Scotch Single Malt Whisky - Ardbeg

The last distillery on the road along the south coast from Port Ellen on the magical island of Islay, past Laphroaig and Lagavulin.

The distillery itself dates back to the final years of the eighteenth century. The site's water source, Loch Uigeadail, is superb and has had the honour of having a whisky named after it. Until 1976/'77 Ardbeg still had its own malting floor, but take their heavily peated malt from the Port Ellen maltings.

Jim Murray, in his Complete Guide to Whisky, described Ardbeg as the greatest distillery to be found on Earth. This was high praise indeed, given that the distillery was mothballed for most of the 1980's until Glenmorangie took control in 1997 and secured its future. The transformation from neglect to a homely and handsome distillery with a fine restaurant has been heartening to watch. Their first new release, an un-chillfiltered 10 year old, has proved to be a huge success.

A ferociously phenolic dram which retains an impressive finesse, possibly because of high stills and an unusual purifier on the spirit stills. Excellent and exciting when young, endlessly complex and stimulating when bottled old, Ardbeg is a mighty malt and increasingly popular with collectors and auctioneers.

 

 Ardbeg 10 Year Old

 Bin No

 MOET-250

 Region

 Islay

 Size

 70cl

 ABV

 46%

 Bottled by

 Distiller

 Price

 £33.95

Ardbeg Ten Years Old is a very special bottling for the Ardbeg distillery as it is the first non-chill filtered whisky in the Ardbeg range. Chill filtering isn`t a bad thing, in fact it created real consistency of product when the whisky industry was a little more `hap-hazard` than it is today. Ardbeg Ten Years Old is whisky with none of the goodness taken out and as good as straight from the cask.

97 points - Jim Murray's 2009 Whisky Bible

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 Ardbeg Blasda

 Bin No

 MOET-258

 Region

 Islay

 Size

 70cl

 ABV

 40%

 Bottled by

 Distiller

 Price

 £44.50

We all know Ardbeg packs a peaty punch, but if you remove some of that peat, can Ardbeg still retain its perfect balance? The mind boggling answer is "yes"! By taming their usual mighty peating levels they have created Blasda, peated to an average of just 8 parts per million phenol (8ppm) compared to the more usual 24ppm.

90.5 points - Jim Murray's 2009 Whisky Bible

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 Ardbeg Uigeadail

 Bin No

 MOET-252

 Region

 Islay

 Size

 70cl

 ABV

 54.2%

 Bottled by

 Distiller

 Price

 £49.50

Ardbeg Uigeadail (pronounced Oog-a-dal), takes its name from the brooding, mysterious loch which provides the peat-laden water for Ardbeg. This is a special vatting of different styles of Ardbeg, marrying together its traditional deep, smoky notes with the luscious, sweet, raisiny tones of old ex-sherry casks.

97.5 points and World Whisky of the Year - Jim Murray's 2009 Whisky Bible

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 Ardbeg Airigh Nam Beist

 Bin No

 MOET-253

 Region

 Islay

 Size

 70cl

 ABV

 54.2%

 Bottled by

 Distiller

 Price

 £65.95

There is a dark place on Islay, high above the Ardbeg Distillery, called Airigh Nam Beist (pronounced `arry-nam-bayst`) which in Gaelic means "shelter of the beast". No more fitting name could have been bestowed on such an eerie place; this is where - legend has it - something otherworldly lurks, lying in wait.

95 points - Jim Murray's 2008 Whisky Bible

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 Ardbeg Renaissance

 Bin No

 MOET-257

 Region

 Islay

 Size

 70cl

 ABV

 55.9%

 Bottled by

 Distiller

 Price

 £59.95

They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, and if the production of the world’s best whisky (i.e. Ardbeg) is anything to go by, we are inclined to believe the rumours. Over the last four years they have been patiently treading the path to peaty maturity where they have, at last, arrived. Their young Ardbeg has come of age and they have named it Ardbeg Renaissance.

92 points - Jim Murray's 2009 Whisky Bible

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 Ardbeg Supernova

 Bin No

 MOET-259

 Region

 Islay

 Size

 70cl

 ABV

 58.9%

 Bottled by

 Distiller

 Price

 £125.00

It goes without saying that Ardbeg is the centre of the whisky universe. But with the worldwide launch of Supernova – the peatiest Ardbeg ever – it has now gone interstellar!

97 points - Jim Murray's 2010 Whisky Bible

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 Ardbeg Corryvreckan

 Bin No

 MOET-251

 Region

 Islay

 Size

 70cl

 ABV

 57.1%

 Bottled by

 Distiller

 Price

 £65.00

Heady, intense and powerful. With the first sniff, encounter the deep and turbulent force of Corryvreckan as it pulls you inwards. Swirl the glass and dip your nose into the torrents of tarry ropes, creosote and linseed oil rising from deep within the vortex. As you succumb to its power, a collision of waxy dark chocolate, warm blackcurrants and muscovado sugar pulls you under its spell with a burst of plump cherries and earthy pine needles leaping from its depths.

96.5 points - Jim Murray's 2009 Whisky Bible

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