Ardbeg 1976 Manager’s Choice Sherry Cask #2391

Ardbeg 1976 Manager’s Choice Sherry Cask

• Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky
• Distillery Bottling

70cl / 56%

The famous Ardbeg ‘Manager’s Choice’ bottling is a single sherry cask from 1976 selected by Stuart Thomson for sale at the distillery in 1999. An enormous hit at the time, this was one of the key early single cask bottlings that kickstarted Ardbeg’s stratospheric rise.

AM Excellent breakfast at the Copper Dog (include in our room rate). We coordinated coming back to the Copper Dog for lunch vice dinner since we had other plans this evening.

My going in plan was to visit GlenDronach in the morning (right when they opene at 1030). And have a flight, come back for lunch, then go to Aberlour for a tasting I’d already booked. We had a window of time following the tasting before we wer going to dinner with some colleagues, so, being ever the optimist, I starte looking at other Things We Could Do (e.g., more whisky) options after we got done with our tasting at Aberlour. The only thing I could find that might work was a tour at Glenfiddich. We couldn’t get them on the phone for some reason, so we decide to try them in person. Ardbeg 1976 Manager’s Choice Sherry Cask #2391

Once we arrived, it took a little while to figure out what the tour schedule was for the day. It turne out they had enough room for the three of us to get into a tour – 10 minutes from then, and no other time. Soooo we calle an audible and went on the tour (20 GBP).

Due to COVID restrictions, the tour did not include any production areas. It was limite to a very well done video laying out the history of the distillery seate next to some use casks (phenomenal smelling), a meander through some historical artifacts and original bottles, another animation demonstrating how the whisky is made, and then a short walk through the first whisky warehouse on the grounds (next to the original distillery building).