Words by Colin Hampden White
Every now and again Ardbeg releases a whisky just for members of their committee (anyone can join the committee) and this February saw the release of Fermutation.
Apparently this was the result of a lucky mistake. A fermentation was left to run for far too long by mistake, in fact it was the longest fermentation ever run at Ardbeg. Rather than ditch the mistake, Dr Bill decided to distil it and this 13 year old is the result.
This long fermentation was created in November 2007 by a broken boiler which couldn’t be fixed, and rather than stopping the fermentation running at the time, Dr Bill decided to experiment. He quickly told the distillery team to open up the washback lids exposing the contents to the air. This was the start of a three week fermentation. A normal fermentation at Ardbeg is around 72 hours.
One gets the feeling that the results were not just down to luck. Some quick thinking and a desire to experiment certainly helped. The resulting whisky is still smoky, but is more in harmony with the fruity flavours which are citrus forward and as Dr Bill put it “Zingy”.
Dr Bill is well known for experimentation, and he’s always wanted to experiment with longer fermentation, but he admits what an experiment of this length of time would never have happened without the faulty boiler.
It went on sale to the committee earlier this month, and sold quickly. It can be found at auction and some retailers have it at inflated prices. But the best way to even have a chance of bottles in the future, is to join the committee which any lover of Ardbeg can do here on-line.
ABV: 49.4%
Size: 700ml
Price £150 (on release), expect £250 and upwards at auction or future retail.