Ardbeg 10 Year Old

Serge and Ralfy both gave the 2015 10 YO 89 points. We shall see. I will update this review as the bottle "breaks in." As I've said, I cannot concur at this time with such high esteem.

I have one I bought that is a 2/15 and, yes, it is very one-dimensional and definitely does not have older whisky. I am somewhat disappointed but it is still quite worthy of the $45 I paid. It hasn't improved by being open longer. Yet.

I paid $55. You got a good price!

I've got a 2014 bottling which is very tasty, but obviously lacking much in the way of older components. The other one I have in stock is a January 2015 bottling and I will be interested to compare the two. Nice that Ardbeg actually spells out the date on the bottles now instead of the hard to decipher codes they have always used.

As this is the malt that turned me onto peat a bunch of years ago, I'll always have it in my cabinet. (As long as the price stays reasonable).

About a year and a half ago I was fortunate and found a few cases of 2006 and 2007 Ardbeg 10 at a specialist store in Yaounde Cameroon. I think I am probably the only person in the country that drinks the stuff besides my in laws who like that it has certain tastes that are similar to smoked bushmeat. diageo, grants and Pernod have sold the public on an appreciation of commercial blends.

I agree there seems to be a considerable difference between recent expressions of Uigeadil and to some extent Ardbeg 10 and I would say that the decline became very apparent around 2011. I have purchased 4-5 bottles of Uigeadil in the last 2 years and they are all a caricature of what I was drinking from 2008-2011. I do think that Corryvreckan is still good value and high quality and the 2 bottles I purchased in 2014 are completely satisfactory and merit their places on my shelves.

The store still has 3 bottles of the 2006 bottling. I imagine I will be able to scope those up at some point as well.

In Canada we can only dream of Ardbeg 10 at $55...

@Nozinan, why is whiskey so expensive and limited in Canada compared to the USA? Taxes?, Politics? I just bought a bottle of Ardbeg 10 for $39. I'm not trying to upset you guys to the North, just understand. I feel your pain.

What is the cause? , it can't cost more to ship there compared to here.

Oh, by the way my bottle of Ardbeg 10 , 25/032015. Is pretty dam. Good as I remember.

@conundrum. What is the date code on your bottle? What country are in?

Does anyone think distillery ship better quality expressions to certain countries?

I have wondered about this because some get great bottles while others get substandard bottle. It's not consistent which countries gets the great bottles.

@Benacio, yes Canada gets Glenfarclas 15 unchilfilteree and we don't. I live half the time in Vancouver WAvand half in Portland. My state is controlled by the OLCC. It is a corrupt organization for sure and rigs sales for the really big bars to get cheap bottles. It also controls what comes into Oregon. This said, it used to keep prices down on scotch whisky. Now it tends to jack up prices. I wish I could order direct for Scotland with UK export taxes and US import taxes. They are so high that it makes the possibility impossible. Great scotch is disappearing due to the greed of corporations. Springbank will keep up its stock of old stuff but the price will go sky high. Ardbeg was great when it first went corporate and internationally speaking scotch wasn't popular yet. not so any more. Ardbeg is a pale shadow of its former glory.

Scotland gets the best scotch and then comes Germany and the rich Benelux countries. USA gets the swill generally speaking. Same with beer. The Guiness sold here is watery weak and shitey. Because so many Americans have no class or taste the ones that do suffer. If a big corporation could get away with selling us rainwater labeled as 22 year scotch, and people would buy it happily, I challenge you to find one big corp that would not seize the opportunity to exploit the blissfully ignorant. As for the very best casks, they go to private organizations and super rich individuals. It's always been that way. Just look on whiskybase and you'll see what I mean

"Because so many Americans have no class or taste ", that's a pretty offensive statement. As compared to what country, where everyone has class and good taste?

There are well over 300 million people that live here. The US is the third most populous country on earth. And yet, the US has, per capita, a rather high disposal income per family even when compared with some European countries with a small fraction of its population.

My ancestors settled this land. My lineage goes back six and seven or more generations and a few lines can be traced back to the Mayflower. I am not "ripping" on America because I am unpatriotic. I am stating my opinion that Americans, on the whole, are nearly completely ignorant about what constitutes quality Scottish whisky.

This nation is filled with a huge preponderance of fools and idiots, far more, per capita, than in, say Holland, for instance, or Belgium. Both of these countries, perhaps not so coincidently, get more than their share, per capital, of really great whisky casks from some of the best distilleries in Scotland.

I was rearended in my car today by a driver with an IQ that had to have been under 100. It was frustrating, and yet, I have been surprised that it hasn't happened sooner. I tend to drive very defensively for that reason. I look in my rearview almost habitually when I break. Today, I was doing a friend a favor and hurrying. I did not stop quickly but I was not defensively driving by driving for the person behind me when I very gradually decelerated on a busy street. SMACK! The fool ran straight into me. After he got out to handle the situation by exchanging insurance papers, he left his driver's side door open to traffic. Dozens of cars honked at him and he was lucky that his door was not knocked off his vehicle. He left it open the whole time. He was, quite simply, a dolt who barely deserved the privilege of driving a vehicle.

Americans are purposefully dumbed by the news and the educational system. The majority of our food has been poisoned by virulent pesticides and the entertainment industry emphasizes brainwashing people over making money.

Just look how many horrible films have been released in the past year. That isn't an accident. It isn't market generated. And I gave you a perfectly good example of a beer that is watered down and sent to America. I also pointed out the way you could see the countries that are getting the best bottles: whiskybase.

Europeans get preferential treatment by Scottish distilleries for a reason: Over the past 100 years, they have been smarter consumers. When I was a kid, I spent quite a bit of time in Europe. The beer market in the US was dismal at the time and no hard cider was available. The wine market was primitive. Things have changed today. People are becoming more educated and the internet is helping. But many of the age old routes of trade have been in place for a long long time.

I used to work in the advertising industry as a copy writer until I could stand it no longer on moral grounds. That industry prided itself on creating demand for things that nobody needed. In other words, it educated Americans to spend money of stupid crap and to create a need for that crap in their minds.

The English have been dumbed down more recently and that's no accident: their public education system has been modeled after ours and quite a few advertising agencies are now owned by English interests.

My family came to the United States from Spain before the U.S. Constitution was written and settled in northern New Mexico.

I understand what you are saying and I'm sympathetic to your feelings. I'm sorry about the sub moron that ran into your car. One hopes that your life never crosses paths with the trash that inhabit this planet. We just made the national news, with a Four year old shot and a police officer shot in the same week.

That being said, I feel the U.S. Is one one of the most generous and free countries in the world. It does bother me when anyone is critical of the U.S. As a whole. I haven't lived in other countries, so have nothing to compare to, but I can't imagine living elsewhere. I'm very fortunate, my life is good.

Cheers, drink good scotch, rye and bourbon. There are excellent tequilas out there that compare with fine scotch.

@Cunundrum I share your pain on the dumbing down of the masses in the USA but as a Brit I feel the need to correct your comment of "THE ENGLISH HAVE BEEN DUMBED DOWN MORE RECENTLY" You obviously have little dealing with the good folk of the U.K. Who are constantly fed a stream of reality TV and Jeremy Kyle one of our exports I wish you would keep unlike quality Scotch.

Over the last few 2 centuries there has been a move from the work ethic which made this fantastic isle Great into an unrecognisable place were the younger generation feels that binge drinking is the norm and that everyone owes them a living to the point the welfare state and National Health Service are creaking at the seams. There is no respect for others and the consumerism fed by the ad companies is rampant with everyone wanting the latest gadget now and no thought of the cost.

College and University students are up in arms as they are now being told they have to pay for their own education although some still claim grants for living expenses which roll up into student loans they pay back if and when they start work. The majority claim to be penniless but there are nights in every town designated as student nights normally a Monday or Tuesday when hordes of drunken teenagers can be seen on the streets until the early hours (5 or 6 am) obviously there must not be any higher learning taught on the following day. Alcohol legislation is slack and underage drinking and serving people at bars to the point of collapse is the norm and they become a drain on ambulance and A&E resources. The government attempts to bring in a cafe culture similar to some of our European neighbours started with an erroneous ideal that if we open the bars all night people will not get drunk but will have a meal a glass of wine or appreciate a fine spirit and gently enjoy the relaxed atmosphere. There is a power drinking culture ingrained in British society and some people have cheap spirits downed before going out and then top up on shots and slammers while out with the aim to drink more than your friends before collapsing.

The welfare state set up to support the most needy a laudable and necessary ideal in any civilised society is now seen by many as a cradle to grave cover to excuse them from attempting to better their family situation by working as they would lose their benefits. Every year a tabloid newspaper will run at least one story about scrounges and show examples of people who have never worked and have no intention of working with multiple children usually in double figures who collect the equivalent of 50k sterling in benefits (housing paid, medical paid, child benefits and tax credits) Whole generations are being wasted by this lack of incentive and it is now at the point were 2,3 or even 4 generations have never worked or have no intention of working, easier to have another child and keep the government cash machine flowing. Obviously the generations are closer together age wise as in some of the most deprived areas it is not unheard of to be a mother at 15-16, grandmother at 30-35 and great grandmother by time you are 50, some manage the last milestone earlier and children have children at 14 with the same error passing from generation to generation, some openly admitting they get pregnant to get a social housing property.

The English have not been dumbed down recently we as a nation have worked hard at destroying our good name it's just a shame some will not put the same effort into getting off their behinds and working.

This is coming from someone born and brought up in my formative years on one of said deprived areas, I was born in a deprived area and raised until the age of 8 in a seventies high rise. I was fortunate in that my parents and grandparents had a strong work ethic and with my dad hardly home due to work and mother working 2 part time jobs they made a huge difference and changed the likely course of me and my siblings lives. I have worked since the age of 13 delivering papers then milk and 34 years later have a decent career and still love going into work as it provides me and my family with some of the nicer things in life.

@benancio I am sorry to hear of such a waste of life with the persons shot, the loss of another law enforcement officer resonates as recently a police officer in a neighbouring county was killed by a burglar who ploughed him down in a stolen vehicle leaving a widow and 2 young children. I am mortified that a four year old child has had their life extinguished in such a violent manner, I am thankful that UK gun laws are as they are.

Enjoy your whisky.

@pete1969 I lived in London back in 1987. Really enjoyed it. My point is that society is designed and programmed more than most folks realize. Have you ever heard of Tavistock institute? If not look it up.

The downward spiral in England is similar to that in the USA. And that's no accident: the same programmers and financial leaches are doing it in both countries. Not so for many other European countries that have more middle men in place when it comes to such travesties.

A middle eastern core of leaches moved into England during the reign of Elizabeth and proceeded to take over. Yes they built the world empire but today they are consuming their own servants even as they push for a single world government. America was relatively free after Andrew Jackson broke the strangle hold of the big "federal" banks.

That freedom ended in 1913 when the federal reserve was created. WWI broke out a year later and that was no coincidence. The same Venetio-Anglo interests fomented the Bolshevik revolution a few years later to create the controlled opposition of communism, which is actually much closer to their ultimate goal. There is no such thing as a free market. It's a fallacy. Stock markets and economies are always controlled by the ultra rich. After all the ultra rich invented them as a means of controll.

The downward spiral you mention in England is the product of destabilization in which the poor are radicalized through fewer opportunities and hope. This causes social disintegration. Problem reaction solution. As the poor "rebel" through sloth, increased drug use, violence, and anger, the middle classes economic might is liquidated by the government to "solve" the problem.

Meanwhile the education system, the media, sports obsessions, and the entertainment industry continue to mold the popular culture in a direction that destabilizes families, erodes the self worth of individuals, and moves the whole ball of wax towards global rule, administration, and finance.

@Pete1969

While in London, I lived on Tottenham Court Road. The etymology of this place name did not escape me: Little Village of Death. A rather strange and ghoulish appellation but the rent was great!

@Conundrum, quite the rigmarole we are enduring to learn of one member's impression of Ardbeg 10. Whisky, anyone?

I was answering a question. Paddock you have always been an ass. Why not try being a donkey for once? You are a judge of nothing but mediocrity.

Paddock: If I met you in person, I'm sure I would like you even less.

@Cunundram, that's the best shot in the bottle? Not even a whisky analogy. Epic failure for left coast linguist.

How about a hockey analogy, "Judge"? I see you were waiting for my response and purposefully provoking me into sparing. Bully for you! Chock one up for the hockey puck from Ontario.

How about watching some sort of sports game on television or spending quality time with your family? It's Sunday, after all.

But not to let you down: there is a bunghole on a cask of Ardbeg 10 2015 somewhere waiting for your patient ministrations.

99% of my activity on this site has been about whisky but when I am accused of being "offensive" for caring about the real people of this world (regardless of nationality) and not the ultra rich lizardy leaches that ruin everything for the rest of us, I must respond and shed some light on the subject. If you go back, you will see my initial comments all pertained to Ardbeg until the subject was changed and not by me. . . .

Frankly, I'm not feeling very well. As I said, I was rear ended in my car last night and my head aches. Thanks for asking about my health, Paddock. And best wishes to you.

@Cunundrun, get well soon.

Now, now children play nice, personal opinions are just that no need to fall out. I was just passing comment on the failings in society as I view them, they may be true or not but no need to validate them by name calling.

Listen.... a good % of Americans support Donald Trump. 30% of Canadians supported a politician who made them afraid of a person wearing a niqab.

There are some really dumb people out there.

But I would hope that these are not the same people who appreciate fine whisky... They certainly won't be to invited to appreciate my collection.

hard to find a man with a bigger heart than @paddockjudge. i'd love to meet @Cunundrum in person one day, gotta say....

We are in process of developing a whole series of techniques which will enable the CONTROLLING OLIGARCHY WHO HAVE ALWAYS EXISTED AND PRESUMABLY WILL ALWAYS EXIST TO GET PEOPLE TO LOVE THEIR SERVITUDE.

This is the ultimate in malevolent revolutions shall we say, and this is a problem which has interested me many years and about which I wrote thirty years ago, a fable [BLUEPRINT], Brave New World, which is an account of society making use of all the devices available and some of the devices which I imagined to be possible making use of them in order to, first of all, to standardize the population, to iron out inconvenient human differences, to create, to say, mass produced models of human beings arranged in some sort of SCIENTIFIC CASTE SYSTEM.

Since then, I have continued to be extremely interested in this problem and I have noticed with increasing dismay a number of the predictions which were purely fantastic when I made them thirty years ago have come true or seem in process of coming true.

A number of techniques about which I talked seem to be here already. And there seems to be a general movement in the direction of this kind of ultimate revolution, a method of control by which a people can be made to enjoy a state of affairs by which any decent standard they ought not to enjoy. This, the ENJOYMENT OF SERVITUDE.

--Aldous Huxley, Berkeley CA, 1962

Enjoy your hockey, sports, bicycling, and yoga. Meanwhile, the real men are paying attention to what is really happening in the world while you sleep, meditate, ride your bike, and sit glued to the television while you watch others play games with balls, in addition to spending a great deal of time and energy memorizing statistics and details about those who have played with balls (and pucks) in the past on television.

And why do real men take the time to study how the world REALLY works?

Answer: In order to protect and guard the welfare of you and your families because you matter and are loved as fellow human beings who, despite your weaknesses, deserve love, unlike those who are working, night and day, to enslave and brainwash you and billions like you.

Sir, step away from the ledge, please.

That is your brainwashing talking. May God bless you.

Enjoy this site. I'm through with it forever. There: you got your wish, Paddock Bully. I have no hard feelings. Live long and prosper.

encore performance, Et tu Rigmarole.

That ability to turn nothingness into an all out do or die conflict is so quintessentially American. Go directly to the Rigmarole hall of shame. Or is it actually you, Rigmarole, back in a not-too-cunning disguise?

Where were we before we were so rudely interrupted? Maybe now we can get back to the whisky.

I have a bottle of Ardbeg 10 but never seem to have an opportunity to open it. That better?

Thanks Doc. I knew you would be the one to bring us back to earth.