Ardbeg Heavy Vapours

I've previously sampled the Perpetuum, Kelpie, Grooves, and the Committee Release Drum, which I found to be outstanding, with the latter being my preferred of the series. Ardbeg seems to be getting experimental lately, at least with their packaging. This one's design is quite striking, and though the story on the box is rather cheesy, the overall idea is interesting. Let's see if the 2023 release matches my prior favorites. On the nose, expect abundant grapefruit and lemon, white pepper, orange zest, vanilla cream, sea salt, seaweed, iodine, and a hint of bandaid. There's also brine, agave/mezcal, strong cinnamon spice, sugar cookies, and rich butterscotch. The palate presents mint chocolate, more grapefruit and lemon, black beans, spicy red pepper, sun-dried tomatoes, a mix of campfire and barrel smoke, iodine, bandaid, peat, brine, sea salt, seaweed, a tennis ball note, agave/mezcal, a ballpark soft pretzel, cinnamon, white and black pepper, heavy oak, and more rich butterscotch. The finish offers vanilla cream, agave/mezcal, grapefruit and lemon, caramel, milk chocolate, almonds, sugar cookies, butterscotch, toffee, orange citrus, black beans, spicy red pepper, cinnamon, white pepper, and oak. It's a moderately long finish. This is a winner for me, much like most Ardbegs I've tried. I'd place it on the lower end of Committee Release reviews, but that's not a major criticism given the quality of those releases. It has a fairly typical Ardbeg character, almost like the Uigeadail is the more limited edition, while this feels like standard production. That's fine by me; it retains the signature Ardbeg profile, delivering the expected punch of spice, peat, smoke, brine, and citrus. It lacks a bit of nuance, feeling more like a project for the distilling staff to explore technical aspects rather than a consumer-focused product. However, it showcases Ardbeg's consistent excellence. At $140, a score of 4.25 seems fair. While it doesn't break new ground, it's a very enjoyable drink.

Ardbeg Heavy Vapours is bottled without an age statement at 46% ABV and costs approximately $130. This is the worst bottle I've opened in 2023. I've begun acquiring some bottles as financial investments, with no intention of opening them. The Ardbeg Day special releases are now part of my “portfolio.” I was inspired to open this Ardbeg Day special release by the only YouTube whisky reviewer I still follow, as he hilariously expresses extreme anger regarding how dreadful this whisky is. Ardbeg Heavy Vapours is so incredibly bad and such a deceitful rip-off for consumers that it deserves a place in a museum, perhaps alongside the modern Macallan 18 Double Oak. It's like Ardbeg Wee Beastie that they ruined by forgetting a purifier on the still, and instead of discarding the flawed product, they created a marketing gimmick for this trash and sold it for more than double the price of Wee Beastie. This whisky does have some decent density vapors on the nose and smells alright, but it completely falls apart on the palate and finish. It's a young, very young whisky that tastes like smoky vodka. It has unpleasant notes of plastic, unripe banana, and potatoes. Fortunately, there's no discernible finish with this whisky. Ardbeg has recently started to transform into a long-term Ponzi scheme, and luckily, there are still plenty of new, unsuspecting “Ardbegians” to drive up the prices of discontinued bottles. Thus, purchasing Ardbeg bottles will likely remain a financially sound decision for many years, provided you're not planning to drink the contents. And, if you have the discretionary funds, you can still open a bottle for laughs now and then, when the mood strikes. I have to give Ardbeg credit because Heavy Vapours is, in its own unique way, astonishing. They've stopped making whisky and are just bottling their own urine. And I must offer a bewildered, stunned smile as I consume $130-a-bottle urine.

I've revisited Ardbeg's "Heavy Vapours," but this time, it's the standard bottling. As some may know, Heavy Vapours was one of Ardbeg's Committee releases in 2023. They actually produced two versions: one at a higher ABV (which didn't impress me much) and this 46% ABV one. Nose: Swampy water, smoke. It has an incredible aroma. Smells like a fresh can of tennis balls. Bloody medicinal cotton swabs, synthetic grass. Chocolate and sugary water. Palate: It started sweet. Sugary, grassy, herbal. Raw spice; meat. Quite sugary, actually. Finish: Smoky, sugary, and grassy. Not overly complex. Overall, this is a very good whisky. Is it superior to the standard Uigeadail or Corryvrekan? No. Is it better than the Cask Strength Heavy Vapours? It might be. An enjoyable peaty dram; I'm giving this one a score of 90 out of 100.

The smell is intensely peaty, reminiscent of wet peat like a Laphroaig rather than the typical Ardbeg scent. It has a fresher, more floral aroma instead of dried. The flavor is rich, dominated by smoke with a prickling spice. That same vegetal peat taste is on the palate, though less pronounced than in the aroma. I enjoy the flavor, but it feels a bit one-dimensional and lacks depth.

The aroma is unpleasant, oily, perhaps a bit musty. The taste and finish improve, with some peat but not the typical Ardbeg profile. There's a touch of lemon sweetness on the finish. It's not bad, but somewhat disappointing.

A drop of water makes this an easily drinkable, smooth spirit, perhaps too easily. The finish is soft.