Ardbeg 10 Review

Hi everyone,

I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed this one yet, as Ardbeg is one of my favourite whiskies.

This 10 year old was my first try of Ardbeg too. I happened to be at a hotel bar that had it and it blew my mind. Later I bought a bottle, and actually it wasn’t as good as I remembered the dram in the bar being. Since then I have gone back to the hotel and tried it again and it must have been the same bottle, because it was amazing again.

So, I think batch differences must be in play.

My full bottle I had was much more about the lime citrus and smoke, whereas the drams at the hotel were all orange and soot. Mmmmmmm… either way it’s delicious stuff. Anyone else noticed batch differences with this one?

Also, can we get a 100 proof (57%) or cask strength version of this please Ardbeg? We all know it would be epic.

Ardbeg 10 year old 46%

Colour: Straw

Body: Full

Nose: A great combination of strong smoke and delicate sweetness, really well balanced. Creamy, cough sweets, some fruit and citrus- lime, hay, quite earthy too. Going even sweeter with time, sweet vanilla, more citrus- lemon and lime, a small meaty note- salted dried ham?

Taste: Creamy and oily to start, building peat with background sweetness. Lime tang, lemon too, then the peat hits with lots of burning hay, earthy notes, some light spice- nutmeg. There’s a great balance of the heavy intense peat and the light, lifting citrus. Mouthfeel is great too, very oily and mouth-coating.

Finish: Medium length. Creamy oily tangy citrusy soot coats the mouth.

1st and 2nd fill bourbon matured. Very balanced and complete in a way.

78/100

(80/100 for the dram at the hotel bar)

You can find my write up from my visit to the distillery here and a big vertical I did here.

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #345

Whisky Network Reviews #386

Network Average: 74.5

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 44

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

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