Ardbeg Uigeadail

This was a birthday gift from my wonderful girlfriend. She knows that I love big flavours, with peat and sherry being favorites. It seems only natural that I’d want to give this a go. Of course not everyone thinks peat and sherry should marry. At least they didn’t use to. Now, with the Uigeadail, people seem to be appreciating how dynamic and wonderful a couple they can be. People love this stuff, and it has an almost cult-like following in the world of whisky. Does it deserve all of this regard and status? Well, it may not be a godsend, but it is a damn fine whisky by any standard.

Nose: While peat and sherry are at the core of this whisky, the coastal/island character is also quite noticeable here. Salt, sea air, and seaweed are here. Raspberry jam, cherries, lemons, marmalade, honey, soft vanilla, and lavender. Very nice wood notes, with cedar, pine needles, and dark, wet oak. Lovely waves of earthy peat with that signature semi-medicinal tinge. Very rich and layered.

Palate: A silky texture greets us. Very nice mouthfeel. Salt and sweetness are nicely balanced here. The peat comes on in a very powerful but controlled manner. Black pepper, faint coconut, licorice, honey, and cotton candy.

Finish: Lovely, long finish. Raspberry jam, black current jam, cherries, roasted barley, burnt toast and just a bit of oak. The smoke is sweetened by the sherry and has a fruity/industrial flavour that’s somewhat hard to put into words. This is long and lasting, with the individual flavours subsiding at different paces, making the finish very dynamic.

When we write reviews, we want our own voices to stand out. We want fresh ideas and new perspectives. Well, sorry folks. I’m going to say roughly the same thing that almost everyone else says. This is a damn good whisky. This has been opened for two months, and I’m noticing a good deal of evolution happening. Definitely vibrant.

For me the biggest strength here is balance. Many sherry/peat marriages are troubled. The sherry notes can become candy-like in response to the peat presence. Although rarely unpleasant or cloying, they can occasionally steal the spotlight from the peat presentation. Not so here. The peat is big and bold enough to keep the sherry from candying up the whisky too much. That’s not to say that the sherry plays second fiddle here. Simply that it is controlled. There are two big flavours in here, but they aren’t competing against each other, they’re working together. The result is an interesting, evolving, and dynamic dram if ever there was one.

Side note: This is an Asian bottling of the Oogie, and has no code on the back. I don’t know anything about its year or batch number, unfortunately.

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