*Sincere thanks to Usquaebach and Colangelo PR for the sample.

The Usquaebach brand is one of those brands that manages to be both oft-seen and under-the-radar at the same time. Their white and tan stoneware flagon-ed Old Rare Blended Whisky is a rather familiar sight on store shelves, but you just don’t hear much about the whiskies. Oh sure, there’s the occasional print ad, or random review, but really, this is a brand with a relatively low profile. Hell, until late last year when they released the An Ard Ri, Usquaebach apparently hadn’t made a change to their three-expression line-up in over 25 years.

The Gaelic an ard ri means “the high king,” and is a perhaps hyperbolic nod to Usquaebach’s longevity in the marketplace. While the brand is owned by the U.S.-based Cobalt Brands, the whisky is provided by Hunter Laing & Co. For this new, fairly limited release, Hunter Laing’s master blender, Stewart Laing, created an all-malt blend of whiskies reportedly from Auchroisk, Blair Athol, Benrinnes, Craigellachie, Dailuaine, Glengoyne and Inchgower among others. With the exceptions of Craigellachie and Glengoyne, these are not distilleries you hear about all that often. They are workhorses and the majority of their output goes to some of the big blended Scotch brands. For the Usquaebach An Ard Ri Blended Malt Scotch Whisky, Laing chose single malts between 10 and 21 years old and bottled it at a “cask strength” of 57.1%. This release was limited to 2000 bottles…I’m sorry, flagons. Yes, that’s right, the Old Rare will no longer be the only flagon on the block. The An Ard Ri comes in a striking blue one with a similarly striking $200 price tag.

The Nose:  A rich yet slightly taut, complex nose that’s almost savory at times. Initially, there’s light, floral honey, overripe pineapple, honeydew melon, and a mineral, almost white wine fruitiness. Close behind, malt syrup, cereal flakes, and leftover cereal milk mingle with almond extract and a hint of toasted pecans. There are some subtle old library notes, smooth and worn oak, and leather, and mild spice notes of vanilla bean, peppercorns, allspice, dried star anise, and clove. Behind all of this, loitering in the shadows, is a faint hint of peat. Adding a little water adds a bit of citrus sweetness, plays up the milky malt a bit more and gives everything a little more room to breath.

The Palate:  A quite nice, lush, viscous mouthfeel. There’s darker honey now, along with juicy raisins, prunes, and mixed tropical fruits. While there’s still notes of caramelized grain, there’s additional hints of bittersweet chocolate, and a more pronounced nuttiness – salted almonds and candied walnuts. The oak is sturdier but still of the old library variety. The spices are stronger and lightly herbal with quite a bit of black pepper and raw ginger, Vietnamese cinnamon, clove, and a bit of fennel. As with the nose, water brings out more citrus and a bit more nutty complexity.

The Finish:  A slightly wine-y, honey and raisin sweetness fades slowly along with a slightly bitter nuttiness, and a mix of tannic oak and spice.

Thoughts:  A very nice whisky that manages to have both a young vibrancy and a nice dose of mature complexity. The nose, while compact and integrated, offers quite a range to explore. The palate is more straightforward, but echoes much of the nose and adds more oak influence to the mix. While this was drinkable at strength, I found just a little water opened the nose up nicely and brought more fruitiness out which balanced the wood and spice even further. The $200 price tag is a bit of an eyebrow raiser. Yes, it’s a very limited release, and yes, the price is more or less in line with where we’re unfortunately at in terms of price these days, but that doesn’t necessarily justify it. It’s easy to recommend the whisky itself, it’s quite good. It’s harder to recommend it at this high of a price.

Usquaebach An Ard Ri Blended Malt Scotch Whisky, IB, +/- 2016

57.1% ABV

Score:  86

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Sources

• “New Items for the New Year From the Park Avenue Liquor Shop.” WhiskyIntelligence.com. N.p., 13 Jan. 2017. Web. May 2017.
• Ronde, Ingvar. Malt whisky yearbook 2015: the facts, the people, the news, the stories. Shrewsbury: MagDig Media, 2014. Print.
•  “The History.” Usquaebach | The Grand Whisky of the Highlands. N.p., n.d. Web. May 2017.