{"id":916,"date":"2011-06-07T13:39:38","date_gmt":"2011-06-07T19:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/keepersofthequaich.org\/?p=916"},"modified":"2011-06-07T13:39:38","modified_gmt":"2011-06-07T19:39:38","slug":"ardbeg-alligator-is-in-the-house-bro-ville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keepersofthequaich.org\/?p=916","title":{"rendered":"Ardbeg Alligator is in the House &#8211; Bro Ville"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>the Ardbeg Committee was notified by Ardbeg of a new release available June 1. <em>Ardbeg Alligator<\/em>. thanks to the initiative of Bother Hoopie I was able to obtain a bottle. Keep on\u00a0the look out as more may be available on Sep 1. below is some info I could find on it from some early tastings. Brother lakeview and I will post our tastings soon. I will share it with the KOTQ group in a future meeting!<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>My findings<\/em><\/strong>: the real highlight was a chance to try one of Ardbeg\u2019s newest creations side by side against one of their most legendary drams. <strong>Ardbeg Alligator<\/strong> is to be the next committee bottling, released on the 1<sup>st<\/sup> June and is the latest in a new line of wood experiments from <strong>Dr Bill Lumsden<\/strong>. A number of heavily charred (level 4) first fill bourbon casks have been maturing since 2000, peated to the standard Ardbeg level of 55ppm. Having tried some of Ardbeg\u2019s heavily toasted cask experiments (single casks <strong>1189 and 1190<\/strong> from 2009\u2019s Feis Ile) we were itching to see how the heavy char affected the whisky. Here\u2019s our thoughts:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ardbeg Alligator \u2013 Committee release \u2013 51.2% &#8211; around 10,000 bottles<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Nose:<\/strong> Immediate spicy, fruity notes, with rolled oak shavings, BBQ charcoal, stewed apples, white pepper and hints of strong tea and fresh bourbon. With a dash of water the whisky really comes alive with wonderful rich vanilla tones, chocolate orange notes and hints of copper. Sterling stuff.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Palate:<\/strong> Big, resonant and dry, leading into more of the chocolate orange notes, sweet vanilla, hints of Five Spice and more stewed apple. Then the smoke arrives, soft, aromatic and gentle at first, giving this a superb complexity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Finish:<\/strong> The sweet vanilla develops alongside the soft smoke for a very lengthy and pleasing finish.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Overall:<\/strong> What a mega whisky. We were critical of the last committee bottling (<strong><em>Rollercoaster<\/em><\/strong>) and its apparent lack of consistency and overly youthful tones, but <strong><em>Alligator<\/em><\/strong> is just brilliant. Rich, complex and spicy, it puts Ardbeg right back up there in terms of how to construct a highly drinkable and complex smoky whisky. Miss this one at your peril.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>the Ardbeg Committee was notified by Ardbeg of a new release available June 1. Ardbeg Alligator. thanks to the initiative of Bother Hoopie I was able to obtain a bottle. Keep on\u00a0the look out as more may be available on Sep 1. below is some info I could find on it from some early tastings. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keepersofthequaich.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keepersofthequaich.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keepersofthequaich.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keepersofthequaich.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keepersofthequaich.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/keepersofthequaich.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":917,"href":"https:\/\/keepersofthequaich.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions\/917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keepersofthequaich.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keepersofthequaich.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keepersofthequaich.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}