ARDBEG AGED 13 YEARS ~ ISLAY, SCOTLAND

Wholly Spirits "Expect strong peat, gentle grassy notes with with a range of spice and herbs. One to be enjoyed neat."

Oak Barrel "It's just so rare to see Ardbeg outside of the 'official bottling' shackles and this is an excellent experience. It's certainly Ardbeg."

This Ardbeg 13 Year Old is a single cask whisky released exclusively for the Japanese market. It was distilled at the famous Islay distillery in 2005 and matured in a hogshead cask before being bottled by popular indie bottler, That Boutique-y Whisky Company.

Nose - A metallic smoke entry with digestive biscuits with pear drop sweets.

Taste - Warming spices fill the mouth before more of the smokiness comes through. There’s a pinch of pepper and tropical fruit juice.

Finish - The pepper lingers before more smokiness which lasts long after the final sip.

Ardbeg lies solitary, in a small cove off the south coast of Islay. It was once a stage for illegal distillation, when smugglers took advantage of the remote location and exceptional conditions for whisky production. Eventually, excise men seized the original, illegitimate buildings from the smugglers and destroyed them. It was not until 1815 that a legal distillery was established and founded by John McDougall. Sitting nearby leviathan distilleries; Laphroaig and Lagavulin, Ardbeg has always produced a very sought-after single malt, despite its production scale being less than half that of its neighbours.