Ardbeg 10 Year Old Cask Strength is being released this month.
The standard Ardbeg 10 Year Old is already one of the most revered peated whiskies on the planet. And whisky drinkers, as a rule, also adore their Ardbeg, so this is big, big news.
A cask strength Ardbeg 10 Year Old appeared in Japan back in 2003, promptly vanished, and has lived on as a sort of smoky folklore ever since. This new release is finally giving people exactly what they have been asking for, loudly, for years. And also a likely response to how difficult the current market is. Nothing like a bit of siphoning stock of the whisky you’re most likely to have a surplus supply of and marketing it as something shiny and new. Not that I’m complaining.
It’s also a significant first for new distillery manager Bryony NcNiven, now committee co-chair alongside master blender Gillian MacDonald. Both are so sound you’d think they hailed from Jura’s coast, so I’m made up for them.
Gillian MacDonald and Bryony NcNiven with the new release
Ardbeg 10 Year Old Cask Strength Launches
Ardbeg Ten Cask Strength is matured exclusively in American oak bourbon barrels and bottled non-chill filtered at a formidable 61.7% ABV. The official notes describe it as a “peaty paradox”, with rich smoke and sea spray giving way to a natural, rounded sweetness.
It will be released on 24 February at £75. Given we sell the standard 10-year-old for £40, it’s on the steeper side, but it’s broadly in the same range as Laphroaig and GlenAllachie’s annual 10-year-old cask strength releases (depending on the edition), and in a market where people are releasing spirit that is only just legally whisky in that bracket, it’s not outrageous.
Particularly as the whisky itself is great. This is the Raw Power Iggy Pop and The Stooges foretold. Everything is mighty in this Ardbeg, the smoke, the sweetness, all the strange and sublime things in between. In a very basic sense, it’s what I wanted it to be. Job done.
Will Ardbeg 10 Year Old Cask Strength ever become a permanent fixture? Probably not. A man can dream. Here’s a full tasting note.
Here it is: Ardbeg 10 Year Old Cask Strength
Ardbeg 10 Year Old Cask Strength Tasting Notes:
Nose: Wow, that’s so big and oily, it’s only a matter of time before the US wants a piece. Ancient, pagan peat leads, earthy, smouldering and seawater-soaked. There’s a sweet, shellfish coastal quality, like a fresh-pulled lobster trap or a bucket of cockles, mussels, and prawns straight from a seaside vendor. Citrus comes from fresh lemon juice and lemon sherbet sweetness, with a note of marmalade for good measure. Aromas climb over the top of each other: burnt brown bread, creosote, mulch, roasted hazelnuts, bramble berries dripping in their own syrup, and a side of gammon charred on the grill. It’s fucking feral, frankly, and makes the original 10 by comparison appear as this measured, graceful drop.
Palate: The oily, spicy weight of spirit charges onto your palate with sweetness* and more tarry smoke. Dark fruits and a kind of burnt molasses note add a thick syrupy layer of goodness that doesn’t hide the farmyard funk and maritime mayhem that pulses away underneath. Wet leather, chorizo, lanolin, cough sweets… You could taste a tonne of things here if you kept at it long enough. But always at the core is that fruity sweetness and rich smoke you expect from Ardbeg.
Finish: There’s warmth from toasty cinnamon pastries and coolness from a refreshing spray of eucalyptus, and more smoke and sea billows over the whole thing. Minutes of finish here.
*The unctuous kind that makes you want to say the word ‘unctuous’ over and over again to let the sweetness pool in your tongue.
