Review by: ZoidbergOnTheRocks

I’ve been sitting on an original bottle of Ardbeg Uigeadail and today I finally decided to crack it open. I’ve posted before about how Uigeadail has changed throughout the years, so I figured I’d pour some ’08, ’13, and ’20 to try it with.

I’ll stay right off the bat: it smells amazing in here.

All four tasted on 9/11/2021, first neat in a Glencairn then each with a few drops of water.

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Ardbeg Uigeadail 2003

The bottle code on this is L3 282 20:18 4ML, which is October 9th, 2003. In fact, this is from the first day of bottling.

The youngest spirit in this is ~10 years old, and they say “many older sherry casks” on the label as well. WhiskyFun tells us that the ’04 release had casks from the 70’s in it, and I think we can safely assume that’s the case here too. Ardbeg was known for tossing in 70’s sherry casks into these for many years.

Distillery: Ardbeg

Bottler: Distillery Bottling

Region: Scotland, Islay

ABV: 54.2%

Age: NAS. Bottled in 2003.

Cask type: Bourbon / Sherry Casks

Natural color. Non-chill-filtered.

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Nose: damp, earthy peat smoke, coal. Black rubber. Tar, creosote. Diesel. Lemon, cherries, figs, raisins. Camphor, iodine. Seawater, seaweed. Warm sand. Salted meats. Aniseed. Old ropes. Beautiful balance. With Water: more smoke, more meaty, and slightly more maritime.

Taste: big, earthy peat smoke. Coal. All that rubber, tar, and creosote, too. Citrus, dark stone fruits. Camphor, aniseed. Seawater. Oily mouthfeel. Fatty smoked meats. A smidge hot. With Water: a bit more smoke, sweeter fruits. Mouthfeel is thick and coating.

Finish: more big, earth peat and coal. The palate really carries through to the finish, the rubber and creosote along with the fruits, camphor, and maritime notes. Smoked meats. Strong black tea. Quite long with most of the notes really carrying through to the end. With Water: similar.

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Summary: Beautiful balance in every respect. Nothing overwhelms or dominates, and everything carries through from the nose right into the finish. Lots of complexity here with all those coal, tar, rubber, creosote, and oil notes in there along with the fruits. There’s a damp earthiness underlying it all. Medicinal, mostly on camphor and iodine. Nice maritime notes, too, with seawater, seaweed, and warm sand. The mouthfeel is rich and oily. The finish is long and brilliant. It’s very good neat, if a touch hot in the mouth, and water brings up more smoke, fruit, and maritime notes.

Would I buy a bottle? oh yea, even at secondary prices. I’ll be hoarding this one.

Final Score: 92.

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Comparison

I’m not gonna provide full notes for the ’08, ’13, and ’20 here. Instead I’ll refer you to my previous reviews: ’08, ’13, ’15 and ’08, ’15, ’20. Overall my notes for those remain the same, with some minor additions below.

Order: ’03 > ’08 > ’20 > ’13

I’ve got the ’08 and ’20 rated at 87, and the ’13 at 77.

The closest comparison to the ’03 is the ’08, I suppose not surprisingly. It’s really interesting to me just how close they are, actually. Really nice consistency from Ardbeg for at least the first 5 years. The most obvious difference between the two is that the ’08 is much more on that strong machine oil and not as sweet, while the ’03 has more sweet fruits, and more of those tarry/creosote notes. The ’03 is better balanced, IMO, and while they’re both wonderfully complex on the nose, the ’03 has a whole lot more going on in the palate and finish, with the longest finish of the group. It’s this complexity throughout that pushed the ’03 up in my book. (My only addendum to my previous ’08 notes is that the machine oil in the nose is stronger than I’d have said previously.)

The ’13 can fuck right off. Honestly, when I got to nosing it my first thought was “is there anything in the glass?!” I mean, there is smoke, but what else? Some sweet citrus and maltiness, and in comparison to the first two not much else. Mouthfeel is the thinnest of the four, and in addition to my previous notes I really do get some bitter off-notes in the finish. It’s not in the same class as the others.

The 2020 release is quite good as I noted before. It’s much brighter all around than the others, with more citrus, peaches, salt, and creamy vanilla. A much more modern Ardbeg in my book, really quite nice with decent complexity and missing some notes from the older ones, but really nice nonetheless.

Overall, the ’03 is tops of all the many Uigeadail I’ve had. I see some nice consistency from the ’03 to the ’08, even if the complexity in the palate and finish diminished a bit. The low point has to be somewhere in the mid-2010’s, and I stand by my previous assertion that the 2020 bottling is much improved and really well done.

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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.