Product Description
This gift pack includes one BBQ Smoker and one bottle of Ardbeg An Oa – the perfect spirit for sippin’ and tearin’. Small but mighty, the smoker lets you surround your food with smoke in just a few easy steps. Simply fill the puck with wood chips, lay it at the back of your grill, wait until your BBQ is sufficiently smoky, place your food around the puck, smoke it out some more, and voilà!
It is acknowledged by oilskin-clad locals and Gore-tex-sheathed visitors alike that the Ardbeg Distillery can be subject to alarmingly fierce winds, driving rain and eerie coverings of haar. However, these frequent weather events would be far more extreme, were it not for the presence of the Mull of Oa.
Topographically speaking, the Distillery is sheltered from the harshest excesses of the mighty Atlantic by this rounded peninsula in the south of Islay. This vast, jutting promontory is the inspiration for Ardbeg An Oa!
Like the Mull of Oa, it is noticeably rounded. This is due in no small part to a spell spent in Ardbeg’s newly-established Gathering Vat.
Within the vat we gather together whiskies from several cask types - including; sweet Pedro Ximenez; spicy Virgin charred oak; and intense ex-bourbon casks, amongst others - where they familiarise themselves with each other. The result is a dram with smoky power, mellowed by a delectable, smooth sweetness. Hallmark Ardbeg peat, dark chocolate and aniseed are wrapped in smooth, silky butterscotch, black pepper and clove, before rising to an intense crescendo of flavour.
Aroma: Rounded and smoky - like burning Applewood - with creamy toffee, aniseed, treacle and dates. A curious suggestion of juicy fruits, such as peach and banana. With a drop of water, reminders of Ardbeg’s classic fragrance – lime, pine resin, fennel, saddle soap and tar. A gentle waxiness, like fragrant candle wax, and hints of smoked herbs. An Oa gives a final subtle reminder of the sea with briny notes and seaweed but always accompanied with creaminess.
Palate: A smooth, creamy texture leads into a huge syrupy sweetness, flavours of milk chocolate, treacle toffee, aniseed, orange and smoky tea leaves. Gentle, sweet spices (nutmeg & cinnamon), some cigar smoke, and a very unusual flavour of grilled artichokes. Wood is always present in the spirit, gently nutty and reminiscent of a carpenter’s workshop. A long, sweet finish, with floral overtones, mint toffee and some gentle malty biscuit notes.
Finish: Lingering, seductive, gentle yet intense, with flavours of aniseed, hickory and distant subtle smoke.
750mL, 46.6% ABV.
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A man with many scars
So, you're not dealing here with a young, playful and sweet being. This reminded me of a grown, strong, solid force that has gone trough a journey of its own. You respect this force, and it respects you. The kind of being that doesn't waste its time with banal questions. If you ask the right things, you will get your answer. It's closed at first, but with the proper time, it will open up, let you in and get to know this wonderful aromas. Behind that initial wooden door, there is chocolate, marzipan, dark honey, pepper and some mint. Reminiscence of cookie dough, butter and aromatic oils. Nevertheless, you eventually get to the dark side of things, when you can see its scars. Waxy, salted scars, that where cured with iodine at some point. It was a pleasure to get to know this intriguing force, once a brute... tamed by the sea.
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