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Ardbeggeddon III - Monday January
7, 2002
Dave and I worked this day and convened at his house around 9 pm for pre-dramming,
generalized malt fantasizing, reviewing the list of A3 attendees and their
submitted A3 offerings, as well as final preparations. We kicked off
our version of A3 that evening with the following drams:
-
Bruichladdich 15 yo - New OB release
at 46% - Tremendous dram! Tom Borschal treated us to the 20 yo release
in Los Angeles at FoaF's Outdoor Dramming Arena and Single Malt Cavalcade
back in November, 2001 and it seems like the 15 yo is as good if not
better. A true Nectar of the gods... more research needed for
sure as well as a bottle of each for the malt library.
-
Laphroaig 15 yo - 45% (older
bottling imported to US by Buckingham Wily Co.) This one almost made
it to A3 but lost out in the final cut. An excellent balance of iodine
and peat, but not overwhelming like I remember the older Laphroaigs I cut my
teeth on in the early 1990s... the question still remains, has
my palate changed dramatically since then (I tasted my first Ardbeg in 1997
or so) or has the peating levels in Laphroaig radically dropped?
Further research still needed!
-
Moidart 30 yo (Cadenheads vatted
malt) - WOW! this is an amazing dram... reportedly mostly 30 yo
Springbank with a small amount of 30 yo Islay added. Classic profile
of the older Springbanks with a "salty"
peaty background that reminded us of one of the lighter Islays (Bruichladdich
or Caol Ila?)
-
Ledaig - 7 yo Scotch Malt Whisky
Society Bottling - Dave's initiation bottling from SMWS (need details from
bottle - too late in the evening and didn't write this down). A young
and feisty dram - a bit of an unsettling finish that had slight overtones of
chemical harshness in the finish. Didn't try it diluted...
will definitely have to revisit this dram when we return from A3...
It was now 1:30 am and we needed to
leave for Logan Airport at 6 am so we reluctantly shut down the apartment to
catch a for a few hours sleep before the adventure started in earnest...
In summary, a great way to start the
trip - a sesssion of "wee drams" and a proper amount of planning /
fantasizing about the pending immersion in water of life...
Here are some
photos from Monday...
Tuesday, January 8 - SF and the
Ardbeggeddons!
return to Ardbeggeddon 3
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last updated on 2/23/02
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