sharp smoke, meat/barbecue, white chocolate.
Taste: Smoke, leather, soy-like salt, char, pepper.
Finish: Chocolate, coffee, smoke, cigar, ginger. Long.
All I can say is that after trying this I’m glad I accidentally bought that second one because I so thoroughly enjoyed this I think I’ll actually want that down the line. There’s something about this that just ticks every box I have. What a hell of a way to start this out.
Score: 96
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