Ardbeg 10 Year Old Bot.1980s

Ardbeg 10 Year Old 1980s

• Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky
• Distillery Bottling

75cl / 40%

A very special old Ardbeg 10yo, unusually bottled in clear glass in the 1980s by former owners Hiram Walker. A whopping 95 points from Whiskyfun’s Serge Valentin only enhanced this release’s legendary status.

My first Connosr review was an Ardbeg 10 over a year ago now – how time flies! I’ve made it no secret I’m a big Ardbeg fan and make it a norm to have at least one bottle of the ten a year. So how is this one holding up then?

Review is from a double pour, neat but sat for ten minutes or so. Bottle has been open a few weeks with about a third gone.

Nose – Classic Ardbeg . . . which is, for me, TCP, some brine, smoke, chocolate lime sweets and quite a creamy vanilla malt note with this bottle. More rounded and less of a peaty punch than other bottles (but I am being overly pedantic; through over familiarity, perhaps?). Still good though, and clean.  Ardbeg 10 Year Old Bot.1980s

Taste – Lime sour at first then it develops into creamy vanilla with some distinct barley notes (which is unusual). A little thin on the mouthfeel it has to be said as well. Oh and liquorice(y) peat, of course.

Finish – Medium-long. There’s a lingering of the lime sourness, peat tang and the familiar bellowing upsurge of smoke is, well, kind of there, but it’s also a little less prominent than other bottles I’ve had. More of a waft than a bellow. Some pleasantly bitter tannins.

This is still clearly a bottle of Ardbeg 10 but it’s definitely a little different than other bottles I’ve had. It’s as if the neat pour gives what other bottles did after I’d added water; which, by the way, does not help this at all – it loses any peat ‘hit’ and becomes too watery. This is better, for me, after a non peaty whisky as it emphasises the kind of notes that I’m after here. It’s still very good but perhaps not quite stellar or going supernova.