Feb. 13: Superbowl Pregame Party with Ardbeg's Distillery Manager Colin Gordon...
Fellow Drammers!
This year, the Superbowl is on Sunday, February 13th — and you’re invited to our Drammers pregame party with Ardbeg’s Distillery Manager Colin Gordon, joining us live from Scotland. The timing is perfect — it ties in with the launch of their latest annual, and much sought-after, Committee Release, which we’ll be trying. This will also be the first time we’ll have a chance to welcome Colin Gordon, who is filling the enormous shoes of longtime outgoing Distillery Manager Mickey Heads, who we had the chance to host at a Drammers event in person many years ago. Colin comes from his role as the Distillery Manager at the neighboring Lagavulin Distillery on Islay, and we had a chance to catch up with him on Islay this past August, gearing up for our upcoming Drammers group trip to Feis Ile in May. Needless to say, we’re determined to give Colin a rockin good time to formally welcome him to Drammers Club, and as part of that we’ve pulled together some awesome bottles to kick the party off. SET A sold out immediately. So, we’ve added a SET B of 5 expressions that also allows you to try the new very limited Fermutation release:
SET B:
Ardbeg 2021 Committee Release - FERMUTATION!. Our headliner is their new annual, much anticipated Ardbeg Committee release Fermutation (the Ardbeg Committee is essentially their fan club and free to join through their website). The result of an extra-long fermentation of the mash that had to happen when some equipment broke down years ago, and one of the most unusual Ardbeg releases ever.
Ardbeg Grooves - Committee Release. We can’t let SET A have all the fun, right? So, SET B alone will get to try this now very hard to find 2018 Committee release. Per The Whisky Exchange, this was released in celebration of Ardbeg Day 2018 (the distillery's open day during the Islay festival), Grooves is a mellow whisky that proves all you need is love – and peat. Matured in ex-wine casks that have been heavily charred to form heavy grooves in the surface of the wood, Grooves is beautifully aromatic, with notes of smoked paprika, bonfires, sea spray and leather accompanied by hints of chilli-seasoned meats, lavender and herbs.
Ardbeg Arrrrrrrdbeg - Committee Release 2020. And for further comparison, let’s check out the 2020 Ardbeg Day committee release! Released in honor of outgoing Distillery Manager Mickey Heads, the bottle features a cartoon of him dressed up like a pirate, all in good fun. 51.8% abv
Ardbeg Scorch - Committee Release 2021. Of course, we aren’t about to celebrate the 2022 Ardbeg Day release without having past Ardbeg Day releases on hand. So we made a point to sock away a bottle of last year’s release, the Scorch bottling. 51.7% abv
Wee Beastie. A recent addition to their core range, we’re going to be interested to get Colin and David’s thoughts on the prospect of younger age-statement Ardbegs, including this bottling at 5yo, and the “For Discussion” 8yo bottling included in SET A.
SET A: (SOLD OUT)
Ardbeg 2021 Committee Release - FERMUTATION!. Our headliner is their new annual, much anticipated Ardbeg Committee release Fermutation (the Ardbeg Committee is essentially their fan club and free to join through their website). The result of an extra-long fermentation of the mash that had to happen when some equipment broke down years ago, and one of the most unusual Ardbeg releases ever.
Ardbeg Single Cask #5460. You don’t hear about Ardbeg single barrels that often, and for good reason — they’re insanely rare. One went to Taiwan a few years ago that retailed North of $1k/bottle. So, when we went to Islay this past August, naturally I made a point to ask if they had any in stock. As it turned out, they had announced one a few months back, matured in a 2nd fill Oloroso sherry butt. It had sold out immediately months prior, but two people hadn’t picked theirs up within the required timeframe, so they agreed to sell us one. So, naturally we’re going to open it up for this tasting! The cask was filled on the 29th of November, 2005, and bottled on the 10th of March, 2021, making it a brisk 15 years old. 1 of 595 bottles, 56.8% abv.
Ardbeg 25yo. This was released last year and we snapped up a bottle. Although it was billed as an addition to their core range, it immediately proved very difficult to find a bottle, even at $1,000/bottle. Thankfully, Bill Meyers, the head of our St. Louis chapter, was able to grab one for us. 46% abv.
Ardbeg 8 For Discussion. We picked this up at the distillery alongside the single barrel, and as we understand it was never made available in the US. Instead, it was only available to members of their Committee program, which you can sign up for through their website. Of course, they already have a 10yo and now a 5yo Wee Beastie expression, but what if (instead of a 10yo, or perhaps in addition to it), they had an 8yo core range expression, especially if it had a sherry influence? Definitely time for our Drammers Club to weigh in on this discussion. 50.8% abv
Ardbeg Scorch - Committee Release 2021. Of course, we aren’t about to celebrate the 2022 Ardbeg Day release without having past Ardbeg Day releases on hand. So we made a point to sock away a bottle of last year’s release, the Scorch bottling. 51.7% abv
Ardbeg Arrrrrrrdbeg - Committee Release 2020. And for further comparison, let’s check out the 2020 Ardbeg Day committee release! Released in honor of outgoing Distillery Manager Mickey Heads, the bottle features a cartoon of him dressed up like a pirate, all in good fun. 51.8% abv
Ardbeg Twenty-Something 22yo. Let’s take a moment to appreciate that Ardbeg is still standing strong today, and this very rare release is the perfect bottle to do it with. This bottling in their Twenty Something series, features juice distilled in 1996, the darkest of the dark years for Ardbeg. Keep in mind that the distillery closed altogether from 1987 to 1989, when Allied bought it, and from 1989 to 1996, it only operated a couple weeks a year (by the staff from the nearby Laphroaig distillery, also owned by Allied), mostly just to prevent the equipment from rusting. At the time, shortly before The Glenmorangie Company bought it (for 7m pounds!) its future survival (like so many great Scotch distilleries at the time) was far from certain. Of course from today’s perspective, watching the distillery scale new heights month-after-month, it’s hard to imagine that it wasn’t so long ago that the situation was much darker. So we’re proud to include this rare glance at 1996 distillate (on their old equipment btw), so that we can raise a toast to this great distillery and appreciate that they’re still with us today. 46.4% abv
That’s our lineup, and what an extraordinary chance to try these rare whiskies with Colin Gordon joining us live from Islay — it promises to be a truly spectacular event. We hope you can join us.
Cheers,
Drammers Club
WHEN: Sunday, February 13th, at Noon Pacific / 3pm EST / 20:00 in Scotland
PRICE: $175/person for Drammers Members / $195/person for Drammers Observers
FORMAT: Online Tasting, Zoom details:
Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84692681830?pwd=VGYrK1grdmE0cnp2eEY2L2VoRllRZz09
Meeting ID: 846 9268 1830
Passcode: 021322