Origin: Islay (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Ardbeg: love it or hate it, especially in recent times marked by the exuberant personality of deity Bill Lumsden.
The troubled history of the distillery, which ended in near-abandonment until its recovery in the late 1990s by the current ownership, is emblematic of that of all Scotch whisky, and today I take you on a journey through different vintages and periods of the distillery through five independent bottlings and one original.
Get in the time machine, here we go!
Signatory Vintage Ardbeg 1974 19yo
Strength: 46%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon
Chillfiltered: Yes
Added colouring: No
Owner: Signatory Vintage Scotch Whisky Company
Average price: € 230.00
Official website: www.signatoryusa.com
Two twin casks (4375-4377) presumably ex-Bourbon, with distillate from 27 September 1974, yielded 980 bottles in 1993 for this edition of the well-known independent bottler: a taste from a distant era, when Ardbeg began using Port Ellen malt, Hiram Walker was not yet in full control of the distillery, and the first closure in 1981 was only a few years away.
Tasting Notes
Smoked vanilla, halfway between crème brûlée and a burnt custard: not a bad start at the nose. The smoke soon shifts towards a more vegetal part, of burnt leaves and juniper, at times veering towards incense, which reveals coastal and iodine notes, waves crashing on the rocks. A touch of aromatic herbs, orange peel, roasted peanuts, tobacco, a hint of white pepper: a balanced composition, almost compassionate were it not for the nevertheless decisive presence of peat. Elegant.
The palate is compact and oily, with a slight spiciness of black pepper and ginger that opens to citrus notes (orange, cedar), fruit (apple, peach) and peat amidst the herbs and incense, with a background of pastry more convincing than on the nose: cream tartlet, butter brioche, Digestive biscuits. But it is the coastal side that emerges with pleasant decision, salty and iodine, a marine embrace that enhances the smoke by shifting it from vegetable to fishy. Hints of marzipan, nuts and liquorice. Lacks a little compactness, tending to slip away over time.
Quite long and brackish finish of dull embers, spices (black pepper, nutmeg), incense, tobacco, malt biscuits, citrus.
The alcohol content affects the drink, dispersing the elegant richness of the whisky which, also due to the age of the bottle, fails to fully maintain its length, but starting from a high level it nonetheless falls on its feet.
Vote: 88/100
Cadenhead’s Ardbeg 1994 15yo
Strength: 58.1%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Bourbon
Chillfiltered: No
Added colouring: No
Owner: J & A Mitchell & Co Ltd.
Average price: € 250.00
Official website: www.cadenhead.scot
Single cask from the Authentic Collection, which created 273 fullcask strength bottles in June 2009, from the time when Ardbeg was part of Allied Distillers, which reopened it in 1989, only to close it again seven years later.
Tasting Notes
The peat begins on the nose in a coastal and medicinal form, acrid and iodized, where initially the smoke is a distant, ethereal impression of burnt grass, growing over time to shift to toasted nuts and burnt wood. Substantial citrus influences, lime and lemon permeate the aromas of white fruit (apple, peach, plum), cream tart, hazelnut and a hint of coffee. Mild spiciness, between black pepper and nutmeg. Gentle.
Lively attack on the drink, black pepper, ginger and chilli push roasted aromatic herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage) and the citrus compartment of the nose, with a consistent smoke between brushwood and burnt plastic, soaked in iodine and brine (roasted olives). Rather astringent, it brings fruit and pastries into the background, decidedly subdued, while impressions of tobacco, earl grey tea and in general the vegetal part, with vaguely balsamic traits, grow.
Long finish in which citrus and spices intertwine, with toasted (coffee, nuts), vegetal (herbs), smoky (extinguished cigarette, burnt wood), iodine and saline notes.
Compared to its predecessor, it takes a step further towards contemporary Ardbeg, interesting in its versatile vivacity and with non-trivial cues.
Vote: 87/100
Gordon & MacPhail Ardbeg 1996
Strength: 46%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Bourbon
Chillfiltered: No
Added colouring: No
Owner: Speymalt Whisky Distributors Ltd.
Average price: € 500.00
Official website: www.gordonandmacphail.com
Single cask (but not cask strength) bottled in 2005, from the last year of Ardbeg’s operation before closure prior to purchase by the current owners. There are editions from different casks, this one comes from the 921.
Tasting Notes
A pungent and acrid nose, with a slightly exuberant alcohol, in which the coastal spirit takes the lion’s share, playing with peat in its vegetable guise: aromatic herbs (thyme, marjoram, rosemary) scattered over a grilled fish (scallops, mussels, prawns) with generous sprinklings of lemon and black pepper. Even a bit of raw oyster, just for good measure. The fruity and confectionery aspects are relegated to the background, between baked apple, pineapple, apricot jam, banana bread, sweet Haribo-type liquorice, yoghurt plum cake. Over time, the smoke becomes thicker and woody. Adolescent.
On the palate, it reaffirms its liveliness, sharp and spicy, light-bodied but not ethereal, tingling with black pepper, ginger and nutmeg, with a substantial portion of lemon and lime. Smoke is more solid, of burnt shrubs, grilled peppers and a slight medicinal inflection, while salty notes of brine, green olives and seafood remain as the main ingredient. The sweetness is all in the background, shy impressions of fruit and pastry.
The finish is quite long and very savoury, of burnt wood, spices, citrus, seafood, liquorice, herbs.
An (old) young wine that still kicks and churns on the nose, less exciting on the palate but with all the island soul still imbuing its flavours. More flashes of the Ardbeg that will be, with character.
Vote: 88/100
Reviews of Gordon&MacPhail whisky
That Boutique-y Whisky Company Ardbeg Batch #2
Strength: 50.9%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Bourbon
Chillfiltered: No
Added colouring: No
Owner: Atom Brands
Average price: € 350.00
Official website: www.thatboutiqueywhiskycompany.com
Since its inception in 2012, the bottler with the illustrated labels has been distributing single casks of Ardbeg, at the time with no declared age and, as it still does today, without specifying the cask’s provenance, in a series that reached batch 23 in 2019. This second batch produced 422 bottles (half-litre) at cask strength in 2012, and shows on the label Ardbeg’s best-known collector, Geert Bero, posing as Gollum from Lord of the Rings in front of the distillery’s stills.
Tasting Notes
Peat with vegetal tones and touches of herbs on the nose, imbued with citrus notes (tangerine, lemon), with full, gentle, almost sweetish pastry smoke: burnt pastry, baked cream, malt and roasted almonds. Clove stings on the second layer of baked apple, vanilla, sugar paste, pine nuts and a drop of acacia honey. The peat then glides towards the sea, becomes more iodised and intense, of beach bonfires, with incursions of seafood and a slight medicinal note.
On the palate, the citrus part returns to mark the peat more decisively than on the nose, a creamy smoke that combines coastal notes with spices (black pepper, cloves) and herbs (marjoram, thyme, aniseed) with vague balsamic hints. Candied orange, baked apple, nuts (almonds, walnuts, pine nuts), sweet liquorice, honey and cream tart form the backdrop to this blanket, with medicinal nuances along the length.
Quite long finish with herbaceous and balsamic tones on burnt wood, citrus, (light) spices, vanilla, nuts, liquorice.
A drink that lacks a bit of character, the year of distillation should be around 2000 and it is as if one perceives an aura of ‘passage’ between past and future, without much conviction.
Vote: 84/100
Review of That Boutique-y Whisky Company whisky
Ardbeg Vintage Y2K 23yo
Strength: 46%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry Oloroso
Chillfiltered: No
Additional coloring: No
Owner: Moet Hennessy
Average price: € 800.00
Official website: www.ardbeg.com
This is the distillery’s only official bottling in this series, which brings us into modern times in terms of both vintage (2000) and distribution, which took place in late 2023. The year of distillation is obviously no coincidence, not only for what it has meant since the turn of the millennium, but also for having marked the birth of the Ardbeg Committee, the distillery’s enthusiasts’ club, and for being the last year in which Ardbeg’s oldest still was used, decommissioned the following year after 51 years of honourable service and which can be admired at the entrance to their forecourt.
Narrative (by Lumsden) has it that the casks came from a forgotten stock in a warehouse, of which this bottling is only the first in a series to represent the year of the Millennium Bug.
Tasting Notes
Citrus and vegetal peat as the first impression on the nose, where tangerine, grapefruit and blond orange are soaked in arboreal smoke amidst the burnt grasses and grilled herbs (rosemary, marjoram), with a coastal vein. The maritime part opens up rapidly in a crescendo of briny and salty notes bordering on hydrocarbon, supported in the background by pastry (custard, burnt meringues, marzipan, lime honey), nuts (walnuts, macadamia) and fruit (baked apple, blueberries, plums) with a spicy veil between cloves and liquorice. Harmonious.
On the palate, it attacks with spices (black pepper, cloves, ginger) and herbs (even a hint of balsamic), with citrus fruit in the foreground (with the addition of lemon and chinotto) and peat, always vegetal with island tones, with a solid, well-distributed smoke on the walls of the mouth. It is the grill that dominates the evocations, sizzling fruit (plums, apples, blueberries, peaches), olives, herring and marshmallow, accompanied by a touch of baklava and rhubarb. A concert of saline, sweet and bitter notes enveloped in smoke.
Long finish marked by citrus and salt, rhubarb, spices, liquorice, baked apple and intense, enveloping smoke.
A well-crafted Ardbeg, full, rich, balanced and elegant, a bridge between past and present that enchants and engages, with a very apt gradation. In a nutshell, good.
Vote: 90/100
Murray McDavid Ardbeg 2008 15yo
Strength: 58.1%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Sherry
Chillfiltered: No
Added coloring: No
Owner: Aceo Ltd.
Average price: € 400.00
Official website: www.murray-mcdavid.com
I conclude this more than 40-year-long run with the most recent bottling, from 2024, made for the German market by the independent bottler with 2008 malt matured in a butt ex sherry with finishing in an ex Pedro Ximenéz from the Spinola bodega, with 195 bottles produced at cask strength.
Tasting Notes
A dark, decadent nose of wet wood tending to rot marked by deep red, between dry figs and prunes, black cherries, blackberries, dates, carob and tamarind. Teriyaki sauce drizzled over grilled meat, with growing coastal notes bathing an underlying layer of almonds, stale coffee, fondant, sweet liquorice and an impression of sacher torte. The smoke is submerged in the Spanish blanket, acting as a background. Lots of Sherry and little Ardbeg.
A sensation that continues in the drink, with a profusion of dark, oxidised brushstrokes still tinting the carnivorous barbecue with an abundance of black pepper, cinnamon, ginger and a hint of saffron, soaked in soy sauce and aged balsamic vinegar. Minor citrus notes, always in a dark mood, accompanied by the cohort of nuts, fondant, liquorice and coffee. The smoke seems to be trapped in this treacle, only managing to escape at length along with the coastal side, which struggles to gain the walls of the mouth with a bit of brine. Aromatic herbs and vegetable peat in the closing.
Quite long and saline finish of used ashtray, red fruits, herbs, liquorice.
The cask has completely crushed the distillate, bent to an overpowering wood that has (almost) made all character of the distillery disappear. It can certainly find its admirers, such an obvious imbalance in favour of casks that cannot leave one indifferent, in my case negatively.
Vote: 83/100