This whisky was filled in to single toasted hogshead #1189 on 11th May 1998 and eventually bottled on 10th December 2008.

One of 252 bottles made available exclusively for Feis Ile in 2009.

Feis Ile, also known as the Islay Festival of Music and Malt had humble beginnings. It traces it origins back to 1985 and the establishment of The Islay Festival Association after it was realised that an event celebrating Gaelic, music and culture would drive tourism to the island. The inaugural event was two weeks of music, drama and workshops with ceilidhs, concerts and dances in the evening. The first whisky tasting took place as a festival event in 1990, and ten years later the island's distilleries began to be directly involved, organising their annual open days to coincide with it. Today it is one of the biggest events on the whisky calendar, annually drawing hundreds of revellers, and turning out an increasingly sought-after batch of limited edition whiskies like this.

Our reporters on Islay, the Lindores Boys, had mixed feelings about these two ‘new oak’ casks that were bottled for Feis Ile 2009. Time for us to try them as well. Colour: full gold. Nose: vanilla and ginger all over the place plus hints of quinces, cough syrup, coconut and banana liqueur. Quite some camphor as well after a few minutes, tiger balm… Much less ‘Ardbeg’ than all the previous ones, and very, very modern and bourbonny. The peat doesn’t even have much to say here. It’s pleasant but it’s not Ardbeg. With water: doesn’t work at all, it became very flat, with notes of vegetables. Cooked salad and paper. A very nice Ardbegness in the background but it just won’t make it through. Mouth (neat): a liqueur, or smoked bourbon? Very strange, imagine a mixture of coconut oil, salmiak and honey. Thick mouth feel. With water: it’s okay now. More dryness, some putty, marzipan… Finish: rather long but a tad indefinite, between coconut and diesel oil. Comments: these casks were experiments. As long as they remain experiments, we’re all fine (just an opinion of course). Seriously, it’s very fine whisky but call me a traditionalist if you like, coconut plus Ardbeg just don’t do it for me.

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