This year I was lucky enough to attend Ardbeg Day. Typically I’m not able, as it’s usually the same day as my wedding anniversary. Thus it’s a little difficult to convince my wife that we should go drink whisky. Don’t get me wrong: She likes a nip of whisky here or there and likes a peated dram just as much as the next person married to me, however, she’s more of a “lets do something out of town” kinda lady.

This year was different though, so I was lucky enough to try Ardbeg Grooves. The story behind this is it’s partially made up of whiskies that were aged in re-toasted red wines. If you remember back to a previous release, Ardbeg Alligator, they did something similar with heavy char, giving it more of a smokey, spicy flavour.

So there you have the name. But why the 60s flavour? Well…