So, what are you drinking now?

@MadSingleMalt Yeah, good point. Maybe the Island Green will be exclusively travel retail.

@BlueNote I think it is and it's a shame. 15 years and available at retail would be ideal.

@MadSingleMalt I don't know what it is with the GG 12. It just doesn't taste good. I'll give it some more time. It gets decent reviews, so maybe it's just not quite in the flavour profile that I like.

If they ever try to elevate this thing from the whisky basement that is travel retail, they need a better name. "Island Green" sounds like something tropical. Everyone knows that to evoke the romantic charm of Scotland's islands, you must use the term "isle." Duh.

@MadSingleMalt It's true, it does sound tropical. But the idea is that it has more malt from the "Islands", presumably Islay and Skye.

Right, but how many shoppers in travel retail understand anything about the Scottish islands, let alone what they're called, what distilleries might be found there, and what the style of said distilleries' whiskies might be?

"Island Green" is a lock that most people don't hold the key to. Dumb name.

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Edit to add: I don't mean any of that disparagingly. I used to be the same: Before I got interested in Scotland a few years ago, I had maybe heard of Skye, maybe. But I definitely knew nothing about Talisker or Islay or anything else. Again, I just think it's a dumb name.

I'm home after 2 nights away and celebrating with a drop of Ardbeg Ten. I thought about opening my Oogie, but I’m delaying my gratification on that front. I’m continually surprised at how much sweetness is in this 10 Year old. Under the bbq charcoal smoke, there’s a lot of malt/barley sweetness. It’s an excellent balance. Smoky and sweet, I think this would pair beautifully with dry-rubbed, slow-smoked ribs.

Longrow aged 10 years 100 proof. Came across this on sale a couple years ago. Been open six months and it’s an intense sweet butterscotch peat. Wonderful dram!

@Bilbo161 I like label on that Longrow and it sounds delicious too. I notice again how over here we get ripped off nearly 10% from each bottle as ours are all only 700 mL rather than your 750 mL.

@Hewie I always wondered why that was. I think companies may be more worried about consumer backlash over here? Anyway a simple but nice dram that one.

@Bilbo161 Clearly marketed for N. America. In the UK 100 proof is 57%

@Nozinan I was wondering about the 750 vs 700mL.

@Nozinan my point being perhaps the US market might rebel against a reduction in bottle size, and the market size alone may prevent that happening here.

Speaking of Campbeltown, I had a dram of Hazelburn 10 tonight. I'm liking it more each time I try it. Followed up with a small one of HP Valkyrie. That didn't work. I am not feeling the love with that one so far. Maybe needs more time or maybe I need to start with it rather than following something I really like. I'm finding it quite viscous and syrupy in a not particularly good way.

Campbeltown here too. Another KIlkerran 12 - salted lemon meringue pie never tasted so good

And continuing the Campbeltown theme with a wee Springbank 12 CS. This is Batch 6 and it's much heavier than the bottle of Batch 14 which I finished recently.

@Bilbo161, great score on that Longrow!

For me, that one was always a "one that got away."

So, what am I drinking now?

Ten Ardbegs.

@MadSingleMalt nice collection of Ardbeg!

@MadSingleMalt You, sir, are a very cruel man.

@MadSingleMalt That's the most ardbeggy picture of Ardbegs that has ever ardbegged.

Thanks, guys. I suppose some notes are called for. (This is in the order shown in the picture, not the order I drank them.)

•Ten: As fresh, clean, and delicious as always!

•Kelpie 46%: Probably my least favorite from the lineup, but that's not really a slight, considering the company it was keeping. It was solid to me, divisive to some of my club buddies. Nutty and funky and very distinctive—this is probably the one bottle that you could 100% identify blind if someone brought you a mystery glass from the lineup.

•Dark Cove 46%: Sweet & easy. It's exactly how I imagine that An Oa thing to taste like.

•Dark Cove 55%: Totally unlike the 46% version. Big & powerful. Dark-tasting, for sure. Very good. I'm really looking forward to drinking through this bottle.

•Perpetuum: Surprisingly good! I'd heard this one was a little lackluster, but everyone liked it, myself included. Just like a very good version of the Ten.

•Auriverdes: Maybe I was influenced by the name, but it did indeed taste "golden." Bright and honeyed. Tasty.

•Ardbog: This and the Alligator were the ones I was most excited to try, and both were somewhat of a letdown. Totally good, but it didn't blow me away. Funky in an OK way.

•Alligator: For me, this was the big letdown of the group. It's very similar to Laphroaig QC, which I find too woody & sweet. Heavy. The quality was evident, but it's just not my style. I'll take the clean, fresh peat of the Ten over this any day.

•Oogie: I finally poured this one at the very end, by which point I was pretty shnockered. Pretty good as always, I guess?

•Corryvreckan: I poured this after completing the series of all the special releases, and it blew them all away. I've had it plenty of times before, and I've often considered it my favorite Ardbeg. After drinking through this entire lineup, that stands. Corryvreckan is still the best Ardbeg I've ever had. So big, so powerful, so intense, so attention-demanding. All the various one-offs are fun, but they're all 8s where Corryvreckan is a 9+.

@MadSingleMalt Love the Corry.....but my least favourite is the Ardbog. I actually really liked the Kelpie.

@talexander - ard beg to differ

Ard wouldn't actually, that picture is making me do a little excited wee.

@MadSingleMalt - thank you for the photo and tasting details. Impressive lineup. I’ve never done a tasting like that from one distillery. What a great idea!

@MadSingleMalt - So the Corryvrekan is worth a look then? Always heard it's pretty similar to 'Oogie' and not worth the extra.

@RianC, if you want power from your peaters, then the Corryvreckan is a must.

@bwmccoy, thanks. It was super fun. What you see above is the result of combined efforts from three of us in my club, and it took a few weeks of conspiring and cajoling to make it happen.

Totally worth it! Best tasting my club ever had, easily. I can tell already it'll grow into a small glorious legend among us all. :)

We had a couple new guys come to this thing last night as their first exposure to the club, and I had to keep explaining that this wasn't normal, and that they shouldn't expect anything like this again anytime soon. Or ever.

@MadSingleMalt, I am surprised that you didn't tell the new guys that they were responsible for bringing 10 Port Charlottes to next month's meeting.

@MadSingleMalt - Ah damn it . . . that's another on the list!