Ardbeg Grooves (Regular and Committee Release) - Review
Age: No age statement
Barrel type: Ex-bourbon and heavily charred wine casks
Region: Islay
ABV: 46% for regular, 51.6% for Committee Release
Price: $120-130
Additional details: non-chill filtered, natural color
I've already recounted the day that we picked this up during Feis Ile 2018 in an earlier post, so I won't dwell upon it. Grooves is this year's Feis Ile limited release, and Ardbeg describes this whisky thusly:
Day tripper . . .
We’re rolling back the years to an Islay time when Ardbeg was a very different place. Join Mickey Heads, our Distillery Manager, on a meandering trip down memory lane (AKA the most famous road in the history of malt whisky) to the groovy wee place that was Ardbeg Village. For here you will find a thriving community with its own post office, billiards hall, two choirs and even a football team – as well as the colorful stories, alternative lifestyle and experimental fold that led us to . . .
Ardbeg Grooves
A whisky that has been laid down in wine casks, intensely charred to produce heavy grooves on the surface of the wood. The result is a whisky aromatic with smoked spices and distant bonfires, sweet vibes of vanilla popcorn and smoky soot fading into a mellow haze of apples, fresh flowers and smoked pear. You dig?
In short, it's Ardbeg's tribute to the summer of love.
Appearance: Right off the bat, I love the bottle and label appearance for this whisky. Unlike most brands, which emphasize the seriousness of their product to create the (partially or mostly false) appearance of luxury and elegance, Ardbeg is happy to go a different route. The bottle is goofy, silly, and just plain fun.
Like most Ardbeg special editions, Grooves features a darker color than the light straw of unaltered Ardbeg. Grooves is a burnished bronze that is reminiscent of most sherry- or wine-aged whiskies. The regular edition and the Committee Release do not differ appreciably in this respect, although if I squint, perhaps I see that the undiluted Committee Release is a tick or two darker.
Nose: I found that the regular and Committee Releases were very similar, aside from some added sharpness and potency from the punchier, boozier Committee Release. The nose is pleasingly rich and complex, and has yielded different notes in multiple tastings. In my first nosing sitting outside of the distillery itself, I found it featured a sweet, crisp apple and some alkaline earth or soil. At home, I experienced something quite different: a musty, oily pepper, loads of charred oak, and an almost bourbon-like level of caramel.
Palate: I was absolutely floored with delight by this whisky the first time I tried it. I described it as rich, savory quintessential Ardbeg, with a creamy texture, some spicy smoked salami, and caramel. I haven't quite gotten salami in subsequent pours, but the common theme every time is that this is one of the saltier Ardbeg drams in recent memory, similar to Kelpie. For some reason, that one didn't sit well with me, but Grooves hits the spot. At times, its sweetness can also add a medicinal note more akin to Laphroaig. Paprika, one of the distillery's identified notes, is more apparent in the Committee Release, along with orange rinds.
Finish: The citric acidity here sometimes reads medicinal, sometimes fresh and coastal. Again, there's plenty of paprika, and a billow of smoke rising in the throat. Dragon's breath, indeed. The Committee Release has more sting, as expected, so adds a chili pepper element to its spicy finish.
Value for Money and Final Impressions: People search for differences between the regular and Committee Releases of Ardbeg's special editions every year, but, in my experience, they tend to come pretty close to one another. The minor addition of ABV does amplify or reveal some added flavors, but others are washed out by the greater heat. Overall, either one of these is expensive for a no-age-statement whisky, but both of them are great examples of Ardbeg's ingenuity and uniqueness.
Rating: A