Whisky Tasting @Punavuoren Ahven

Whisky Tasting @Punavuoren Ahven, a photo by Rollofunk on Flickr.

The classic before shot.

A hard fought battle at the end between numbers 2 and 5: Buichladdich 1988/2003 and Ardbeg SC 1378 1975/2006. The Bruichladdich is an old favourite from previous tastings, and still held it's own, but in the end the sheer depth and complexity of the Ardbeg's taste range led me to pick it as my number one tonight. Hints of chocolate, gingerbread and perhaps some liquorice combined with the characteristic peatines of Ardbeg, and smoothened and lengthened by 31 years in a sherry cask just made it a fantastic Whisky. A privilege to taste.

A slight disappointment was the Caol Ila 25 yo, which didn't live up to the expectation of how good a +20 year old Whisky can be. Part of it might be due to the diluting to 43% from cask strength, which inevitably evens out the taste a bit.