Review: Ardbeg Dolce

This year’s release for Ardbeg Day — marked on the final day of Islay’s Feis Ile celebration — features one of the distillery’s most evocative — and successful — aging regimens.

That regimen is Marsala dolce, the sweetest style of Sicilian Marsala wine, which spans secco (dry), semisecco (semi-dry), and the sweet dolce, which is sipped as a dessert wine. Ardbeg Dolce is actually a blend of traditional bourbon barrel-aged Ardbeg with whisky aged in these Marsala Dolce casks. No age statement, which is typical for these annual releases.

Ardbeg Dolce Review

Dolce enchants from the start. The nose is bright and sweet without being cloying, a mix of apricot jam and orangey Earl Grey tea, but filtered through layers of peat smoke. Never ashy or brooding, the Marsala influence effectively slices through any of the more austere elements, which can lean into that tea leaf note but which are beautifully tempered by fruit and a bit of spice.

The palate is a masterclass in melding sweet and smoke into a cohesive whole. Apricot again dominates alongside gentle baking spices before chocolate and vanilla become more dominant, layering the midpalate with creaminess and a sprinkle of brown sugar. The peat is more refined on the tongue than the nose, dashing in and out of view until it settles into the background as the finish draws nearer. It isn’t until the last gasps of the whisky that more of a biting callback to smoke makes an appearance, though this too feels refined, hinting more at pipe tobacco than ashy bonfire.

It’s my favorite Ardbeg in recent memory — and we’ve had some good ones of late.

95.6 proof.

A / $110 [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]

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