Discover Whisky

I remember, many years ago, trying Lagavulin a few weeks after finding Laphroaig too medicinal for my young palate, and quite liking it. However for some reason our paths have hardly ever crossed since then. Memory and changing tastes often play tricks so I was interested to see what my opinions of it would be now.

Lagavulin 16 year old, 43%

Colour

Deep amber

Nose

Oh, this is good. You can tell immediately. Warm, slightly salty.

Taste

Initial taste
Exactly like the nose, love at first sip. Brings to mind a warm summers day by the seashore with the grass warm under your feet. There’s a real feeling of mature quality; the fact that it’s older than the normal “standard” malts at 16 years old is very evident. It makes me wonder what the Laphroaig, which readers may remember I thought was not yet fully developed, would have been like at this age. I also wonder what the special 12 year old bottlings of Lagavulin will be like - I’ll definitely be finding out! Did I mention it was warm?

Later taste
The saltiness increases slightly, but not to excess as was threatened with the Bunnahabhain. A little caramel comes through, and increasing suggestions of sweet sherry. The sweet and the salty battle for supremacy but in the end they settle for parity in a balance that retains interest and vitality.

Finish

A strong distinctive finish that stays mostly at the front and sides of the tongue and lasts a long while.

Conclusion

This time the memory merely understated the quality - or the young tastebuds couldn’t yet appreciate it fully. I like this, a lot; better even than the Ardbeg and very close (though a rather different style) to the Caol Ila. It has something in common with Talisker in the rich complexity and saltiness. Perhaps a little more sherry and caramel than the Skye classic, perhaps not quite so many interwoven flavours, but very satisfying indeed. In my list of favourite standard single malts this has now taken a place in the top three - displacing Bowmore (which I’ll be reviewing next) and Highland Park - which is high praise indeed.

My only very slight concern is that any older versions might not be any better, as the sweet sherry flavours might take over, but I’ll happily try them out just in case!

Given that one respected whisky writer considers this distillery’s produce to be so good that he has to artificially handicap it in his tasting scores, this one has a lot to live up to.

Ardbeg 10 year old, 46%

A new bottle; always interesting to open a bottle for the first time and get the first impression. Some of them seem to explode into the atmosphere, announcing their arrival with fanfares so you immediately know what they are. Others creep up on you slowly, insinuating themselves into your awareness. Slightly to my surprise this Ardbeg falls into the latter category. The smell of the cork is very light and subtle.

Colour

I was further surprised to find that it was a very pale yellow. From recent experience of buying it in the bar of the Royal Overseas League I expected it to be darker, especially since it has a reputation of being peaty; our visually oriented expectations tell us that peat and dark go together. Not so this time.

Nose

Like the 12 year old Caol Ila the initial nose is subtle and complex. Greenery, touch of iodine and phenol. Leaving it a few minutes (difficult but we must be professional about this!) produces gradually more distinct notes with the phenols a little stronger. A scent appears which I can’t identify at first but later it comes to me - smoked fish! Cullen Skink has that same tang when it’s delivered to the table. Later and deeper inhalation brings more smokiness, and you can imagine yourself on an Islay beach with the mix of distant woodsmoke and fresh seaweed. The wood suggests oak chips to me although the tasting notes that I referred to later suggest hickory.

Taste

Initial taste impression
I must be getting immune to peat! (too much Talisker? nah ) This is a far lighter peat though, and there is more of a floral overtone, although it takes a while to come through because the spirit feels stronger than its 46%. The warmth seems to stay at the back of the lips and creeps gradually back over the tongue.

Later impressions
As the air and whisky interact there comes an unexpected chocolate, surprisingly sweet against the contrasting bite of the alcohol. Later still there is a light citrus taste - somewhere between lemon and passion fruit.

After a little water
The colour becomes a very pale lemon. That chocolate note is there again, even stronger. Surprisingly the overall impression seems to become warmer and in a curious sense stronger. The reduction of the spirit strength seems to allow the volatile oils to escape into the taste amalgam. This is not at all what I expected, because as I’ve mentioned previously I generally prefer my whisky at full strength.

Conclusion

Ardbeg is by reputation a very balanced whisky, and I can certainly agree with that, though it’s a very different balance to the Caol Ila and I think I marginally prefer the way the latter’s taste components fit together. However this is one that will bear continued acclimatisation. Like the Bruichladdich I reviewed earlier there is a feeling that it might go well with some foods, the obvious thought being to team it with a fish-based meal. I can imagine it with smoked salmon and the idea of it with kippers is intriguing.

No question that it’s a class dram. Might not be to everyone’s taste and I’ll be surprised if Mike takes to it, but if you appreciate the fishy, smoky, west coast nature of Islay malts then do try this one. So far though, my tastes edge towards the Caol Ila, but that’s hardly a condemnation and I’ll definitely be revisiting this one repeatedly to see how my perception of the balance develops.

Postscript

A few days after my first session with it I had occasion to have a dinner of lightly smoked trout so naturally I pulled out the Ardbeg to test my theory. I can confirm that the two made an excellent match and I’ll try that again in the future, perhaps switching to other Islays to see how they compare.

As part of our efforts here to keep focussed and get information on whisky, tasting notes etc out as quickly as possible we’ve been working hard to develop our new posting schedule - so that all of our subscribers are able to get regular updates.

From February we’ll be doing two ‘core’ postings a week.

• Mondays - The Discover Whisky Weekly Digest
  • Look at Whisky News from the week that was
  • Look at up coming stories
  • Interviews
• Thursdays - Discover Whisky Tasting Notes
  • Review of a whisky every week

February Whisky Tastings

Over February we’ll be posting four brand new tastings of Malts from across Scotland - Bill’s focussing on Islay whiskies so everyone better keep him right!

1. Caol Ila Malt Whisky Review ¹
2. Ancnoc 12 year old Review ²
3. Ardbeg ³
4. Glenmorangie ‘Qunita Ruban’ ⁴

That will bring us up to the end of February and we can start saving up our pennies to get some new reviews/tasting notes for March - I’ve got my eye on doing a tasting of Cragganmore ⁵ in March.

Thanks from Discover Whisky in January

Thanks this month go to the guys at Spencerfield Spirit - I’ve been chatting to Alex by email and on the phone and hope to get over to Fife to meet them. They’ve also got a blog - good to see that whisky is becoming big online and that lots of people are starting to get involved.

Footnotes

1. Caol Ila Website - they don’t seem to have a website so link points to an information page about Caol Ila
2. anCnoc Website
3. Ardbeg Website
4. Glenmorangie Website
5. Cragganmore Website - no Cragganmore website so this link points to an information page too

Slainte