Scotch Review #65: Ardbeg Drum (2019 Committee Release)

Distillery: Ardbeg

Region: Islay

ABV: 52%

Age: NAS

Cask Type: Finished in Ex-Rum Casks

Price: $15/pour during Happy Hour

Color: 0.1, White Wine. Natural color and non-chill-filtered.

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Nose: Delicious smokey peat. It’s an Ardbeg, what else do you expect?

Palate: The palate strikes an enjoyable balance of smokey peat and some bright fruits. The main fruit is pineapple that’s in it’s lovely tart-and-sweet phase. There’s a bit of licorice hanging around as well which works really nicely with the pineapple. Adding in some water, you get more of the pineapple and a little less of the peat. The mouthfeel is in that just-right area between not too thin and not too syrupy.

Finish: Medium to short in length. There’s a lovely note of salty sea air and some lavender tea to round this out with a bit of dryness.

Conclusion: An ex-Rum cask Ardbeg. At least for me, that really sounded interesting. Would it really be able to show off the peat-centric-ness you expect from an Ardbeg while giving the rum finish some justice? Or would the peat just drown everything else out? I’d have to say, I think they did very well with this. While there’s a lot of that delicious smokey peat, you also get a good bit of freshness in pineapple as well as some sweetness and saltiness from the licorice. Overall, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Would I buy a bottle? It’s on the shopping list.

Final Score: 85.

Scotch whisky review #65, Island review #11, Whisky Network Review #88

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Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection (if feasible).
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.