Ardbeg has been on a never-ending stream of limited edition Committee Releases - which works as it keeps folks hooked and something to look forward to and keep coming back to the distillery. In psychology, it's called the repeat exposure effect - you keep seeing something pop up regularly, you form good vibes towards the thing or at least you're going to think about it.

And in my opinion the marketing team really deserves the credit - each release has been thoroughly given a full storyline and decked out in its narrative's get up - and it's fun!

Sure, I hear moans and groans about doing things the old school way, letting the whisky speak for itself; all these non-age statement (NAS) young whisky; it's all marketing hoopla; why don't they just produce well-aged "high quality" stuff every once in a while - yeah but distilleries are businesses too.

And I think this does make sure they bring in new fans, and keep the lights on. As for the quality of these releases - hey, we can't knock it till we've tried it. Fun and tasty aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. As for the price, well, it's a willing-buyer-willing-seller free market eh!

Also need I remain you that Ardbeg does regularly put out a solid 19 Year Old Traigh Bhan - why can't they make the names catchier and easier to pronounce like these Committee Releases huh?

In any case let's get down to trying three of these Committee Releases.

I should say that these are all the higher proof versions, many Limited Edition releases come in two sets - a higher proof Committee Release (being a Committee Member is free to sign up online by the way - here), and a lower proof mass market release.

Ardbeg Heavy Vapours Committee Release, 50.2% ABV - Review 

The concept behind Heavy Vapours is that a key piece of the distillery's equipment - the distillation still's purifier - had gone missing during the production of this expression. As a result, Ardbeg tells us that we should expected darker flavours here.

I actually find this very interesting - honestly! - I like that Ardbeg's playing around with tweaking their set up and seeing how that affects the whisky's flavours. 

Let's see! 

Tasting Notes

Color: White Wine

Aroma: Bright notes of melted butter, light vegetal peat, a very interesting scent of Mezcal, as well as light touches of clay. Frankly, nosed blind, you would 100% guess it was Mezcal - that smoked vegetal aroma. It’s only betrayed by a hefty buttery maltiness.

Taste: A solid creaminess and thickness - honey, buttery malt, more of those aromatic smoked vegetal notes but very gentle. It’s more malty, buttery and sweet than it is only so slightly vegetal. There’s a slight chalky minerality here and savouriness of salt cooked meats with fennel. The vegetal notes are only ever so slightly bitter. 

Finish: A nice long drawn warmth that breathes smoked moss, sea spray, charcoal but is at the same time malty buttery and quite sweet with honey, butter and cereals. There’s a really lovely touch of salinity as well.

My Thoughts

My Rating: 😲

Goddamn I love this - obviously everyone rolls their eyes at Ardbeg’s multitude of limited releases each with a storyline that rivals the Barbie movie, but I’ll be lying if I said this was anything short of splendid. I really loved that this packed so much buttery malt and sweetness, and then the saltiness, herbaceous vegetal notes and peat are sort of secondary flavours that support and enhance the buttery sweetness.

In that sense, if you’re not a big peat fan, this would be absolutely accessible for you. It’s also really interesting how this is so reminiscent of Mezcal. 

But really lovely aromas, great body and flavours and a splendid finish - I truly am amazed at this. This was just absolutely wonderful. It’s well rounded and cohesive, mellow and such an easy drink with so much flavour, a good amount of complexity and just delicious buttery and sweet flavours that are enhanced with all that nuance.

Maybe they should, y'know, permanently lose that purifier.

Ardbeg Fermutation Committee Release, 49.4% ABV - Review 

For the record, this one's actually apparently 13 years old - so not one of those NAS whiskies (which by the way I have no problem with, tasty is tasty, you could spend 50 years wasted aging crap and it would just be 50 year old crap). 

Regardless, the Fermutation is supposed to be the result of an accident that resulted in a three-week long fermentation (compared to their standard 72 hour practice), the longest in the distillery's history. Thus they had six washbacks full and couldn't get the boiler going - the distillery then opened the washbacks to allow for wild fermentation from the ambient Islay air.

Is it just me or does anyone else feel like Ardbeg has a whole lot of mishaps happening? 

Tasting Notes

Color: Straw

Aroma: Scents of buttery malt and light mossy peat. Light vegetal and smoky notes. More light herbaceousness and floral scents - alittle bit of morning forest floors with a light touch of smoulder.

Taste: Creamy and buttery, a good hefty texture that’s quite honeyed, before turning into more medicinal vegetal notes with a touch of ash. Quite sweet really. Light touches of anise.

Finish: It gets alittle more bitter and vegetal here, a sharper note of acidity from the ash, but quickly washes over with sweet, buttery malt. A long warmth that’s mostly sweet and lightly ashy.

My Thoughts

My Rating: 😪

This was really drinkable and frankly inoffensive - it’s actually pretty sweet and malty, which is nice. And then there’s ancillary notes of herbaceous bitterness and ash that’s more distinct here. 

It’s a really above average whisky and certainly likeable but somehow just isn’t that distinctive.

I'm not sure I got much of that zingy-ness.

Ardbeg BizarreBQ Committee Release, 50.9% ABV - Review 

This was a collaboration between Ardbeg and a Youtuber named Christian Stevenson (DJ BBQ).

More technically, this is unique for its use of something known as BBQ casks - no clue what this is, as well as double charred oak casks and PX sherry casks.

Tasting Notes

Color: Amber

Aroma: A light smokiness with more on honey, a light umami-savouriness bit on smoked meats and an earthy umami bit of dried mushrooms. There’s a light bit of cooked plum sauce and a nuttiness of walnuts.

Taste: A good thickness that leads into a light smokiness of savoury meats, spiced honey and then more onto smoked moss, theres’s a light medicinal herbaceousness of cough syrup too.

Finish: Clean with lingering notes of savoury smoked meats and sweet apple sauce, there’s a light mossy vegetal note and a salinity of seaspray. 

My Thoughts

My Rating: 😳

This was pretty good I must say, definitely punches above its weight and underserving of any flake if there was ever any. It has a good cohesiveness of flavours and a strong body - definitely punchy and flavor forward, really expressive and showcases lots of smoked meats, earthiness, honeyed sweetness and medicinal herbaceousness - there’s a good dash of everything and they come together entirely well!

This was thoroughly enjoyable and definitely quite distinctive and flavorful - good stuff!

Overall

What strikes me most is how each of these Committee Releases, while wrapped up in fancy marketing narratives, actually do come with actual technical (and meaningful!) differentiations when it comes to the whiskymaking aspect. 

Now that's more than can be said for many distilleries where all that's altered is simply the name of the expression and nothing else - so come on, give them a little credit.

That aside, the three Committee Releases do actually stand up to the test as pretty good whiskies, in particular I really liked the Heavy Vapours release, it was incredibly reminiscent of Mezcal on the aromas, and had a really wonderful palate where it sort of reversed the usual Ardbeg formula - here it was sweetness and buttery malt first, smoke and herbaceousness second.

BizarreBQ was pretty good as well - certainly distinctive in its own right, even though I have no clue what those BBQ casks are.

The Fermutation was weirdly the one I was most looking forward to trying - I had wondered if the distillery took a page out of the rum handbook and as you might know with rums, they're typically wild fermented and the longer the fermentation, the more interesting the flavours. That didn't quite translate here and quite frankly what we got was a very ordinary Ardbeg with less peatiness.

Nonetheless, these trio has certainly convinced me I should keep these Committee Releases on the radar.

Kanpai!

@111hotpot