I am a little disappointed.  I had a bottle of Black Arts by Bruichladdich that was amazing.  I want another someday.  So I was very eager to try this, it has all my favorite features among which are being from Islay and being Peated, Heavily Peated.  If I compare this to Ardbeg they are about 80% similar but I appreciate Ardbeg a lot more after tasting this.

The color is light amber and the odor is earthy, peat, smoky, very promising.

Hold a swig in the front of your mouth and you will get a burning peaty wood flavor.  But I was surprised at how sweet this was when I swallowed it.  The initial taste is very sweet, way too sweet for my taste.  It almost seems like they created a very artificial sweetness to balance the peat.  For those of us that like, smoke, peat and medicinal flavors this ruins it (at least for me).  It has a long aftertaste that is more peaty and smoky.  The finish is the best part, it is here that you get straight smoke and peat and for me the flavor of an intense Chinese medicinal herb tea.  That was a pleasant surprise.  All in all, 10 years old, 50% abv and about 65$, if I had to do it again I’d go for Ardbeg 10 year.  The sweetness is what killed it for me.

Copyright 2015 David R Bergman