A few nights ago I finally nipped into the sample miniature bottle of Ardbeg Uigeidial that I picked up some weeks back. I've been intrigued about it for a while as I'd been curious to try another of the notorious "peat monsters" outside of the Caol Ila in my collection, and I liked the sound of the sherry finish to Ugie imparting some sweetness onto it. A while back I also picked up a small notebook that I'm using to start constructing my own tasting notes, something that I'm still completely an amateur at, but I thought it would be a good way to help me practice identifying different details within each glass and help me to compare and pick out favorites.
I doubt I'm the only one who experiences this, but I find myself pulling much more out of the nose of a whisky than the actual taste of it, especially when it comes to identifying individual components. In the case of the Ugie, the peat started to hit me immediately after I unscrewed the cap, with the bottle being a solid two or three feet away! Really intriguing stuff, and I got way more out of this in my notes than I expected to at my experience level. Here's some of what I got:
Nose: Peat (duh), smoke, salty/maritime notes, some sort of dry grain (this with the saltiness reminded me of matzo), rubber (like what you'd find in shoe sole inserts, oddly not as off-putting as I would have expected); Over time the sherry/toffee notes start to come out and the early peat punch begins to take a back seat, dried spiced fruits (I wrote dried apricot, which is odd considering I don't think I've ever had dried apricot...); after adding water, hints of dark or bittersweet chocolate, and custard. By the end of the glass, the initial peat and smoke was barely if at all present.
Palette: First impression, a really rich mouthcoat! I tend to take pretty small sips and with this that small amount seemed to really coat my tongue all the way up to the roof of the mouth; Dry flavor at first, and smoky, with a tangy hint of fruit (I imagine that this tastes a bit like what a good cigar would); water seemed to refocus onto the dryness a bit, but the mouthfeel remained.
Finish: Didn't believe it to be overly strong at first, but there was a very weak sense of smoke and dark chocolate, perhaps a bit of citrus; adding water seems to bring a bit more heat to the feel, and draws out the overall length of the finish, with a slight lingering warmth in the back of the throat.
Overall like I mentioned earlier, the first word that came to mind for me was "intriguing." This whisky probably evolves more dramatically with time than any other I've dried so far, opening with the familiar peaty punch of Caol Ila mixed with the more obtuse scents, but eventually rounding out into a wonderfully balanced and rich dram. Not the sort of thing I'd want to drink super-often, but it had a way of arresting my attention for the night and I'll definitely keep an eye out for a full bottle some time down the road.
