Ardbeg An Oa, 46.6% abv.

Like most recent Ardbeg, it is named after a geologic feature of the island, in this case, the Mull of Oa on the Kildalton coast in the south west of Islay. The juice is matured in virgin oak, Pedro Ximénez, and bourbon barrels, and then vatted in the distillery's French oak "Gathering Vat". Seems complicated.

Nose: peat smoke, salt, not as much wood as I'd expect from an Islay monster, a little sweet but like toasted almonds, some sort of powdered fragrant soap on sale at the front of Bath and Bodyworks, apple juice, something about it is not Ardbeg but I can't seem to pinpoint it, perhaps the lack of intensity?

Palate: a little dry, initially peat smoke, spicy apple juice, savory candy, rubber, like eating a savory piece of over-preserved prosciutto, actually there are a lot of flavors in here, smoked stone fruits (imagine it), over smoked BBQ, black burnt parts on baked salmon, freshly treated wood deck perhaps more towards a redwood type, back palate is like heavy textured brown sauce. With time I converge to leftover premium coffee grinds with some sort of cherry flavoring and coffee ice cream. Overall, it's what I imagine a savory grapefruit to be.

Finish: long, smokey, savory, like eating sweet ice cream, grapefruit rinds, light tar, seems to keep the palate salivating I think because I think I'm about to eat a meal. With time it becomes Pu-er tea.

This is one savory bottle. Even though it had smoke, peat, salt, it didn't feel like an Ardbeg; it lacked that intensity I've grown to exist from Ardbeg. Seemed to tone down the Islay mafia features and added some savory aspects to the palate, mostly in the form of savory sauce and dried meats.

Grade: B

Whiskyanalysis.com, 8.80 ± 0.30 on 14 reviews
Whiskyfun.com, Angus MacRaild, sgp:555, 85 points
Scotchwhisky, Dave Broom, 90 points
Whisky advocate, Gavin Smith, 93 points
Malt-review, @maltreview, Mark Newton, 5/10
Whiskynotes, Ruben Luyten, 84/100

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

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