|
Ardbeggeddon 10 - Prep Day
Ok, the Ringleaders are in motion and gathering for A10 from their bunkers scattered across the land. We packed and managed to hit the road to connect with Slur Dave at the ChelmsfOrd Drammery by 7 pm and got down there around 8:30 - one of my earliest pre-Ardbeggeddon arrivals in years. Ended up tossing two more undeclared bottles in my bags (Euro release Springbank 10-100 and 15 yo in the new spiffy black label packaging.) I haven't tried these yet and need to assess their PLOWED worthiness. Our malty MIRVs this year consist of two hard shell cases with 9 full bottles each and a scattering of samples in each.
I'm guessing each bag has about 7.5 liters total (which is admittedly more than the 7 liter TSA limit but we felt lucky today. I'm writing this up on the plane to LV on Day 1 so we'll let you know if TSA caught and/or seized anything here. They always open our bags but have never really disturbed much so I doubt they add up the quantities here. Just living the PLOWED bleeding edge lifestyle here to the max. Both bags DID come in around 44 lbs so we were sure to stay under the max weight limit. Beck was at the ChelmsfOrd Drammery when we arrived and treated us to a dram of his new bottle of: 1. Laphroaig 21 yo, 53.4%, OB - very tasty, well balanced and complex dram and a terrific kickoff for A10. Bottled as a 750 ml so maybe available in the US? Never seen this bottle before and he got it as a gift. It's worthy! Need to research availability and price. 2. Ardbeg 21 yo, 40%, 1978-1999, Connoisseur's Choice - good solid Ardbeg palate with a moderate peating level but thin at 40% - particularly after the cask strength 'Froaig. Friends don't let Friends dram 40% drams! 3. Ardbeg 10 yo, 46%, OB, L7 143 09:51 4ML - The 143 releases are one of the most awesome A10's I've ever had and this bottling is stunning as all the others have been. Not sure what happened but this was a VERY good bottling day at Ardbeg for A10s. We'll have more on this topic when we do the A10 vertical, probably on Friday or Saturday depending on the whim of the Ringleaders. 4. Ardbeg 1978, 43%, OB, L8 064 10:36 (1998 bottling) - Another old friend and favorite. We were talking excitedly about A10, FoaFing, and trends in the industry as well as eating supper while tasting these initial drams so I didn't write up any tasting notes on any drams this day. Just enjoying ourselves and free-style dramming as many Ardbegs as we could find in the Drammery. I had this one with beef calzone. 5. Ardbeg Uigeadail, 54.2%, NAS, OB L5 326 20:23 4ML - recently opened but full monster Ardbeg at it's high proof best. Another excellent bottle. 6. The Ardbeggeddon, 29 yo, 1972, 48.4%, Douglas Laing - YES! This is the best PLOWED bottling in my opinion and I haven't had any open in the HDI now since our 4th of July bash when we cleaned out the last of my S'tamples from our last open bottle. I almost forgot just how awesome this peat monster is. I liked David Broom's comment when we asked him about his Whisky Mag notes on this bottling on Islay in 2002. Like a sheep stuck half way up a chimney. Yeah! We only have 2 bottles left in the bunker.... so sad! 7. The Brorageddon, 30 yo, 1972, 50.8%, Douglas Laing - Yet another dram I haven't had open in a LONG time. I'm not a big fan of sherry monster but the Brorageddon is absolutely perfect. Thanks for the early PLOWED annointing to psych us for the 10th annual PLOWED Clan gathering. Sister Haggis donated her one spare Brorageddon for this year's tasting and we're going to pull a 240 ml S'tample of this bottling when we open it so we'll be assured of having it open in the HDI over the next year. Thanks Sis! You chose VERY well here. 8. Ardbeg 10 yo L7 143 09:51 4ML - back to my favorite A10 of all time. WOW - it holds up well even after those last stunning drams. L7 143 ROCKS! It was about 1:30 am now and we called it a night. Alarm clocks set for 4 am to head to the Manchester Airport at 5 am to catch our 7am direct flight to Vegas. This was a great 4 hour dramming session to kick off A10 for sure. Thanks again Dave! Photos from Pre AX Planning and Mobilization
Last update on 01/16/2009 |
