Ardbeg 1974 19 Year Old Cask #4375-4377 Signatory
Ardbeg 1974 19 Year Old Cask
70cl / 43%
Colour: pale straw. Nose: less expressive than the G&M, a little more subdued in fact. More on lemon juice, smoked grains (yeah, peated barley) and grapefruit juice. Something slightly cardboardy. Mouth: much, much better than on the nose. Much more ‘idiosyncratic’. Peat, lemons, apples, pepper, paraffin and almonds. Finish: medium long but beautifully salty as expected. Comments: this one suffered a bit from comparison with the G&M but it’s still a great whisky, notably on the palate.
In our opinion: Ardbeg has reached cult status at the turn of the 2000’s thanks to some constantly thrilling whiskies. Including a new Ardbeg Ten, and rather clever CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Using real life people such as the distillery manager and his wife at length. They switche from rather large vattings (how many great old casks did the previous owners kill by doing the crazy 30yo ‘Very Old’ at 40%?). To single casks bottlings that were soon to appeal to collectors and malt lovers alike. Ardbeg 1974 19 Year Old Cask #4375-4377 Signatory
The problem is that prices consequently surge to the point where around 2005, no ‘regular’ malt lover could afford an old single cask Ardbeg anymore. Around 2006-2007, several collectors and drinkers decide to quit collecting Ardbeg, as there’s been a rather huge clash between the clever below the line campaigns, that built a great ‘friendship capital’ and that manage to make many aficionados brand loyal and the new price policy that made them feel, err, cuckolded.
Furthermore, some extravagant new products (Serendipity, Ardbeg Mor, the 1965, the ‘gun case’) rather worked like repellents in our opinion. It is now to be wondered if under the new owners, Ardbeg will definitely lose its cult status among the fanatics, who believe that it’s themselves who decide on what’s really premium and what’s not and not London or Glasgow marketeers, or if it will be revived. Well, the answer may lie in the warehouses and in the owners’ ability to show a little restraint as far as pricing is concerned.
33 reviews for Ardbeg 1974 19 Year Old Cask #4375-4377 Signatory
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