Ardbeg Heavy Vapours Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky Special Committee Only Edition (750ml)

The Ardbed Heavy Vapours appears a pale straw color in the glass.

On the nose, smoke rises with a cloying sweetness. Intense, pungent and aromatic, a distinctive farmyard scent drifts, along with a crunchy aroma, like creosote or tarry rope. A splash of water disturbs the vapours and dark chocolate cream billows, laced with a ribbon of smoked artichoke.

On the palate Ardbeg’s untamed darker flavors and notes have risen. A burst of bittersweetness surges, disturbing ashy coal dust and casting a haze of cardamom, peppermint and coffee grits. Clouds of dark chocolate and mentholic eucalyptus roll in, obscuring the fruit and floral notes usually found at the heart of Ardbeg. Wisps of aniseed twists, cinnamon balls and antiseptic lozenges float on the palate.

The aftertaste lingers long and bold, with an almost anaesthetising sensation.

Something weird has been going down at the Distillery.  

The legendary purifier on the still – responsible for Ardbeg’s exalted balance – is nowhere to be seen. And this whisky – Ardbeg Heavy Vapours – is the consequence.

The familiar harmony between peat and floral fruitiness has been disrupted. What have risen are the untamed darker flavors and notes, gathering and filling the senses.

It is an ominous dram of dramatic, aromatic pungency. Heavy Vapours will rise.

Non chill-filtered at 50.2%.