Ardbeg 10 Year Old

@Pierre_W, thanks for your nice review. I am glad that you provided the bottle code, and I hope that @Nock has some observations to make. I have to say, with these Ardbegs, especially, if you are not drinking from the same batch, you really aren't drinking the same whisky as the next person giving a review. I've only owned one bottle of Ardbeg 10, and had not until very recently ever sampled from any other. My bottle tasted fantastic, so that was my impression of Ardbeg 10. Recently @Nock tried some of my bottle of Ardbeg 10 and, if I remember correctly, said he thought it was the best batch of Ardbeg 10 he had ever tried. That bottle came from batch L 10 152--bottled one day after my favourite batch of Uigeadail.

So, when I think of Ardbeg 10 I think of L 10 152, but, of course, there are many other batches of Ardbeg 10 also in existence, which are different and which I have not sampled.

@Victor, thank you for an informative comment. I have to admit that this was my first ever bottle of the 10yo, so I cannot tell how this might have tasted like a couple of years ago. However, it remains interesting (and puzzling) to see how big the variance can be between batches.

I am sure that it is a horrific dilemma for a distillery in times of great demand for product such as now, to decide what to do about inferior casks and scarce supplies of the well-aged whisky. No doubt they try to keep the quality top-notch, but that may not always be possible, given the logistical constraints of the situation. I expect that most of the time they rely upon clever blending to attempt to achieve a good overall effect. Sometimes it may work, and other times shortcomings of the stock may be noticeable.

A succinct analysis that is, @Victor. I am sure that what you have described is at the heart of the issue. These are indeed challenging times for the whisky industry in general and for popular distilleries in particular. One might think that the biggest challenge for a distillery lies at the very beginning when, after inception, the long 10-year wait for a decently matured single malt begins. But, no, success brings equally challenging situations with it.

@Pierre_W, thanks ToR the concise review.

@Victor and @Pierre_W, I was able to find a case of Ardbeg 10 L6 150 in Yaounde yesterday. I am guessing it has been sitting here with no one knowing any better for at least 6 years. I found bottles of this batch here last December and thought it was very good and complex with nice camphor/resins so I bought 3 more. I had a bottle of Uigeadail L10 150 and it was one of my favorite bottles ever, I am hoping the bottle of L10 148 I have tucked away will be as good. I am not as convinced with Ardbeg OB's I have tasted post 2012

@Pierre_W thanks for the review and bottle code! It is always extremely helpful. @Victor is correct that batch L10 150 is without question one of the best (and biggest) batches of the TEN I have tasted.

@NAV26 my very strong expectation is that your bottle of L10 148 is from the same batch as L10 150. Basically, it was bottled two days later. My understanding is that they create a vatting and slowly bottle it from several days to several weeks. In some cases the vatted liquid can sit there for a month or two before it is all bottled. I have some Ardbeg bottles that are off by a day but are still the exact same liquid.