Ardbeg 10 Year Old

You may have had a bad bottle, it's worth returning this to the retailer to find out... We're all entitled to our opinions but there is no way this Whisky is less than a 70. I had a bad bottle of Mortlach Cask Strength recently... completely unbalanced, retailer returned it for me

I agree with @mattberg. I recently opened up my first bottle of Ardbeg 10 and was no less than blown away by it. It may be due diligence on your part to figure out if your bottle was bad or not.

I also was blown away by this whisky , fantastic everyday whisky!

Perhaps you don't like heavily peated whiskies?

Looks like it wasn't a bad bottle. Here's the reply from Ardbeg:

Dear Adrian,

Many thanks for your email and apologies for the delay in responding to you.

We're sorry that you were disappointed with your bottle of Ardbeg.

Many malt whiskies which originate from the island of Islay intend to have quite distinguishable and distinctive sensory characteristics. For example you may pick up on either nose or palette flavour characteristics of peat, smoke, salt, iodine and medicinal notes. Mouth feel sensations can be drying, and astringency may also be noted.

We would expect such characteristics from our Ardbeg products, it can be common for consumers to recognise the naturally occurring flavour components, which can be described as medicinal or even “TCP”.

Like all products, the individual sensory attributes of this, is subject to the personal preference of the consumer.

We hope this has helped in answering your enquiry, should you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind Regards Laura

I, like many I suppose, was no less than baffled by your review Wylcx, and I´m afraid I´d have to agree with Dellnola´s train of thought... I don´t know how long you´ve been tasting whisky and which are your favourites, but the Islays are specific. The Lagavulin 16Y for instance is even more peaty / medicinal... And I admit that my first glass of Islay malt wasn´t an easy one to enjoy, but don´t give up or despair, often, people say that whisky´s an acquiered taste... an Islay even more so...

My baptism of fire intro into single malts was Laphroaig Quarter Cask..., it took half a bottle and two weeks to get to grips with it. Opened up a whole new world for me.... close friends who are mostly wine lovers just don't get it and think I'm drinking peated medicine.... their loss

Adrian, it may have been a bad bottle. If it is the case, your review would not make any sense. In case of a good bottle, your score of 3 does not make any sense, either. I have seen reviews on this site with scores of 10 or 20, but I don't think that's a fair evaluation. For example, as far as I know, Michael Jackson never went under 60 points for a whisky, but we can figure out that these low-score drams must be pretty underwhelming. Everyone has got his/her personal taste (I must confess that I love Ardbeg, but find Laphroaig far too medicinal), but that does not mean that we could go wild with our scores. mattberg is right: especially the Islay whiskies need a lot of patience. Get over your initial disappointment and have another try. Cheers.

I gave it a score of 3 because I liked the packaging.