Ardbeg Blaaack Committee Release
50.7% ABV - Islay, Scotland
Nose: Sooty, ashy peat smoke. Black cherries with a mild orange citrus—tangerine or mandarin. Dried fruits and dried flowers waft in the background, with some damp forest floor and dunnage warehouse.
Taste: Heavy peat smoke, pepper and tobacco with dried fruits. Plum, fruitcake, and burnt caramel.
Finish: Lasting smoke and charred wood. Dried fruits and BBQ coals.
This marked one of my favourite Ardbeg Day releases. I really enjoy when they release a wine cask exploration… and this isn’t a typical ex-Sherry wine cask either. What a clever idea to try out Pinot Noir casks!
One thing that I learned when I visited the Ardbeg distillery is that they do not do refill casks—that is to say, that this would have been a fresh ex-Pinot Noir cask. Delicious!
Ardbeg Blaaack is not particularly complex, but it delivers on the fruit and smoke front very well. This has no age statement (aka. NAS) but that doesn’t matter for this one. The quality of the spirit dictates the value. I another bottle of this exact whisky waiting to be opened, and I’m writing a review for the heel of a bottle that was gifted by a glorious Ardbeg-head.
(On a final note, this one sort of reminds me of some ex-Sherry Longrow whisky…)
Details: Ardbeg Day 2020.
Tasting Notes (Official): Our whisky creators have rounded up the finest Pinot Noir wine casks from New Zealand to mature a celebratory dram that knits together velvety summer FRUIT PUDDING and BITTER CHERRY, with a deeper edge of SOOT and Ardbeg’s hallmark SMOKE. Truly a whisky apart.
Tasted 24 September 2023. (Posted 29 October 2023.)
