13/04/2022 Ardbeg

Ardbeg 19yo d.1974 (46%, Direct Wines Ltd. First Cask for The Sunday Times Wine Club, C#4380): nose: Jacob Ree-ZOMG! Old cheese rind (Cote Hill or mature Gruyère), tarry ropes, fishing nets, sea water, anchovies in brine, tapenade... And that is not all! It has a pronounced medicinal side as well, with merbromin, tincture of iodine and gauze that fades into old ink and stained blotting paper. At some point, there is a fleeting sheet of cardboard, then whelks and cockles settle for lunch. The whole has a very salty sea air to it, reminiscent of mussels clinging to tarry ropes in the harbour. Further nosing reveals a herbal side too, with oregano and dried seaweed, kelp. The second nose adds pencil-lead dust and rubbery erasers, warmed by direct sunlight, and dials up the ink note. It has a dollop of silt and a dash of marsh water too, for good measure. Then, it moves back to more petrolic shenanigans. Mouth: ooft! This is akin to sipping sea water, or chewing on a moor! It is enormously tarry, and also very salty. Now, ashy wax appears, a few seconds in, but it is really a seafood affair, this one: cockles, mussels, baked oysters, diesel and sea water all blended together. The second sip has spring flowers, wilting in their vase, and decaying into an interesting mash. Smoked crayfish, smoked shrimps, smoked langoustine. Interestingly, it is seafood with an exoskeleton, not really fish. Although, as soon as I write that down, pan-seared white fish shows up (skate?), served with a drizzle of lemon juice and squashed capers. Go figure! Finish: funnily enough, it is huge, yet has little kick from the alcohol. Instead, we have crayons, burnt erasers, diesel spilled on the surface of sea water, salted watercolour, preserved mussels (preserved in a brine-y jelly), preserved lemons... In other words: it is acidic, salty and chewy. Repeated sipping shows just how coating and petrolic this Ardbeg is, with kerosene that sticks to every square millimetre of the mouth. Despite the modest ABV, that some may think hinders this dram (including me, the first time), that sticky, tarry petrol means that the finish lasts for an eternity. Win! 9/10