A very wonderful representative of Ardbeg Scotch sent me a bottle of the Ardbeg An Oa (with no requests on how this review shakes out, these opinions are mine) to review. While I was eager to review it, I had no idea what I was going to say.
After a dozen false starts on how best to review it, I’m finally down to the last dram. After a long day of yardwork, including shoveling metric shit-tons of dirt to build a large vegetable garden, and my awesome neighbor Christos helping me replace a faucet that’s been leaking forever, I poured the last glass and sat out on my porch, thinking about the stupid garbage weeds that I still have to destroy.
As I look at the transplanted peppers and herbs, I took a sip and thought, “this is a perfect drink for this bullshit.” Bingo. Get out of here, writer’s block, I got a review to write.
Now, I am generally a fanboy of Ardbeg, such as the 10-Year with it’s deep peat flavor and as much smokiness as my grandma’s “parlor,” or the Uigeadail, to which my wife described as “like drinking smoked leather.” But the An Oa is a damned fine Scotch on its own.
Now, I want to make this clear: if you’ve never had Scotch before, hold on to your butts. This is no joke. The smoke kicks you in the gut, there’s toffee notes everywhere, and it simply makes me happy.
Now, I sit here, content in my accomplishments and in this fine Scotch. Which I need to get more of soon, since I have a backyard that needs some serious work.