The millenium was a key date in the history of Ardbeg, as the distillery completed three years of renovation and began producing the smoky-sweet spirit we now know and love. At the same time, Dr. Bill and the whisky creation team laid down the casks which are being released as the Ardbeg Vintage Y2K series. Combining old and new, it merges modern, innovative whisky techniques whilst using the old Ardbeg stills.

The first bottling is this unique 23-year-old whisky, which has been matured in Oloroso and bourbon casks. Distilled in the year 2000, Vintage Y2K perfectly encapsulates the optimism and excitement surrounding Ardbeg in that momentous year. Bottled at 46% abv.

The nose is herbal, sweet and fragrant, with a subtle, distant perfumed smokiness and touches of lemon balsam, linseed oil and candied walnuts. At first the flavour is intensely sweet, then shifts as aniseed, toffee, digestive biscuits, peppermint, menthol, tar and coffee grits burst through. The sooty flavours build before dissolving into a long, lingering aftertaste of antiseptic lozenges, bitter oranges and oak tannins.