ISLAY MYSTERY BLENDED 😉 MALT SCOTCH
Single hogshead barrel selected by K&L exclusively for their “Faultline” series (2024)MASH BILL – 100% malted barley
PROOF – 108
AGE – 26 years
DISTILLERY – Ardbeg
PRICE – $328 (Ouch! But…)
WORTH BUYING? – yes and no
Alongside their 25 Year Balvenie release, dubbed “The Huntley,” K&L also dropped this 26 Year “Islay Mystery,” aka Ardbeg. It was priced $50 higher than its mainland cousin—likely not due to being one year older but more the fact that Ardbeg has a massive following. Given distillery-direct Ardbeg at this age and bottled at cask strength would easily cost three to ten times as much, I took a deep breath and clicked ADD TO CART. You only live once.
“Islay Mystery” is a wink that allows K&L to give the bottle a name without violating their non-disclosure agreement. But they’re up front about the source on their website. The “teaspooned” aspect is what legally makes this bottle a blended malt verses a single malt. It’s literally one wee teaspoon of something else dropped into the cask, never to be tasted. But hey, it brings the price down, so, fine by me.
These are the comical games the whisk(e)y world continues to play. Scottish and American independent bottlers play along. But with a few hints, or by simply naming the source and specs outright in an online blurb rather than on the label, customers know what they’re buying. So why pretend?
🤷🏼♂️
Fingers crossed that playing my hand in the game proves worth it. I do like Ardbeg. Their Corryvreckan is a fave. The recent Smokiverse one-off was delightful. Hopefully this $ingular outing offers a singular experience.
Let’s find out. Here we are, two days after uncorking and three pours into the bottle. These brief notes were taken using a traditional Glencairn.
COLOR – pale straw and buttery yellows, very reflective of the world outside the glass
NOSE – dried briny peat, smoke, subtle ash, dry ocean beach wood, sand, oak and oak tannin, salt, vanilla, flaky buttery croissant, faint peach, lemon zest
TASTE – a creamy texture accented by the prickle of the ABV’s zing, caramel, orange and lemon zest, vanilla custard, buttery pastry, smoke and peat
FINISH – vanilla, cooled baked peach in peach juices, flaky pastry with custard, oak tannin
OVERALL – a sunny summer / autumn breakfast pastry of a whisky, enjoyed at a seaside cafe
I like it. Dry at first, especially on the nose. But over time and with air, the various pastry notes gradually move forward, eventually pervading the whisky from the nose through the taste and on into the lingering warm finish.
The peat and smoke are present throughout, standing side by side. They make a calm duo, not so showy as with other more brazen Ardbeg offerings. Here they are content to let the pastry aspects settle in. The citrus and fruit notes add sweetness to the prevalent dry notes—the smoke, oak, beach wood, and that subtle ashiness.
With a dollop of water added, the dryness of the nose softens substantially, allowing the vanilla, cream, and butter notes to stand out more. That lovely gentle peach note also eases forward.
Then on the taste, the creamy texture is allowed its full due, freed from the prickly outline of the ABV. The candy aspects now also include milk chocolate. The citrus is more lemon than orange. The peach has now been baked with a bit of brown sugar and even more butter.
The finish now lingers with a subtle spiciness that reads less wood or ABV and more like baking spices, lightly browned on the surface of some peach and custard filled pastry, accented with a bit of lemon and mandarine orange zest.
It’s quite good. The dry and tannic aspects do hold sway enough, even after adding water, that I don’t feel 100% happy having spent the money. That said, I know there would be no other way for me to come into a bottle of Ardbeg this old and at cask strength.
Do I need such a thing? Of course not. Nobody needs any whisky at all. I’ll enjoy this bottle, as I will K&L’s 25 Year Balvenie. And I already have a third Faultline release on the way—a 35 Year Balvenie priced the same as the 25 Year! But I’m fairly confident these splurges won’t continue. If I didn’t know these were old and uncommon whiskies, tasted blind I’d certainly enjoy them. But I doubt I’d imagine paying what I have for them.
That’s the game. We learn by playing.
Sláinte!
The Right Spirit 