[Scotch Review] Ardbeg 1972 Old Malt Cask

So it's been a while since I've posted on this blog so I guess I'll start up again and do a new post every week now so it's a bit easier to manage so why not start with a gem that I recently had a chance to try?

I keep hearing from a lot of my friends who've tried a heck of a lot of whisky that one distillery on Islay had itself a golden decade and that they’re always worth a try if you can come across a dram of any of the releases from that decade. That chest of jewels is 1970s Ardbeg, the widely considered golden age of Ardbeg before its production halt in 1981, and today I finally get a chance to try an older bottling from that time.
This bottling of Ardbeg comes from Douglas Laing’s Old Malt Cask range and was aged for 27 years in oak before being bottled at 50% ABV. So let’s see how 70s Ardbeg does against the top of my whisky pours list.

• Colour: Dark Gold
• Nose: Sea salt, brine, campfire smoke, green olives, apples, vanilla, caramel, some cocoa, a bit of a weak nose for the age
• Palate: Apples, roasted pork, vanilla, lemon citrus, some honeydew, light oak, campfire peat, oak tannins, peppercorns, cumin, cayenne, melon
• Finish: Long with campfire smoke, pork, cayenne and spicy wood

This whisky at first seems a bit underwhelming but then the finish and the spice kicks in and it lasts a while, a very long while. In some ways this seems almost like the perfect way to get a non-Islay drinker into Ardbeg who doesn’t want overwhelming body but can appreciate a good finish because the finish on this whisky is phenomenal. While I’m not sure this hits as high as the best couple drams I’ve had this one is definitely getting up there for sure and I’m glad to have seen how 70s Ardbeg turned out especially at an age of 27 years.

90 pts

 

If you ever find a 70s Ardbeg to try or even buy at a good price definitely do so because it's a fantastic range of whiskies and you can't go wrong with a quality older Islay! Next week I'll be looking at an older Speyside so stay tuned for that one!

Current Review Scoring System:

 

0-49: Horrible

50-59: Bad

60-69: Mediocre to Average

70-74: Average to Good

75-79: Good to Great

80-84: Great to Excellent

85-89: Excellent

90-94: Superb

95+: Masterpiece

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