Ardbeg 18-year-old (D.1993, B.2011) Murray McDavid Mission / 56.9%/ 0.7l

Murray McDavid was founded in 1996 by Mark Reynier, Simon Coughlin and Gordon Wright.

In 2000, it took over Bruichladdich Distillery and hired the legendary Jim McEwan as its master distiller. He also took on the task of selecting whiskies for the Murray McDavid edition. However, relations between the partners soured; in 2012, Bruichladdich was sold to Rèmy Cointreau, and a year later, Aceo Ltd took over the Murray McDavid line. The Ardbeg presented here, distilled in 1993, spent 18 years in a bourbon cask, and was bottled at 56.9% abv in 2011 in the Mission Gold series. The edition consisted of 245 bottles.

Nose : hospital peat smoke, iodine, salted butter, vanilla, honey, green apples, gooseberries, lemons, grapefruit, black pepper and toasted oak.

Palate: peat smoke, sea salt, seaweed salad, smoked oysters, lemons, quince jam, vanilla, black pepper, walnuts and oak.

Finish : quite long, with notes of peat smoke and ash, vanilla, pepper, smoked fish, lemons, a bit of leather and oak.