The Ardbeg 1975 is the new official distillery bottling and was sent to me from Sweden by Mats Ola Ekberg. Franz Konig from Switserland snail-mailed me the Cadenhead Interleven 21 yrs. old.

I tried the "official" Ardbeg 1975 next to the 1974 Connoisseurs Choice, which had some more peat and sour tones in the aroma at first. The peat in the '75 bouquet vanished quite quickly and abruptly, leaving a more "Highlandish" character. The '74 kept it's peaty character a lot longer, and the change in character was much more gradual. The '75 seemed to have less peat than the 1974, and it evaporated more rapidly. The taste was amazingly soft for an Islay, and a lot sweeter than the '74. It was almost like there was a soft layer around the peaty heart. Compared to the 1975, the '74 almost seemed to have some chloride-tones. Mats - or rather his wife - was good enough to send me a "two dram tasting quantity", so I will be able to confirm my findings next to an Ardbeg 17 soon. First impressions say 86-88 points - which can be translated as supernice (which is almost as good as meganice and ultranice).

The Interleven 21 yrs. was, like all the Lowland malts I've tasted so far, very light in color and taste. There were some very interesting variations of citrus-aroma's, but not much more I could pick up. Very light considering it's bottled at 46%. Although Lowlands aren't really my style, this one felt very comfortable. I guess this one would score somewhere in the mid 70's.

Today is "Queen's Day" in Holland; the birthday of our queen mother. Reason enough, to taste some more malts, I should say. Bedides, working on the new version of my Malt Madness site has made me thirsty, so I've decided to resumed the tasting of the Glen Rothes 1985. Hmmm... This is still an elusive one. Very nice indeed, but I can't pinpoint the reason why exactly. A very delicate sweetness; the body is very smooth. This malt just "feels" very good; I'm thinking lower 80's, but I'm not quite sure yet.
Maybe a few drops of water will help...

No! Adding too much water to the Glen Rothes ruins the palate! The aroma became a little smokier and produced some new sweet overtones, but the palate had lost it's wonderful creamy smoothness. Time for an emergency re-fill. And to make things interesting, I'll make it a head-to-head tasting  with... let me take a look in my cupboard... Ah!  The Linkwood 1984; another malt that has managed to escape me for over a year now. It's high time for a final rating.

    <..... a lot of nosing and sipping ....>

P erhaps the alcohol has numbed my senses, but this is really another of those bad nose days. Let's just give the Glen Rothes 79 provisional points and call it a night. Both bottles still have enough content to last me through five or six tasting sessions, so there's no rush.

Queen's Day Tasting