Ardbeg Trudernish: 15yo Joins Core Range

We’ve got some exciting Ardbeg news for you today with the launch of a new permanent addition to the core range: Ardbeg Trudernish.

Ardbeg Trudernish is the distillery’s first permanent 15-year-old single malt. The whisky promises a creamier, more composed take on Ardbeg’s unmistakably smoky character thanks to a bourbon cask-led profile.

Trudernish has already received a Double Gold award at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2026. Its arrival also introduces a new look for Ardbeg’s core range, which will be rolled out globally from autumn 2026.

Last week I had a little chat with Gillian Macdonald, master blender and head of whisky creation at The Glenmorangie Company, which owns the Islay distillery, about creating a permanent Ardbeg, revisiting one of its most celebrated old releases and finding a moment of calm within one of Scotch whisky’s loudest ranges.

Ardbeg Trudernish: 15yo Joins Core Range

Macdonald is very excited because she’s getting to talk about a core range whisky, not a limited edition. Those are very fun, of course, but this is different. This won’t disappear when stock runs dry. We can revisit Trudernish. Observe any evolution. Compare and contrast with others in the range.

Creating a permanent whisky is something Macdonald doesn’t take lightly, and she says Ardbeg puts a lot of thought and preparation into. Each existing expression already presents a distinct side of the distillery’s character, beginning with the flagship Ardbeg 10 Year Old. Made with malt peated to around 55ppm, Ardbeg 10 establishes what the distillery calls its peaty paradox. Its smoke is accompanied by herbal notes and fruity sweetness, giving the whisky some range. 

Ardbeg 10 achieves much of its character through maturation in bourbon casks. The rest of the range then takes that foundation in different directions through cask selection. An Oa combines new charred oak and Pedro Ximénez sherry casks, bringing peat and sweetness together in what Macdonald considers perhaps the most approachable whisky in the range. 

Uigeadail is the sherry bomb, loaded with oloroso influence, while Corryvreckan sits at the other extreme. New French oak provides an explosion of tannin and spice, with horseradish, white pepper, chocolate, blackcurrant and espresso all rolled together.

Trudernish is a moment of calm, Macdonald says. Positioned between Uigeadail and Corryvreckan, it connects back to Ardbeg 10 while bringing greater age, weight and creaminess. It also comes with “a nice shiny number”. People do love a number.

The beast behind Trudernish

The inspiration for Trudernish can be traced to Airigh Nam Beist, one of the cult Ardbeg releases of the modern era.

Airigh Nam Beist was distilled in 1990, during a period when production at Ardbeg was extremely limited, before Glenmorangie acquired the distillery in 1997. Matured in bourbon casks, it was released in three successive bottlings between 2006 and 2008, growing from 16 to 18 years old as the series progressed.

The whisky arrived during a period when Ardbeg was documenting its return through releases such as the Ardbeg Project’s path-to-ten series. However, there was very little old stock available from the years before the takeover. Airigh Nam Beist was therefore always scarce, and its rich, smooth and vanilla-led character helped turn it into a cult bottling.

Ardbeg Airigh Nam Beist

Macdonald had heard plenty about Airigh Nam Beist when she joined the company in 2012, but had never tasted it. That changed during an early visit to Islay with now distillery manager Bryony McNiven and former visitor centre manager and Ardbeg legend Jackie Thomson.

As Jackie talked them through the landscape, the peat beneath their feet and the surrounding flora and fauna, a tray of oysters and a bottle of Airigh Nam Beist was unveiled. It’s a memory that would stay with you anyway, but the flavour profile is what really lodged in Macdonald’s mind.

Directly recreating the whisky was impossible, however. The 1990s stock is effectively gone. Macdonald says only three casks remain, and they are sitting in a different type of wood. Turning to Ardbeg’s archive was the solution, with old laboratory samples and a recipe logged in the stock system used to reconstruct a new whisky rooted in how Airigh Nam Beist had been assembled. 

Hence a make-up led by bourbon casks, including a high proportion of first-fill wood. This is supported by tiny quantities of oloroso sherry and new oak. It’s not a replica of Airigh Nam Beist, but it could recover something of its flavour and its place within the range. Macdonald suspects long-standing Ardbeg Committee members may be particularly pleased to see that style return.

Islay myths and legends

Like several members of the Ardbeg range, Trudernish takes its name from the landscape and mythology of Islay. Macdonald admits that Corryvreckan cheats slightly by borrowing its name from the famous whirlpool between Jura and Scarba, but the rest keep things closer to home.

Trudernish is an ancient settlement on the south-east coast of Islay, north-east of the distillery. It is now uninhabited and heavily overgrown, while the wider area is apparently known as the ‘Enchanted Cape’. I think my warlock on World of Warcraft had one of those.

The cape is rich in local legend. One claims that anybody who takes home a pebble from nearby Claggain Bay will be destined to return to Islay. Another concerns the well at Trudernish, hidden somewhere among dense woodland.

The water is believed to begin its journey high in the hills at Loch Uigeadail, Ardbeg’s water source. Some say the soft, pure water in the well never freezes, rather like whisky itself.

Searching for Trudernish

Macdonald has not yet visited the settlement. She and McNiven have vowed to search for the well the next time they are together on Islay. There is already something of a treasure hunt developing across the Ardbeg range. 

Each name leads drinkers to another piece of Islay’s geography, history or folklore. Trudernish adds a particularly elusive destination. I’m not exactly sure how much of the area is private land. Probably best to check before you go gallivanting.

The connection also gives Ardbeg a metaphor for the whisky itself. Just as the well is supposedly concealed beneath dense woodland, Trudernish is presented as a whisky with creamy, decadent flavours hidden beneath its smoky exterior.

Her image for the whisky is simple: walking along a beach with a melting vanilla ice cream containing salted caramel sauce or pieces of salted caramel fudge. The bourbon casks supply much of that vanilla creaminess, while the new charred oak introduces spice and the oloroso contributes further sweetness. 

It’s very accessible for an Ardbeg, with the 48.8% ABV strength giving it weight and personality without causing it to fire too heavily on all cylinders. It’s very indulgent. I wrote down “Evil crème brûlée” at the tasting. Make of that what you will.

Ardbeg Trudernish Tasting Notes:

Nose: A soft wave of earthy peat and gentle woodsmoke is wrapped in rich vanilla cream, evoking the scent of melted vanilla ice cream with fudge sauce. Sweetness blends with floral notes and subtle hints of pine resin and heather honey. Orchard fruits like green apple and pear add freshness, while a hint of cracked black pepper and dried herbs lend complexity. A splash of water reveals ripe melon, kiwi, and soft berry notes layered over fragrant vanilla and heather-sweet peat.

Palate: Creamy and full-bodied, with bold Ardbeg peat merging into a smooth wave of sweet vanilla cream. Classic notes of soft pine, woodsmoke and damp forest floor lead into dark liquorice, chocolate lime, and a touch of herbal mint. More soft orchard fruits and floral sweetness are paired with nuts wrapped into milk chocolate. The texture is silky, with the vanilla running like a thread through each layer.

Finish: Long and soothing, with peat embers, vanilla pod and toasted nuts lead into a long and smoky finish.

Ardbeg’s new look

As a little article footnote, it’s worth noting that going forward Ardbeg will look a bit different, and Trudernish provides a first look at the redesigned packaging that will eventually be introduced across Ardbeg’s permanent range.

The new presentation boxes feature woodcut-style illustrations by artist Johnny Greenteeth. Each tells the story of its respective whisky, complete with a playful appearance from Ardbeg’s canine mascot, Shortie. The boxes now include more detailed tasting notes, a flavour snapshot and information about each whisky’s cask recipe.

A version of the woodcut illustration also appears on the back label. The bottles are now manufactured in the UK and use a slightly lighter shade of green, while the capsules are made from polylam, which is more readily recycled than PVC.

Ardbeg’s dark colour palette, Celtic-style ‘A’ and familiar knotwork remain, but each expression now has its own earthy accent colour to make navigating the range easier. The objective is greater shelf presence without throwing out the visual character people already associate with the distillery.

Wee Beastie is the exception. It will remain a naked bottle.