Yet another random sample I found on my shelf. Ardbeg 1993 caught my eye since that’s a vintage that’s becoming insanely expensive nowadays. Of course, the label was lacking any other information, so I had absolutely no clue to the age of the whisky, nor the bottler or the ABV.

So, apart from the vintage and that it’s bottled for Potstill Vienna, I had to Google for a couple of minutes before I found the rest of the information. Of course, the whisky is on Whiskybase, but I had to go through Google to find it there too.

So, 1993 Ardbeg. A popular vintage from a popular distillery. One that earned it’s mainstay reputation through legendary bottlings of yonder year, but one that I honestly find lacking in the last decade or so. Stuff is too expensive and not as good as the price tag suggests. Maybe this one is different?

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
Quite a bit of peat for an oldie like this. Sea weed, sand and brine. Some apple, dried flowers and marram grass.

Sip:
Quite a strong one with lots of alcohol and dryness. Dried flowers, hay and grass. Wood, brine, sand. Some apple and a bit of simple syrup. A tiny hint of vanilla too.

Swallow:
Quite a lot of sharpness on the finish too. Some more cask than spirit influences here. A bit more sweetness and vanilla, a bit less flowery and dry.

The first remark about this being an oldie was based on the assumption that this wasn’t bottled more than a decade before I got my sample. Somehow I didn’t really expect a very young whisky, but at 9 or 10 years old, that’s what this is.

So, that I found the peat to be more prominent than I expected from an older whisky is correct at least. It’s not an older whisky, so that’s explained. Apart from that, it’s not stellar. It’s not bad either, but it’s just, you know, Ardbeg. Not stellar, not bad. Lots of peatsmoke, and apart from that it is a bit of a Lowlands style whisky. But with peat.

85/100

Ardbeg 1993-2003, Cask 1091, 52.9%, Gordon & MacPhail / Spirit of Scotland / Potstill Vienna.