I bought a sample of this some years ago and put it in my stash upstairs. Then I forgot about it for three years. Since I’m going through that again to get rid of the endless number of mini bottles with random whisky and other booze I encountered it on Saturday and thought the time was right for a peaty dram in 2014.

I’ve been going through some slightly more luxurious whiskies for a couple of days now and this fits that line-up nicely.

The bottling done by LMDW is very limited to only 30 bottles, with the whisky being matured in a sherry cask.

Ardbeg 18 for Whisky Live Spa. Image from Whiskybase.

Sniff:
Light and fruity sherry with a lot of peat. It reminds me heavily of the Uigeadail. Some tropical fruit, rather sweet but the smokiness is a bit coarse.

Sip:
The palate is sharp and peppery, with smoke, soot and straw. It’s rich with fruits after the initial blast, slightly greasy and sweet.

Swallow:
The finish is rather long and sweet. The smokiness is still here but diminishes quickly. What it leaves behind is the same fruitiness as before, but with a more bitter edge.

This is a belter. Although the ABV sits nicely at 55.6%, it comes off much sharper than I expected. The sweet fruitiness behind it all works very well. A rather typical Ardbeg with the quintessential straw flavours also being present.

Ardbeg 18, 1991-2009, Whisky Live Spa 2010, 55.6%, La Maison du Whisky. According to Whiskybase it sits at € 150, but I expect that you have to pay much more if you can find it.