Built a couple snowmen today. It's that time of the year in Canada. Take out the salt and the shovels. It's the time of runny noses, and ruddy cheeks. We at Scotch & Ponder believe that living 4 seasons a year is healthy, and though our toes are frozen, our gizzards are warmed with this smoky liquid... Ardbeg Uigeadail.
Our first cask strength review at S&P, 56% ABV.
We sniff around.
This is very aromatic.
We're all fans of the scent. Scott says it smells rich. Simon says it smells like ribfest.
Smells kind of like a smoky sweet barbeque sauce. It's more of a sherried smell than the typical barbeque sauce but still.
Charcoal grill.
Takes Kyle back to a pig roast he had recently.
Scott gets a grainy smell. Trevor can see that, cereal kind of. Gotta dig for it.
We cheers.
Sean points to the nice sweetness on the palate and the finish. A kind of raisin finish.
Scott points to the salty on the finish. Salty raisins. Great, long finish.
Simon not sure if he wants to call it raisin, but it's got that general dried fruit flavor.
Very nice smoke, a charcoal kind of smoke that underlies every aspect of this scotch. The nose, the palate, the finish all have this background smoke that ties it all together.
For Simon, the scotch loses a couple brownie points because the experience is a big punch. The flavors aren't neatly layered. It's like a bomb of flavors, whereas something like the Laphroaig PX, another sherried Islay, was a lot more layered and you could easily isolate the PX from the seaweed peat on your palate.
Scott gets a salted caramel or candied apple on the nose now. The smoke isn't on the nose anymore. Must be some scientific explanation.
This is a scotch that keeps on giving.
Ratings: Kyle's pick. The aroma, the complexity, he gets a cabin stove experience, ribfest was a good analogy, he loves it and another bottle is certainly on the radar. He goes 91. Trevor is going 91 too. He favors the dynamic experiences, and this is as dynamic an experience as we've yet to have. Sean goes 89. Simon goes 87. Definitely something he'll get a bottle of. Scott goes 88. Loves how much this scotch keep giving and giving. It's like having three different scotches. We average out to 89.2. By far our highest rating yet.
Overall, this is a potent bottle and for that reason we would not recommend it as a starter. Once you've have had a couple starter Highlands, and a couple starter Islays, definitely put this on your hitlist. This is the first time all 5 of us are bent on getting our own bottle. We've noticed from other reviews the year matters for Uigeadail, so this bottle is from 2019.
Cheers!
The S&P Crew
Comments