Ardbeg Supernova SN2010 60.1% NV

Professional reviews

Gal Granov (86)

Nose: Oh mama. Peat smoke in kilos. Alcohol is felt ok. I let it rest quite a bit in the glass before sniffing again. Under all those layers of peat you can find lemon zestiness, apples (green) some hints of vanilla and burnt sugar.Also Rubber, Tar and some wet gauche paint and petrol. Freshly laid PVC in a gym hall . Throws me back quite a while to a time when i was a kid playing basketball in our new PVC laid gym.

Palate : Wham! it’s like a hammer on your palate. Strong stuff, big flavours. starting with the sweeter burnt sugar and maltiness then dark chocolate and double , i take it back, quadruple espresso.Tar all over, smoke in Kilos and peat all over the place. Some pepper as well, as well as chilli and soot. damn spicy on the tongue.

Finish : Bitter espresso,pepper and smoke fills your mouth for minutes. Tar. This one literally lasts minutes in your mouth. hours, days. man! this is an endless finish, like it or not. It’s something.

Bottom line:

This one is definitely not your daily dram. it’s biting, very very tough and needs a lot of water in order to be tamed. Today is a very hot summer day when i am tasting it in the comfort of my A/C, but it’s a classic for a windy, thunderstorm night. So, do i like it? Yes i do, but do i like it enough to be getting a bottle of this? Probably not. I guess some of you think i am out of my mind, a peat freak like me, not in need of this peaty monster? Well, it’s not very cheap, and I think i do prefer Octomore 2.2 over this one. I can’t put my finger on it, this is not a bad dram, it’s actually very good, but should this be the 2011 whisky of the year (In J.Murray’s bible) ? I think not. Chances that it will, but that’s a different story.

If i had to choose a peat monster to be on my shelf, I’d go either with the PC8 or the Octomore 2.2 ( I hear Octomore 3.0 is coming out really soon, and can’t wait to have my way with it ).

Sorry Beloved Ardbeg, this time the Laddie has won, at least in my book

BOW (90)