Ardbeg 1974

I have always been a great fan of Ardbeg: the peat, salt and spice always have me wanting more. Until now I’ve enjoyed Nam Beist the most, but I’ve always been looking at a bottle of Ardbeg 1974 at the pub, meaning to sample it one of these days ( the pricetag alone have been the part that have stopped me ). In 2007 I went to a tasting with Jim Murray at the norwegian whisky festival where he described the 1974 Ardbeg as the ultimate in whisky, followed up by tasting 7 different Ardbegs with a representative of the Ardbeg distillery. But sadly the 1974 never came up that evening.

On thursday though: every developer at work had a gathering, and we went out for dinner and drinks. We soon ended up at underbar where I tasted the following:

• Ardbeg 10yo
  Really don’t need to say more than that I always have one bottle open and one in reserve at home.
• Ardbeg 1993 gordon & macphail
  This was a first for me: I’ve almost always had OB from Ardbeg, not IB. This has clearly benefited from some extra years on the cask: much smoother than the previous 10yo.
• Adbeg 1974 51% cask 2749 56/120 bottles
  This cask was layed down in a cask 14.june 1974 and bottled 20.september 2005, making it older than myself. What can I say: this is the closest to perfection in a malt I’ve ever had! The Ardbeg is there, still having a bite after 31years was a suprise to me, but it was the complexity and balance that really had me put into a tasting heaven.
  Nose: green grass and dry weeds, peat and salt, then some citrus and some malt coming in after a while.
  Mouth: It hits the mouth with spice that transfers into peat that just don’t want to go away… Then the salt and pepper fills the mouth with some hints of earth and caramell/honey. It reminds me of a storage house next to the sea that have been drying in the sun all summer. Finally it disappears with a touch of dry hay and malt.

  This bottle have found its way to the top of my list of malts, putting the Brora 30yo down to the second place. There are not many bottles left of this, so I’m heading back to taste this together with the 1975 and 1976 single cask to see how they can compare to this wonderful 1974 bottling.

• arran single cask, no number.
  After 20 minutes and the 1974 out of my mouth we tasted this single cask Arran: Vanilla on the nose. Spicy and sweet, but definently needs some water.