Ardbeg An Oa Release Party, Washington DC, at Jack Rose Saloon

A member of the Ardbeg Committee, I received an email from the local Ardbeg representative inviting me to Jack Rose Saloon tonight (9/23/17) to celebrate the release of the newest Ardbeg expression, An Oa (which I recently picked up and reviewed). 

Tomintoul 10 Year

Thanks to inscrutable liquor store metrics, Tomintoul 10 Year is on sale at virtually every shop in Washington D.C. this month, generally around $30. That puts it squarely in the "eh, what the hell" range of purchases. 

Springbank 10 Year

Ah, now here is a whisky I've been dying to review. I first had Springbank - probably the best-known of the current Campbeltown distilleries - about four years ago. I actually started with their heavily-peated Longrow CV expression, which I thought was very good, comparable to Ardbeg Corryvreckan, which is high praise indeed. I've still never found the unpeated and triple-distilled Hazelburn in the wild. But the core expression - Springbank's own 10 Year - is a really eccentric, complex, subtle, and interesting whisky.

Speyburn 10 Year

This was a remainder bin selection at a liquor store that was moving a lot of inventory for very cheap - in the $25 bin was Johnnie Walker Rye, Johnnie Walker Double Black, and Speyburn 10 Year. All in what I would term the "easy drinking" category.

Ardbeg An Oa (NAS)

It's finally here! The new fourth permanent installation in the Ardbeg lineup, An Oa ("Ahn Oh") is among us at last. An Oa is named for the Mull of Oa, a southern peninsula on Islay. I have been calling, emailing, and polling every liquor store in the Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia area trying to get my hands on this. At last, randomly, I did a lunchtime google search and found it advertised in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, at Potomac Wine and Spirits. The salesman was completely nonchalant, but noted that they had been flying off the shelves far faster than they had estimated. 

Deanston 12 Year

Deanston is a distillery I knew almost nothing about until I found this bottle on sale ($35). It's a Highland whisky, made by a small crew of ten men, and owned by the same company that owns Bunnahabhain and Tobermory and Black Bottle blended. I happen to love Bunnhabhain, so this is of particular interest. 

Lost Distillery Company: Gerston (Archivist Collection)

I found another great offering from the Lost Distillery Company: the Archivist Collection bottle of their recreation of the distillery of Gerston. Gerston, when it was open, would have been the northernmost Highland distillery - located in Halkirk, it would have been farther even than Old Pulteney or Clynelish. 

Ardbeg 10 Year (Third Take)

As I prepare for the arrival of the new Ardbeg - called An Oa ("An Oh") - I am revisiting the other three core expressions from the distillery, Ten Year, Uigeadail, and Corryvreckan. I realized that I had sampled my beloved Ten Year fairly recently, but at a pretty poor bar that served the dregs of a bottle in a giant widemouth tumbler, like I was some kind of riverboat gambler guzzling rye before cheating some rubes at poker in a dark and smokey saloon.