Ardbeg Day Single Cask No. 2787
You just don’t get to have a single cask whisky every day, and that’s a shame. These releases showcase how great whisky can be. When distilleries make bottles of single cask whisky available to the public, they will be gone soon at prices that will make you look twice and wonder why. Simply put, they are rare, beautiful expressions that every whisky fanatic wants a piece of.
For Feis Ile 2023, Ardbeg released a single cask whisky, Ardbeg Day Single Cask No. 2787, matured for 16 years in a refill Oloroso sherry cask. The story behind this cask is that it was originally intended to be used in the creation of one of Ardbeg’s core range whiskies known as Uigeadail. Uigeadail is created by mixing Oloroso sherry and bourbon matured whiskies together. It is one of my favorite core range whiskies from any distillery on Islay, and I am glad it is accessible and reasonably priced.
The beauty of a single cask whisky is that the whisky will inherit very intense flavor from the cask. In this case, if you enjoy a whisky matured in sherry, you should get much stronger sherry flavor from this whisky than other sherry-matured whiskies you have had.
For a while now, I have resisted buying a single cask bottle released directly by a distillery due to the prices. This Ardbeg release sold for $820 at retail. To buy a bottle without trying it is a huge leap of faith. If you are someone thinking about getting single casks whiskies from Ardbeg, I hope this post sheds some light on the darkness of these rare, mysterious whiskies.
The Basics
Aged: 16 years
Bottles available: 623
Casks: Oloroso sherry
ABV: 56.8%
Color: Mahogany
Nose: Salt, jerky, BBQ, wood
Cost: $838.66 (auction fees and shipping were $140.53)
Purchased at: Scotch Whisky Auctions
Taste
The first flavors you experience when drinking this whisky are a heavy dose of raisin, BBQ, and caramel. The initial flavors are followed by tastes of cinnamon and a strong peaty finish.
The whisky itself is a bit heavier and syrupy in texture. When comparing to an Ardbeg Uigeadail, you definitely get more dried fruit and sweet spice flavors along with a heavier mouthful and stronger smoky finish.
Neat or With Water
I think a drop of water helps enhance the sweeter flavors of this whisky, but any more water beyond that makes it a much smokier whisky. Even though it is a stronger whisky at 56.8%, I found drinking it neat was pleasant as well. A drop of water will give you the best of both the sweeter flavors and the slightly elevated smoky finish.
Summary
Accessibility: My guess is most bottles of this whisky have already been bought from Ardbeg directly, but it still does show up in whisky auctions pretty regularly. Given how few bottles were made available, it would be very unlikely to find this for sale in a store. I would recommend looking into auctions if you want to buy this one.
Price: This whisky was sold via Ardbeg’s website for $820. I believe that was the only way to get it prior to it being available in auctions, so I feel what I paid was a good price. It always confuses me why people sell these whiskies in auctions as they always seem to go well below Ardbeg’s retail price. Did these sellers somehow get a bottle cheaper or for free? In auctions, this whisky usually sells for between $631 on the low end and $884 on the high end. It remains a mystery why some people go through all the auction hoops to sell a nice bottle of whisky for roughly $60 extra on the high end. Maybe I am missing something.
Quality: When you strip out the hype and price of this whisky, what you are left with is a pretty nice dram. It has very rich raisin, BBQ, and smoke flavors that all work very nicely together. I personally do not like how heavy this whisky tastes though. It is a syrupy mouthful and not the smoothest whisky to drink despite its great flavors.
Score: 8/10 (See our scoring system explanation)
I guess you don’t know until you try. The temptation of a single cask got the better of me in this instance, and I can’t help but feel that the price does not match up with the quality in this case. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great whisky, but I would be just as happy drinking a bottle of Uigeadail for $700 less.
It’s difficult to recommend this whisky at its price, and it may have scared me away from buying single casks in the future without trying it first. If you do get a chance to try this one, I am sure you will appreciate it, but just know there are better prices out there for a similar, very nice whisky.