Ardbeg An Oa
Whisky : Ardbeg An Oa
Country/Region : Scotland/Islay
ABV : 46.6%
Cask : ex-Bourbon, Charred Oak, Pedro Ximenéz
Tasting : Neat in a Glencairn @ Home
Nose : A sweet holly bush that someone has spritzed with sherry. Overall it has a strikingly sweet, fruit-floral nose like cherries strewing in rum which gradually gives way to the smoke and sea spray of an ocean side bon fire. There is a definite wax or rubber note that comes out more as it rests.
Palate : Red. If any scotch embodied a color, for me this is the distilled flavor of a dark red. It’s red like red wax being stamped to seal a royal letter, red like red meat or red wine sauce. There are some interesting sea notes, nothing like the sharper iodine of other core Ardbegs, more along the lines of damp sand and vegetation after a storm. If anything it has the sweet-salty notes of miso paste. My wife picked up more hazelnut and amaretto, opining that this was too sweet and not enough peat to be a real Ardbeg.
Finish : Medium length finish primarily in the residual sweetness that hangs on the side of the tongue and the alcohol tingle down the throat. Overtime each wave of scotch helps to build the finish towards a sweet and spice akin to the tart of sour cherry.
Score : 6
Mental Image : “Red, the blood of angry men; Black, the dark of ages past; Red a world about to dawn; Black the night that ends at last.”
Something Better : Ardbeg Uigeadail (more intense sherry and peat, better balance)
Something Similar : Laphroaig PX (richer smoke, additional savory bbq notes)
Something Worse : Johnnie Walker Double Black (similar smoke and dark red fruits)
Notes : Good, but doubtful I will actually keep it permanently in the cabinet. I think like many before me, I picked up this bottle hoping this bottle was something that it is not; a cheaper version of the big bold flavors of Ardbeg Uigeadail— or, that at least maybe it lived in the same neighborhood as Uigeadail; or, in my case, something approximately similar to the Laphroaig PX. It may have been roughly in the same vein as the Laphroaig PX, but it was much less rich and quite far off the mark from an Uigeadail. An Oa was not what I originally planned to pick up when I dropped by the store, when I could not find any of the bottles I was after, the shopkeep recommended the An Oa as an Islay with a strong Sherry finish. After seeing the price, cheapest of the Ardbegs, I went ahead and adopted the bottle.
I can see why people describe this as an ‘entry level’ Ardbeg; it is smooth and approachable with mild levels of sherry, iodine, and smoke. However, I just don’t find it quite as interesting as the 10 or Uigeadail. I will definitely break out this bottle to give non-peat heads a gentle introduction, but I am not sure it will be replaced after its gone. It’s not clear to me that the bottle is worth the discount from an Ardbeg that we really love.
