Ardbeg 15 Years Old 1995 Cask #2761 (Feis Ile 2010)

Released only at the Ardbeg distillery during the Feis Ile festival on Islay in 2010, drawn from cask #2761 of the 1995 distillate. The 1995 vintage is scarce stock: Ardbeg had been mothballed by Allied Distillers in 1981, partially reopened from 1989 against the depressed Islay malt market, and produced only intermittent runs through to the final 1996 closure. Spirit from 1995 belongs to this transitional bridge period between the silent decade and the Glenmorangie revival of 1997.

Matured on Islay for fifteen years from 1995 through the 1996 Allied closure, the 1997 Glenmorangie acquisition and the 2004 LVMH purchase. Bottled in 2010 at natural strength 53.3% ABV, non chill filtered with no added colour. Feis Ile festival bottles are available only on the distillery's open day during the last week of May, drawing collectors to Islay for the single chance to acquire each year's release.

1995 distillate carries the Allied era peating profile, sourced from Port Ellen Maltings since the closure of Ardbeg's own floor maltings in 1981. Fifteen years in American oak builds cis and trans oak lactones (coconut, oiled wood), hemicellulose furans (caramel, toasted almond), and lignin vanillin and syringaldehyde (vanilla, sweet baking spice). The peat phenols (guaiacol, syringol, 4 methylguaiacol, p cresol) carry strong intensity at this age, with the Ardbeg purifier ester signature delivering pineapple, lemon and tropical fruit beneath the integrated phenolic core.