Archive For The “Ardbeg” Category

Ardbeg Dark Cove Committee Edition (55%)

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Ardbeg Dark Cove Committee Edition (55%)

Ardbeg is crazy to put out the Dark Cove. Or brilliant. Having previously posted about the marketing strategies they have mastered, it’s probably the latter. Drinking it feels like this a collection of the casks that didn’t make it into (the new, lesser sherried) Ardbeg Uigeadail. It’s not bad whisky, mind you. It’s just not stellar in any…

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Ardbeg 21’s Polar Opposite – An 8 Year Old Fiery Sherry Bomb

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Ardbeg 21’s Polar Opposite – An 8 Year Old Fiery Sherry Bomb

With Ardbeg, one end of the scale is the new 21 Year Old, about to be announced in the coming months. Old, dignified and matured in ex bourbon casks. If you haven’t heard of it, you can read Yoav’s take on this marketing screw up here. This SMWS single refill sherry butt is just the opposite. Young,…

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Big Peat Christmas 2015 Edition – The Cask Strength Peat Monster….

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Big Peat Christmas 2015 Edition – The Cask Strength Peat Monster….

I visited Douglas Laing in Glasgow the other week. I will have a full report of the most enjoyable visit, but for today I wanted to review the Christmas edition of Big Peat, out every year for the holidays at Cask Strength. This year there were two important developments, both of which were mentioned on this blog,…

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A 23 Year Old Ardbeg

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A 23 Year Old Ardbeg

Honestly, I don’t have all that much to add to this one beyond the tasting itself. This is a beautiful example of the old peat you just don’t come across today. Not coming from a sherry cask, this whisky if very different to the Douglas Laing Old Malt Cask 1975 Ardbeg I reviewed here. Gordon…

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Cult of Ardbeg Day is Here – The Brilliance of Guerrilla Marketing

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Cult of Ardbeg Day is Here – The Brilliance of Guerrilla Marketing

Ardbeg, masters of marketing hype that they are, have attempted (and are reasonably successful) to make the Fèis Ìle open day into something more global than just the festival on Islay. Despite being a rather small operation (1.3 million liters per year, smaller than Bruichladdich and about a third of Laphroaig). How was this done? The…

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