Accident Whiskey: a Stupid Genre

Diageo recently released its latest whiskey in the Orphan Barrel series, the Gifted Horse, in which a young corn whiskey and bourbon were "accidentally" mixed with some older bourbon. Wow! How lucky for the largest spirits company in the world that some corn whiskey (which usually sucks) was poured into a 17 year old bourbon...and now it's $50 a bottle.

Unfortunately, the "accident whiskey" seems on the way to becoming a genre of its own. First came Serendipity, a blend of Scotch in which someone poured young Glen Moray into old Ardbeg.  How...serendipitous. Then Wild Turkey introduced Forgiven, in which someone dumped rye into the bourbon.

Just like those old Reese's Peanut Butter Cup commercials in which someone eating a chocolate bar collides with someone eating a jar of peanut butter and makes a delicious discovery, the Accident Whiskey backstories are silly and seem implausible. (Who the hell walks around eating peanut butter right out of the jar?)  Then, the company bottles it and gives it a name like WTF Whiskey which emphasizes the accidental nature of its creation.

The prevalence of these Accident Whiskeys would lead one to believe that either these stories are marketing fluff or whiskey distilleries are run by total idiots who randomly dump barrels together. The whiskey companies can let me know into which category they fall.
 

Ardboggling

Unless you've been living under a whiskey rock, you know that the latest Ardbeg special release came out last week.  Ardbog is a vatting of Ardbeg aged for ten years in Mazanilla sherry casks and the regular bourbon cask ten year old.

I've been quite cynical about the special releases, particularly after last year's disastrous Galileo.  Let's see what this year's release is about

Ardbeg Ardbog, 52.1% abv ($100)

The nose is peaty with a malty background.  On the palate it comes across as very young with some almost new makey notes followed by bold, sweet peat.  The finish is like licking a big slab of peat.  Okay, I've never actually done this, but you know what  I mean.

This is a bold whisky with sweet, peaty notes that tastes much younger than its ten years.  In fact, tasting blind, I pegged it for closer to five years old.  It's definitely a step up from the Galileo, but while it's decent, it's not particularly special and is certainly not something I'd recommend for the $100 price tag.

See the LA Whiskey Society reviews of Ardbog.

Lost in Space: Ardbeg Galileo

Ardbeg Galileo is a special edition Ardbeg issued to commemorate the distillery sending some of its whisky into space (I kid you not). Unlike many of their recent special editions, this one has a vintage; it's from whiskies distilled in 1999 and bottled in 2012. It's a combination of marsala cask aged whisky with regular bourbon barrel aged Ardbeg.

Ardbeg Galileo, 49% abv ($95)

The nose on this is very nice with some typical Ardbeg notes as well as some smoked fish. Unfortunately, it really falls apart on the palate. It starts off with very sweet wine notes, sweetens to Kool Aid levels, then comes a weird sort of spice on the tail. The finish is short, which is odd for Ardbeg, and slightly spicy with light peat.

I've pretty loyally tried the official Ardbeg releases over the past few years and I can honestly say this is the one I've liked least of any Ardbeg official bottling I've had. There is a weird spicy note (possibly from the Marsala) and a strong sweetness with regular Ardbeg notes in the background. There is just something about it that doesn't work for me.

I guess I can stand by my contention that Ardbeg is one of the most overrated distilleries.

The Three Most Overrated Distilleries

Earlier this week, I took a stab at what I think are the three most underrated distilleries. Today, we look at the most overrated distilleries. I'm aware that I am committing a number of heresies with this list, so feel free to tar and feather me in the comments, and keep in mind, I'm not saying that the whiskey from these distilleries is bad, just that they don't quite live up to the hype.


Cooley. Whiskey geeks love independence and innovation, but sometimes those factors seem to take precedence over quality. Cooley, up until they sold to Beam earlier this year, was a darling of the whiskey geeks for its independent spirit (pun intended). They make not only traditional Irish blended whiskey, but also single malt, single grain and peated single malt whiskey. But for all their innovation, I can't say I've been overly impressed with many Cooley whiskeys. Just because you can add peat, doesn't mean you should, and Connemara may be the best example of that. Cooley's other whiskeys aren't bad, but they just don't seem to merit the attention Cooley gets.

Ardbeg. Ardbeg has made some legendary whiskies in its time, but what has it done for us lately? The standard line as it's been for a few years: Ardbeg 10, Uigeadail and Corryvreckan are good whiskies, particularly Uigeadail, but certainly not of the quality or sophistication of some of their earlier stars. This is understandable as they were closed for a period and, like much of the industry, are clearly dealing with a shortage of older whisky. What we do get, though, is several annual releases of non-age statement whiskies that seldom measure up to their standard offerings, and a relentless parade of choppers, rockets and other gimmicks. Nevertheless, peatheads still seem to fawn over every rollercoaster, alligator or whisky in space. It seems that Ardbeg's best days are behind it (or, hopefully, in front of it).

Stitzel-Weller. Like Ardbeg, Stitzel-Weller has made some amazing whiskey, but the hype of this closed Kentucky distillery has gotten way out of hand. I've had some fantastic old Stitzel-Wellers, but I've also had some mediocre ones, both recent and dusty. Between every bottle of pre-1992 Old Fitzgerald fetching at least in the mid-three figures on ebay and the regular hysteria around each Pappy release, the hype for this distillery is much more than it deserves.

Runners Up: Macallan, Dalmore and Bruichladdich.

Add your suggestions (or angry tirades) in the comments.

Whiskey Auctions: Caveat Emptor

The whisky auction market is fairly young in the United States. Reselling spirits is generally illegal here (and yes, that includes ebay), but a handful of states allow spirits auctions, giving way to some pricey, high profile auctions of the type that are common in Europe.

I've never participated in one of these auctions, but I know some people who have and they counsel caution. Before participating, for instance, be sure to find out the fees that the auction house charges, which can be substantial.

Of greater concern is how much you can trust the items in the auction. My colleague Adam from the Los Angeles Whiskey Society recently posted this excellent piece in which he describes why an Ardbeg that is listed for an upcoming auction as "circa 1900" is most likely from the late 1930s. [UPDATE: the bottle has now been withdrawn from the auction.]

Adam was able to figure this out because, as a collector (and one who drinks his collection, I should add), he has a deep knowledge of bottle styles and bottling companies, one that goes way beyond my own dusty hunting knowledge.

It's tempting to trust an official auction house more than you would a random ebay listing, but if you're going to get involved in the auction world, you should do it with a lot of knowledge and a good dose of buyer beware.

Whiskey Wednesday: Big Lizard in my Backyard - Ardbeg Alligator

The now annual Ardbeg committee releases have become one of those artificial marketing gimmicks, not unlike those around the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection and Pappy Van Winkle releases, which create panic based on a false sense of scarcity. The limited spring release seemed to sell out within minutes, angering those who missed out, but there will be a much larger release this fall. As annoying as that seems, it's hard not to appreciate great marketing, and the folks at Glenmorangie PLC are geniuses in that department.

Of course, none of this would work if the products sucked, but everyone knows that quality is not an issue with Ardbeg. This year's release is the Ardbeg Alligator, which contains whisky that was aged in new, charred oak barrels, the same type of barrels used for bourbon. The whisky was then vatted with their regular ten year old.


Ardbeg Alligator, 2011 Committee Release, 51.2% abv ($100)

The nose on this is gives you a blast of peat but with some very rich background aromas, including some wine notes. The palate gives you coal and smoke and the type of BBQ flavors you would expect along with a touch of both sweet and then quite salty and briny and a then some bitterness on the way down. The finish is smoky sea air. Water gives in an oily, syrupy mouthfeel and dilutes some of the salt and bitterness, making it taste more like a traditional Ardbeg flavor profile.

The Alligator, while heavily peated also has a very heavy coastal character, moreso than most Ardbegs. There's a lot of boldness and not a lot of balance; it really smacks you upside the head, but it a fun way. Despite the new charred oak, I don't get a lot of wood. It would be interesting to try the components separately so you could really get a sense of the impact of those new charred oak barrel. I'd say this is a good step up from the last few years of committee releases; it has a lot more character than Rollercoaster or Corryvreckan, even if it is a bit rough around the edges. Definitely worth a try for the peatheads out there, but then, you knew that already.
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Whiskey Wednesday: The Ardbeg Project

Are you an Ardbeg nut? Do you love and obsess over the peat-a-licious Islay distillery? Well, no matter how much you love Ardbeg, chances are you aren't quite as obsessive about it as Tim Puett. Tim is the founder of The Ardbeg Project, the go-to website for Ardnuts (Tim's name for hardcore Ardbeg fans).

Tim's goal on the site, which he started in 2009, is to create "a comprehensive list for all Single Malt Whisky ever produced from the Ardbeg Distillery." The Project is even more detailed than it sounds in that description. Tim not only catalogues each expression of Ardbeg but each bottle code on each expression. For the uninitiated, the bottle code is a 12 digit code stamped or etched on each bottle which shows the year, month, day and time that the bottle was filled. This allows you to compare Ardbeg 10 year olds from different years, different months or even different days. This has created a whole new obsession for Ardbeg lovers who can now track down specific years and dates.

Tim was kind enough to give me some samples of different Ardbeg 10 year olds ranging from 2001 to 2010. I have to say, the differences in these whiskies (all Ardbeg 10, mind you), were vast. Some had young, raw flavors, others tasted mature; the levels and character of the peat flavor differed quite a bit as did the sweetness and nearly every other characteristic. While they were all distinctly Ardbeg and all quite good, I was shocked by the variation.

After tasting through the batch, I followed up with Tim and asked him a few questions. It's not just Ardbeg 10 that shows variations between the codes; the other Ardbeg expressions, including those that are no longer produced, all have codes and can differ from batch to batch. And other distilleries' bottles also have codes which can be used to track batches.

The variety in batches found in Ardbegs probably relates, in part, to the fact that the distillery was closed for much of the 1980s and then again, briefly, in the 1990s. Lacking casks of ten year old whisky, Ardbeg had to use older stocks in its ten year old. My guess is that given that we are now more than ten years into Glenmorangie's ownership and stable stewardship of Ardbeg, we may now see more consistency from batch to batch.

Tim notes that batch variation is always present but is just one more element in the tasting variation that we all experience:

There are so many variables that exist during the whole whisky making process. From distillation, filling, maturing, evaporation, warehousing, vatting, bottling, etc. that it would be virtually impossible to keep them completely identical. Not to mention, each time we taste a whisky, there are even more variables that our own palate and environment bring into the mix. How is our health? What did we just eat? Do we smoke? What type of glass are we using? Do we properly clean the glass? How is the weather? Are we inside or outside? Did we have a bad day at work? Or a good one? I believe all of these factors (even if only slightly) weigh on our sensory perception when we taste a whisky, and now we add in batch variation. It can be a game to pinpoint if the variation is in the whisky or in the drinker. Obviously, when there is a color difference, our mind can convince us that there is a taste difference, whether there actually is one or not. In my opinion, there are batch differences, but I try to keep myself grounded to the likelihood that the problem is usually "between the keyboard and the chair." After all, I'm not a professional, and I am tasting something made by a professional.

For my part, my favorite versions of the ten were the bottle codes L3 316 (bottled November 12, 2003) and L7 143 (bottled May 23, 2007). Tim's favorite of the group is L1 045 (bottled February 14, 2001).

So spend some time with The Ardbeg Project. You may not ever look at a bottle of Ardbeg the same way again.

Whiskey Wednesday: Two New Ardbegs

Ardbeg is one of the most popular distilleries among Scotch lovers, famous for its strong peat flavors. For years, Ardbeg issued special and limited bottlings but didn't sell them in the US. Americans were left to read about these fanciful new releases while our shelves only held three distillery Ardbegs: the 10 year old, Airigh Nam Beist and Uigeadail. Luckily for us, that started to change last year when Ardbeg released its hyper-peated Supernova to the US.

This year, we already have two new Ardbegs to celebrate. The Corryvreckan, which will become a regular feature of Ardbeg, replacing the Airigh Nam Beist, and the new limited edition Ardbeg Rollercoaster. It is about as good time as any to be an American Ardbeg fan.

TASTING

Ardbeg Corryvreckan, 57.1% alcohol ($75).

Corryvreckan is named for a Scottish whirlpool. It has no age statement. The nose is pure Islay goodness with smoke, straw, and a little bit of caramel in the background. The flavor is everything you would expect from a new Ardbeg. It comes on with big peat, followed with a bit of sweetness that picks up for the finish. Like the popular ten year old, there is a nice balance of smoke and sweet. I'm left with smoke in my nose and sugar on my tongue. I wouldn't say that it's my favorite Ardbeg, but it's a solid smoke monster that will please the peat heads among us, myself included.


Ardbeg Rollercoaster, 57.3% alcohol ($80).

The limited edition Rollercoaster is a high concept whisky. It is a blend of Ardbegs distilled in each year from 1997 (when the formerly closed distillery was reopened) to 2006, and the label even tells you the percentage of each year that went into the bottle. The nose on the Rollercoaster has some peat, but it's nowhere near the level of the Corryvreckan. You also get the agave/new make notes typical of young whiskies. When you taste, you immediately get the punch of a young whisky, with those slightly acidic qualities that have yet to be barrel tamed. Smoke is present, but much less prominent than the Corry.

These were two very different whiskies. If you are a real peat head, you should definitely get yourself a Corryvreckan. While the Rollercoaster is nice enough, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it unless you are an Ardbeg fanatic and want to taste something with some real youth characteristics to it.

Whiskey Wednesday: When You Wish Upon a Star -- Ardbeg Supernova

As I reported last week, both of the new, super peated Islay Scotches, Bruichladdich Octomore and Ardbeg Supernova, are now available in Southern California. These were the most highly peated whiskies ever released and they have been hard to come by, so if you are interested, grab them now. I quite enjoyed the Octomore. Now it's time for Supernova.

Whereas the Octomore stated that it was peated to precisely 131 parts per million of peat phenols, the Supernova is a bit more cagey, stating only that it is "in excess of 100 parts per million." This Ardbeg contains no age statement.

Tasting

Ardbeg Supernova, 58.9% alcohol ($130).

The nose is sweet with smoke, but the smoke is not overwhelming. The first thing to hit the tongue is sweetness, followed immediately with a blast of smoke. The sweet and the smoke are intertwined throughout this whiskey, from start to finish; it's like a smoky candy - liquid smoke + simple syrup. Then, the smoke degrades a bit into bitterness and coal on the late palate/early finish. The final exhale, though, is pure smoke.

The consensus in the Scotch world is that between Octomore and Supernova, Ardbeg makes the better whisky. For my part, though, I have to say I preferred the Octomore. The sweetness is more reserved and the peat punch is bigger and more funky, in a good way. Octomore is a bolder whisky and comes together better on the palate, it presents the whole package in a more appealing way.

In the UK, Bruichladdich recently released the next edition of Octomore (version 2.1) which is up to 140 ppm. The peatiness will keep on coming, and I will be here to taste it.

Whiskey Wednesday: Young and Smoky Part 3 -- Ardbeg Almost There

The final leg of our tour of young, assertive Islays is a whiskey that is regrettably not available in the US. One of the difficult things about being a Scotch fan in America is that lots of the good stuff just doesn't make it to us. There are many complex reasons for this, and John Hansell recently addressed them on his blog at Malt Advocate Magazine. But whatever the cause, the result is that many smaller distilleries or specialty bottlings pass over the US market, and we consequently lose out on a lot of good Scotch.

One of the things we Americans have been missing out on is an innovative series from Ardbeg, known as the "Peat Path to Maturity." The concept is simple, starting with its first distillation after reopening (Ardbeg was briefly closed in the 1990s), Ardbeg began releasing samples of young Ardbeg over several years to demonstrate how it matures on its way to the standard 10year old bottling.

The whiskey for the series was distilled in 1998. In 2004, Ardbeg bottled its first in the series, Ardbeg Very Young; in 2006, the distillery introduced Still Young and in 2007, it came out with Almost There. These bottlings are cask strength (or close to it) and are not chill filtered.

Now, while this is a fascinating experiment, it doesn't exactly show you how Ardbeg evolves into the ten year old bottling. The Ardbeg ten year old, while wildly popular and critically acclaimed, is not, as the series seems to suggest, merely a bottle of ten year old whiskey. Rather, as with most distillery bottlings, it is a blend of whiskies of different ages, the youngest of which is ten years old (or older). Now, perhaps this will change when the '98 distillate turns ten and we will see a cask strength all-ten year old ten year old, but that would be different than the standard ten which is blended with other, older barrels to create the Ardbeg ten that people know and love.

That being said, it is still a great concept and a chance to try much younger Ardbegs than were previously on the market. As an Ardbeg fan, I had wanted to try this series since its inception, and when a willing relative traveled to England, I got my chance.

Tasting

Ardbeg Almost There, Distilled 1998, Bottled 2007, 54.1% alcohol, Non Chill-Filtered.

Wow! There is nothing almost about this whiskey. Ardbeg can twist more flavor out of smoke than any other distillery, and this bottle is no exception. It has a perfect balance of smoky and sweet, with a salty, oceanside taste as well; and with all that going on, the maltiness is not lost. There is great balance here and if a nine year old is this good, I know there are more impressive things to come from our friends at Ardbeg.

A very impressive Scotch and my favorite of our young and smoky series...too bad we can't get it here...maybe someday.

UPDATE

John Hansell reports on his Malt Advocate blog that Ardbeg will indeed release a special ten year old cask strength as the final leg of the Maturity series. Known as Renaissance, the new bottling will be out soon, but, unfortunately, as with this entire series, it will not be available in the US. Woe is us.

Next Wednesday: Tennessee Smackdown - Jack vs. George