Ardbeg 23 Years Old Cadenhead's 175th Anniversary 52.4% 1993

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Serge Valentin (94)

Don’t look for this one, its was only available at Cadenhead’s Anniversary Tasting in Campbeltown earlier in May – or was it June.

Colour: straw.

Nose: this one’s much less fruity, and much more garage-y. In fact, it’s completely different. Fats and greases and oils, crushed almonds, Barbour grease, fish oil, hessian, sea spray, brake fluid, ink, seaweed. You see… With water: so very totally Ardbeggian! A feeling that I haven’t, well, felt for ages. Marzipan and diesel oil, lemon oil, whelks, carbolinium, creosote…

Mouth (neat): powah! Mezcal, brine, lemon juice, ashes, petrol, pipe tar, bitter almonds, smoked oysters, gherkins… In short, this one was heavenly chiselled. The opposite of the (yet superb) Kinship, and certainly a feeling of the good old 1970s. With water: I think there was a problem with the stencil guy, this is 1973, not 1993. He may have been in love, or he had just listened to Garry Glitter’s latest 45rpm, or, yeah, he had just quaffed half a litre of new make, who knows…

Finish: long, and in pure Ardbgeness. Amazing grassy smoke.

Comments: perhaps was it rather Suzy Quattro’s latest single?… What’s sure is that this is one of my favourite 1973s. Stunning and invigorating. PS: was Iain Henderson doing the stencilling of the casks himself?