Ardbeg Uigeadail 54.2% abv Can you hear the distant rumblings? Imagine the sky turning the color of bruises and black eyes? This...this is the fearsome dark storm of Islay. Its enormity is almost intimidating. Its might and majesty so beyond the scope we're used to seeing in such a young and core range bottling. This is like standing on the shores of Islay while the skies tear open above. Like being lambasted by gusts of rain and hurricane winds. And also like feeling grateful simply for having stood so close to the vortex and lived to tell. This is nature's fiercest, distilled and decanted. This will be one of the most blindingly original whiskies you have ever tried. At once sweet, salty and smoky. A deep sherry influence, while not overburdening, is held in check by dense layers of smoke. There are notes of chocolate and warm leather carried, no doubt, by the sherried casks. Tendrils of salted meat and roasting...well...just roasting something. The smoke, brine and seasoned meat carry to the palate as well, here gaining a sharp little prickle from a thread of anise. The chariot that delivers this complex amalgamation of all that is Islay (and so much more) is the perfect vehicle at a respectable 54.2% (When will all of the others learn?). This is a sublimely heavy and brooding dram. A 'noir' whisky, if ever one was made. Deeper and darker than a Lynch movie, this is a whisky for the most introspective and dark-hearted to mull over in the most forbidding depths of the darkest lounge.