Ardbeg Drum

Review by: The Muskox

I’m still recovering from the Toronto Ardbeg Day festivities. It was really fun: Good friends, lots of drinks, Hawaiian shirts, palm trees, midway games, bricks of burning peat, laser tag, funnel cakes, Piña Col-Ardbegs (it’s what you think it is), VR, a shotgun wedding, bullfights, and a Chewbacca sound-alike contest.

Okay, I made up some of those. Still a good time. Let it be known that I would have won the Chewbacca competition if they had held one.

I was poured several glasses of Ardbeg Drum as well. I tried the Committee Release a few months ago, and enjoyed it quite a lot.

Distillery: Ardbeg.

Bottler: Official bottling.

Region: Islay.

ABV: 46%.

Age: No age statement. Bottled in 2019.

Cask type: Finished in Guyanese rum casks.

Price: N/A, free sample.

Color: Pale gold. Natural Color. Non-chill-filtered.

Nose: Wow, it almost smells like that Ardbeg pina colada I had just had. Lots of pineapple and coconut with very Ardbeg-y green-wood-and-earth peat smoke. Honey, banana, and ham, as well as salt and a bit salty sea breeze. Some perfumed herbs in there too. It’s sweeter than the 10, but not quite as sweet as the An Oa (which I had alongside my first glass of Drum).

Palate: Medium-light body. Arrives with a hit of earthy-sour peat smoke, followed immediately by pineapple, honey, and floral sweetness. Some salted crackers, nutmeg, macadamia nuts, and lavender, before a hit of black pepper and more peat smoke. On the back end is rich tobacco leaf and some cured-meat funk.

Finish: Smoky-sweet. The tobacco develops into dark chocolate. More sweet pineapple and coconut. It gets a bit sugary here, bringing to mind powdered-sugar-covered donuts. A mulchy earthy note on the back, along with barbeque smoke.

Conclusion: Tasty! The rum influence is obvious, but not so heavy as to de-Ardbeg the whisky. I really like the tropical and floral notes the rum finish has added.

All in all, for me at least, it doesn’t fall too far behind the Committee release. It’s missing some of the complexity and density that comes with the higher proof, but this is a very good whisky in its own right.

Final Score: 85.

Scoring Legend:

  • 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
  • 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
  • 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
  • 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
  • 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
  • 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
  • 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
  • 50-59: Save it for mixing.
  • 0-49: Blech.

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