Ardbeg Drum - Committee Release

Ardbeg never really disappoints me, not here either, I don't really like rum as a cask, but it goes well with Ardbeg for me, good alcohol strength, fits

Sweet campfire smoke on the nose with a fresh, tropical fruit component. The label says pineapple and banana. And indeed, one can come up with this association. Some coconut. And a breath of salty sea air blows through your nose. Powerful on the tongue, but at the same time smooth and creamy. Noticeable sweetness now present. Goes great with the smoke. Vanilla. Caramel. The smoke is stronger than in the nose. A sparkling, salty note. The alcohol strength is very well chosen. However, it also shows a subtle metallic, youthful note, which goes surprisingly well with the tropical fruit and does not disturb. The smoke lingers in the finish for a long time. Along with a malty sweetness. Conclusion? A young Ardbeg Sticker with an exceptional profile. I like it a lot, even if the price is of course too high. Nice interplay of sweet, bitter, salty. However, without being particularly complex. A summer whisky.

Today freshly uncorked. And I am disappointed .... Yes, it is unmistakably an Ardbeg. Yes, he tastes good. But nothing to feel of rum. Hardly any sweetness, hardly any exotic fruits, hardly any spices. A smoker from a weak ex-bourbon barrel. Young, metallic, out of round. A very strange bitterness in the finish. Not woody, no tannins. Rather quinine, Campari-bitter. I like him because he is an Ardbeg. That was it.

Those who can’t feel the rum and don’t like it probably have some problems of nose or palate.

An age-appropriate good Bourbon Fassreifung. By "reasonable" I mean that there is no discernible miss note (with the exception of the slightly metallic note in the nose) and that there is a reasonable range of flavors for a whisky younger than 10 years. Great complexity or development of the taste notes can not wait at the age stop. Characteristic Ardbegnotes are present, the origin of which the drum can not deny. I would be interested to know how many hours the whisky was in rum keg; one tastes little of it.

N21 P21 F21 B21

Tasted again from another sample - still the same - nice but not very remarkable

By far my least favorite committee release to date. :( Young, boring, mild, hardly any cask influence, feels watered down even for 52%. You really have to dig for those exotic tropical notes. The finish drops off a cliff and leaves you wanting more. So glad I didn’t buy a bottle and only had a sample. I was a huge fan of grooves but drum was a miss for me.

I would have expected some sweet raisins with the rum casks but instead I got more resinuous and bitter notes - doesn't make me enthusiastic about it - yes, glad it was just a sample

beautiful typical Ardbeg the rum goes well young honest you can feel the good potential He was fun and tasted me

... where is the typical Ardbeg "trimmings"? Absolutely subjective and biased, I conclude: Quite "nice" but not more! Pity!

As they say? "Much ado about nothing"? Well, that's a bit exaggerated, but unfortunately I hardly tasted anything else apart from smoke. I find it ok and drinkable but at this price I wouldn't buy it.

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Well, this is the last proof (if anybody needs one more), that Ardbeg is just a pale shadow of its former self. Shame on you, Dr. Bill Lumsden (Director of Distilling, Whisky Creation & Whisky Stocks and awarded Distiller Of The Year)!

I am disappointed by the colleague! From the influence of the rome I notice very little, a little bit of banana and with some time and a lot of imagination also pineapple, but otherwise a pretty common, young smoker! Not a bad whisky, but by far the weakest committee release I know!

First of all: I am not an Ard beginner. But this drop was in the advent calendar and of course it has to be scored. Here we go.

Very much overpriced - did not match my expectations at all. In the recent years, Ardbeg has started to market very young whiskies with bloomy marketing speech as committee releases, at prices that signal a highly complex whisky - but you won't find any complexity in the Ardbeg drum. For me this is a young and boring whisky. In this price class, there are much much much more interesting whiskies. (e.g. if you want young and complex and much cheaper, see e.g. Port Charlotte MRC).

Omg all you aggro guys who low rate cause you didn't get one bottle. Do sports.

I am disappointed by the colleague! From the influence of the rome I notice very little, a little bit of banana and with some time and a lot of imagination also pineapple, but otherwise a pretty common, young smoker! Not a bad whisky, but by far the weakest committee release I know!

21 21 21 21 84

Aroma – the first thing that greets you is a rum barrel (!), smoked pear, freshly cut meadow, green grapes, something metallic. After a sip, machine oil and fresh tar appear, along with notes of lemon. Taste - spicy-smoky notes. Citrus, lemon and ripe orange, smoked/fermented pineapple, some bananas (but they are there), black pepper and sweet chili. Quite drying in the aftertaste.

He really is not my case. What kind of rum would that have been? Definitely a "dirtier" and spicier I would guess.

A little better than the Laphroaig Quarter Cask, but exorbitantly more expensive ...

Iodine, brine, tar, lemons, industrial peat, not bad

White wine. Very thin long legs. Very intriguing nose. Smoky peat and pepper. Salt and pepper. some grilled fruits. Tropical fruits. Cooked pineapple. Quite spicy

Definitely an Ardbeg!

Nahhh, had it on a blind tasting with 5 other whiskies.... This was not a very good whisky and no one guessed Ardbeg.

a NAS of about 7 years, for a singular finish: peat, smoke, meaty always, more sugar galore, like on rums the wooded and maritime side arrives, return of the caramelized sugar in the mouth, malt, it's young !! , then some ash, a little soot and austere smoke the fruits come next, grilled banana, cooked vanilla and other exotic fruit sprinkled with grilled sugar on the BBQ! singular! sweet spices, woody and macerated fruit at the end with dry peat and caramel.

Doesn't inspire enthusiasm. The teas with a rum influence are significantly better.

This is one of those bottlings that mere mortals have a hard time getting hold of, that disappears into collections and shows up at auctions - and sometimes someone drinks it and sometimes someone gives a sample too. I am happy. Ardbeg Drum was the Committeeee bottling 2019, an unaged Ardbeg bottled in rum casks at the end of 2018. The current auction price at Krüger is over €200. What? Let's face it - the whisky is light like light white wine. The barrels weren't that bulging then, were they? www.boelling.de

Ardbeg needs to suspend it's releasing for a while and produce some REAL WHISKY, rather than keep giving these trash-like 7 year-old nas

Okay, let's recap. Quote homepage Ardbeg: “Ardbeg Drum is a delicious jamboree of different flavors: Ardbeg Scotch whisky from former bourbon barrels, which matured in former rum barrels. Alongside notes of banana and pineapple, fragrant pine resin, wood smoke and sea spray dance. Lavender, licorice and vanilla sway together in strong, dark chocolate before everything ends in a long, smoky aftertaste.” End of quote. There can, of course, be different opinions about what is “delicious”. Of course, maturing in rum barrels is complete nonsense. At most it was stored in barrels that were stored next to rum barrels. Bananas? Yes, okay, there was. But there was no dancing at all. Lavender? Well, with a lot of goodwill. Chocolate? Try again. It was smoky, the “reverberation”. Not for long. As a reminder: This is a committee release. From A rdbe g. Still questions? Yes. For example, where, please, is the quality that justifies an initial edition price of 95 euros - in words: ninety-five. You can't really be serious, Ardbeggians, can you. Sorry, but this bottling was a sentence with x.

Sheer strangeness maybe, but who would want to own a bottle? Inessential purchase.

"Oysters are served to the drivers at the depot!" Thinner, wax, gasoline, coal, drugs, smoke, fire, smoked fish, old wood, plants, mint, lime, honey, candy, peanuts, roasted seeds, salt, mineral.

Excellent strong Ardbeg Peat flavour as always. I drink my stuff neat since I can still stomach it I guess. I have been collecting Ardbeg for a while and always saw this on sale. When i took the plunge, what i expected is pretty much what i got aside from a smoke mixed with sweet brown sugar and some fruit taste in the middle. My technique for this is drinking out the corner of the cibi glass, about 1/4 mouth full, under the tongue, hold for a sec and then swallow. I then go back in for a second time quite quick after to keep on tasting and making sure my brain is registering the right thing here. The rum cask definitely works for Islays doesn't it. Ardbeg have done a fine job with Drum.

Save your money. You can make your own Drum at home. Pour a dram of Ardbeg Ten, add a half of teaspoon of brown sugar, a drop of molasses and garnish with pineapple. Ya Mon!

510 bottles in the collection, who is going to open the first bottle ;-)

Not quite what I expected. Some Ardbeg touches are there but also a lot of lime and some soapiness. It is sweet, sparkles on your tongue. So I call it „Ardbeg-Roses Limejuice“-Spritzer. Full review (in german): https://keinehalbendrinks.de/2019/05/29/ardbeg-drum-committee/

The nose is wonderfully smoky. A thick mist of burnt oak and peat. After ingestion that delicious mist disappears and a beautiful flower field of sweet flavors emerges. Yummie!

Honestly, this one benefits, a lot, of time with air, in the glass but especially once the bollte is popped. Oxidation turns this average CR to an interesting Ruhn infused peat bomb. I wont wasted my 2nd bottle by 'drinking it too early' it will go the way of some of the older Octomores open take a sip and forget 6 months.

This is the hitherto most miserable whisky from the Ardbeg Comittee Edition. As a customer, Ardbeg has completely lost me now. Here is matured whisky without a noteworthy character at high prices quickly sold. The stupid is the customer. I am very happy to have just had a sample of it and not even bought a whole bottle of it!

Very sweet Ardbeg, sweets in taste. Sour lemon. Better with water but no success, Ardbeg Ten better for less money, but we've heard that before about the latest CS releases. Very disappointed.

Some hate, some love. It is a decent expression, albeit a bit simple for its price.

It's wonderful how poralize these special bottlings every year. Too expensive, too limited, no age, stupid speculators. Well, Ardbeg does everything right, the hype train rolls every year anew, publicity is ensured. And honestly, so far all special bottlings have been drinkable, although lately they have tended to decrease in quality. Now 1 year later time for notes of the 2019 release. Drum, a moderately funny play on words due to the finish in rum barrels. The nose shows the typical ard use, albeit weaker than usual and a pronounced fruitiness with tropical hints. Does that come from the rum barrels or am I imagining it because I know that the part was in these barrels. Clearly also a very vanilla, sweet note, certainly most of the time bourbon barrel storage. Herbs and coffee. Strong in the mouth. Pepper, seasoning, light fruitiness, so I don't really have rum notes here. A lot of banana and smoke, sweet. The Caribbean pirate is more of a Scot with a Hawaiian chain. I clearly liked my nose better, the pronounced peppery bothered me a little, but still smooth. In the finish, continue to be peppery and drier. Raw coffee beans, some iodine and vanilla stay long. Nice but not a high-flyer this year. 87 points

I often like whisky from rum barrels, but it doesn't go with Ardbeg, especially since the maturation time is too short. You can find the detailed review here: https://keinehalbendrinks.de/2021/09/22/ardbeg-committee-releases/

Nose 21.5, taste 21.5, finish 21.5, balance 21.5