A few months ago there was a new Ardbeg release: Ardbeg Twenty One. The bottle is sold exclusively to the comittee members of Ardbeg and as it goesĀ with their limited releases, theĀ Ardbeg Twenty One was sold out in no time. On sale for Ā£ 310 it was quite expensive. Let’s seeĀ if it’s worth theĀ price..
This Ardbeg has matured in ex-bourbon casks and is bottled at 46% ABV.
Ardbeg Twenty One tasting notes:
Nose: smoke, hay and yoghurt. Now this sounds weirder then it actually is, all topped with some sugar. The sourness for me is quite dominant, but I also get some nice fruits in there with some herbs. A lemony touch which is fighting with the sourness / yoghurt. After a while I get also more of a plastic smell to it.
Taste: Interesting, fresh and light fruits. A little bit of smokiness and lemons. Plastics, oily, iodine, definitely something else then the normal current ardbegs out there. For me it starts very sweet and fruity but quickly turns into a more chemical / plastic taste. Oily mouthfeel.
Finish: Short to mid-long finish, peppery, smokiness or a bit of ash. Drying and a bit of sea sand. Weird if you ask me, it’s fun.
It’s quite a good whisky but not for this price, price / quality ratio is not right if you ask me.
A love it or hate it dram I guess. It has a lot of interesting aspects, it’s exploring and not an easy to drink dram. Right now I would score it 86 but it could be something totally different if I am in a different mood or have the chance to taste it more often. But then again, it could also stay the same. š
Very interesting, I totally missed this whisky and but there was some hype about it on a whisky group I’m on on Facebook but I’ve never really read any reviews on it.
Yoghurt would be a weird sensation to me in a whisky! And actually when you describe it, it makes me think of the first time I tasted the Dark Cove. It was weird in a way because it sort of couldn’t make up its mind whether it would have the usual sweetness, body and peat as in the normal Ardbeggish way or to have odd chemical flavours.
This 21-year-old doesn’t sound like something I’d put on my favourites list, but also, I’ve found that whiskies can totally change character when the bottle is opened a second time.
It was indeed an interesting dram, but I would never buy a bottle of it. Quite expensive for what you get. Especially now it is only available at auctions. But if you can buy a sample than it’s definitely worth trying.