Ardbeg Uigeadail Review and Tasting Notes

The Story

Ardbeg's Uigeadail is a tremendously well regarded scotch, previously named as Jim Murray's World Whisky (not just Scotch!) of the Year in 2009.  It predominantly consists of Ardbeg's peaty malt, but it is combined with some whisky aged in ex-sherry casks.  The ratio is thought to be roughly 80:20 with sherry aged malt consisting of the minority.

As you know, I'm a pretty big fan of the Corryvreckan.  I'm also a fan of sherry, although I consider peated malts to be the true definition of heaven on earth.

Thus, Ardbeg's Uigeadail offering sounds like a match made in heaven for me, right?  Made by the artists behind the Corryvreckan.  Some subtle sherry notes mingled in.  And those miles and miles of peat we have come to expect from Ardbeg.

Match made in heaven, right?

Laphroaig Cairdeas 2015 Review and Tasting Notes

The Story

Ahhh, yes.  Laphroaig.

Laphroaig was and always will be my first true love in scotch.  It was a warm summer day... okay, I won't go there.  But Laphroaig's 10 Year offering was the first scotch I truly fell in love with, and it remains among my favorites and among the best values in scotch.

Naturally, I consider myself a friend of Laphroaig, and naturally, I have to get my hands on Laphroaig's yearly Cairdeas offering.

"Cairdeas" means friend in Gaelic, and each year, Laphroaig's master distillers craft the annual Cairdeas malt.  Typically, they put a spin of some sort on it.

In 2015, it was Laphroaig's 200th anniversary, so the goal for the Cairdeas offering was to craft a dram much like it might have been made 200 years ago.

Three Open Bottles, What To Do, What To Do?

I keep my bottles of scotch on top of the fridge.  Well, all my liquor goes there, but it just so happens that most of it is scotch.

Over the last six months, since I've been blogging, my scotch tasting has gone into an absolute frenzy.  I have scoured stores and the internet for good deals on bottles to taste and to review.

It got expensive.

I also arrived at a - great! - problem to have:

I had tons and tons of scotch.

However, scotch doesn't last forever.  Once opened, the length of time before the bottle starts to lose flavor is inversely related to how much of the bottle has been drunk.  Put differently, the less there is in the bottle, the more quickly it'll go bad.