Ardbeg An Oa Single Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml) with BBQ Smoker Tin

A special presentation of Ardbeg An Oa that comes with a BBQ smoker. To use the smoker, you fill the puck with wood chips and place it at the back of your BBQ grill, then wait until your BBQ is sufficiently smoky, and then place your food around the puck, allow it to smoke out further, and then serve - with a glass of Ardbeg An Oa, of course! Collectors please note: the tins cannot be guaranteed to arrive without minor indentations as a result of transport.

Named after a peninsula on the coast of Islay, Bill Lumsden has mixed it up with this release employing a combination of casks: Pedro Ximénez, charred virgin oak and ex-bourbon. An Oa (pronounced “an oh”) will become a part of the core range joining the 10 year old, Uigeadail, and Corryvreckan. Lumsden describes the whisky as "...smoky, sweet and rounded, with unusually, grilled artichokes in the finish."

Tasting note: Bright gold. As always deceptively complex, developing with sherried oak aromas, lanolin, sooty vanilla and later, dark chocolate and suggestions of smoldering green pine. Entry is assertively salty, kippery, peppery. Mid palate is oily, medium dry, offering sherried richness along with piney juniper, over-baked sponge cake, black tea and hints of smoked meats at the finish. No shortage of peat, but loses some momentum in the final stages. Non chill filtered. 46.6% Alc./Vol.

Other reviews...  Ardbeg at its driest and most sooty: a real acidic bite to the huge phenol...sublimely textured with an immediate roll call of sugars... effortless and easy like gear changes on an automatic car. It is also beautifully delicious. 95.5 points - Jim Murrays Whisky Bible 2018