Top 7 Late Night & Afterparty Bottles: Ardbeg Uigeadail

I had such a blast with my just-completed Top 10 Holiday Party Bottles series, I’m immediately launching into the sequel. Whereas the previous series tried to strike a balance between the tastes of whisky neophytes and veterans, this series is targeted squarely at longtime whisky fans. My premise for this list is “bottles that a single pour can easily take an hour to finish.” These are bottles towering in complexity and horsepower, that would vaporize most whisky rookies on sight. This is the deep waters, and here there be monsters. These are the bottles you break out for close friends on a cold winter night, and you’ll only need a single pour to see out the evening.

Again, I tried to curate a list that is reasonably accessible, but I’m sure there will be exceptions.

Leading off — Ardbeg Uigeadail. There’s a reason this bottle is the perennial favorite of The Committee: because it’s perfect. It’s a stallion of vanilla, treacle, and stonefruits with campfire smoke and cold seawater surging in its veins. Standing astride the balanced sweetness of Kilchoman and the oceanic fury of Port Charlotte, Uigeadail is the harmonious synthesis of sweet and peat. Bottled at cask strength of 108 proof, non-chill filtered, and NAS but rumored to comprise primarily of 10-ish year old barrels, and it’s all yours for $75-$80. Even better, it’s actually a bottle you stand a chance of finding.

For me, I rotate between Uigeadail, HP Cask Strength, and Lagavulin 16 as my “welcome to Big Peat!” bottles for bourbon drinkers arriving into peated scotch. The vanilla, fruit, and graham cracker notes are a reference point any bourbon drinker can instantly feel at home with, and from there they can truly begin to stare into the peaty depths. Because as hulking as this bottle is, there’s even smokier beasts later on this list — thankfully this one retains enough civility to charm even the most skeptical visitor.

Conclusion: two fingers neat of this and a friend next to the fire will take you about 90-120 minutes later into the night

Image courtesy of Jon who also writes on Low Class & High Proof.

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I learned how to make cocktails watching Danger 5