Ardbeg 1991 Artist #13 Over 30 yo

 

 

 

47,7°

Distillery : Ardbeg - Islay 

Bourbon Hogshead 

Independent Bottling 

By La Maison du Whisky 

Limited Edition 

Single Cask 

Bottled in 2023

Unchillfiltered, Uncoloured, Cask Strength

Peated around 54 ppm

The Artist range was launched in 2011, and is now in its 13th batch. For this one, La Maison du Whisky has teamed up with Hua Yang, the Taiwanese trading company founded by Eric Huang in 2008. Hua Yang has entrusted some of its rarest for the occasion, including this one, which has held Ardbeg for at least 31 years. Conceived at a time when Ardbeg only distilled for two months of the year, this whisky has an elegant, venerable, even austere profile, compared to its younger siblings, made later, after the distillery's renovation. It is aged in a Bourbon Hogshead, which does not detract from the character of the juice. Only 158 bottles came out of this slow process. The label features a painting by Wang Yung Chiu entitled Geometry of Music.

Let's Taste It : 

Fine and very herbaceous nose, lettuce and cabbage leaf, laurel, reeds, grainy peat, quite powerful but very elegant, almost ethereal, set with iodine. Salt crystals, candied seaweed. Floral ash, vetiver, damp gypsum, and a gentle medicinal touch, as if in the corridor of a disused hospital. Dried prunes and raisins. On the palate, the peat is as if concentrated, notes of charcoal and soot, from which citrus fruit, candied lemon and crunchy grapes emerge. Shavings of clove, gentian and nutmeg. Candied ginger, cooked fruit, courgette blossom. Long finish, very expressive without being explosive, hints of cereal, malt and peat, shards of granite and slate. Vegetal once again, alfalfa, tobacco, cola seed, dried flowers, Indian spices.

 

In Short, 

It's obviously an event to taste this. Every Ardbeg lover should cherish this kind of dram. It's not the Ardbeg we know today, it's less explosive, less ostentatious, more elegant and even discreet than violent. But there are some constants: the planty touch, which is very present, and the clearly recognisable citrus notes. This is a deep, cavernous whisky, whose peat does not mask the variety of flavours and its expressiveness. Taste it at least once in your life if you like this profile. As for the price of a bottle, bearing in mind that it's the price of a second-hand car or a month's travel, it's up to you to consider what your priorities are.

Score : 90

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                           To Be Listened While Sipping :

                                           Cinema Strange - Moundshroud