Islay Trinity, Pt I: 'And We in Dreams Behold the Hebrides'
Written: Apr 26 '00 (Updated Jun 28 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Each and aye wee dram, to the last
Cons: Auchone, auchone: Nain whateffer, at all
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| mshawpyle's Full Review: Ardbeg 17 Year Old Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky |
There are three whisky distilleries – yes, of course singlemalt – on Islay that between them produce my three favorite singlemalts. As we approach the best of all Scots whiskies, in this weekend's Sip-Off (watch this space! By the way, whatever happened to Burma-Shave, anyway?), I am counting down from third to first.
Tonight, the third best singlemalt ever distilled in the misty, heather-purple realm of Alba, Ardbeg.
The spindrift-dewed, surf-lashed, wind-tousled Isle of Islay outfaces and outfronts the Hebridean gales, fortified, at least in part, by spirits as well as spirit. In a smallish area on the southeastern tip of the island are located the three great distilleries of Ardbeg, Lagavulin, and Laphroaig.
It is a maritime environment; and there is something maritime, salty, about the singlemalts of Islay. They have bottled sea-spume and storm and kelp and haddock, the cries of gulls and kittiwakes, the Homeric surge and thunder of the sea. And like Xenophon's hardbitten remnant, we too may call out in joy and thankfulness, Thalassa! Thalassa!: for to fight and win through to an Islay malt is like the Ten Thousand's survivors reaching the strand at Trebizond, and the ships home to Greece.
That is not mere poetic effusion on my part. The dominant characteristics of an Islay malt are heaviness, oiliness, smokiness, and a harbor and seashore whiff of iodine.
Wait – don't leave. This is a good thing. (All right, so it's an acquired taste. So are caviar, foie gras, and armagnac. And acquiring those tastes is half the fun.)
Ardbeg is the most sea-salty and seaweedy of the three great Islay malts, overpowering to many, not peat-smoky enough for some. In fact, it is only that hint of imperfect balance and resolution that causes me to put it in third place as to Lagavulin and Laphroaig: basically, they are all so far superior even to other great singlemalts that there is hardly a hair's weight of difference in the scales among them.
In the glass it is almost pale, broomstraw color, amber long since aged into subdued discretion. To a bourbon drinker, say, it would look like nothing in particular. It is sluggish, viscous, oily-smooth. Cold and dour, you would say: a perfect drink for Scots.
The tyro will, perhaps, look askance at the glass after the first 'nose' of the dram. ('Like a harbor at low tide,' I once heard some poor man say. We converted him, in the end.)
In fact, the tincture of seaweed (or iodine, to some) and marine saltiness is a mere overlay: the dominant notes, as for all Islay malts, indeed, all great singlemalts, are malt and spice and peat-smoke. (Islay malts happen to be far and away the smokiest, is all.)
Ardbeg's unique distinctions are not only the maritime tang, but – from the casking – a hint of bourbon, and by the grace of God, a whisper of marmalade with plenty of orange peel.
In the mouth, though – ah…. This is a far 'warmer' dram than its appearance would suggest: its dour integument, as is true of the Scots themselves, belies its warm and welcoming hospitality. Pure water, good honest grain malted and mashed and transcendentally transformed, and peat-smoke have combined to create ambrosial nectar: spicy, complex, durable, long in the mouth, chewy, with notes of oak, eau de vie, moss, and an indefinable, clean taste of the open sea freshly renewed and scoured by a tearing gale.
The finish is firm, nutlike, almost a memory of oloroso sherry.
And the back of the throat and the cockles of the heart will long recall it. It is, all appearances and first impressions to the contrary, a dashingly elegant singlemalt of high style and finish.
As with all singlemalts, one must not profane it with ice, or water, or worse: the only thing one may add to a dram of singlemalt is more singlemalt. But take it on its own terms, and you will suddenly see what the fuss is about: this, with the other Islay malts, is what Scots whisky is meant to be. It is the Platonic ideal.
If you care about whisky at all, out oars for Islay.
Recommended:
Yes
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mshawpyle
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Member: Markham Shaw Pyle, JD
Location: Houston, Texas
Reviews written: 539
Trusted by: 394 members
About Me:
Historian, baseballing bon vivant, Boll Weevil, W&L man; and the Walter Mitty of field sports
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