Traigh Banh. Hypernova. Wee Beastie. An Oa. Arrrrrdbeg. Just a few of the dizzying array of whiskies released by Ardbeg over the last couple of decades. If you don’t like one of them, just wait a few weeks and another one will come out, or so it seems. Not that there are many clunkers in the bunch — Dr. Bill Lumsden, the wildly experimental mad scientist of whisky who’s been working with both Ardbeg and the very different but also delicious Glenmorangie for more than a quarter century (under the LVMH umbrella), is pretty good at making sure that failed experiments don’t get as far as bars or liquor store shelves.
Ardbeg is a big, peaty, complex whisky from Islay, the home of big, peaty single malt Scotches, and as such it’s not for everyone. But it is for a lot of people, judging from their fan base — the Ardbeg Committee, as it’s known, has more than 120,000 members worldwide. Their international holiday is Ardbeg Day, which since 2008 has been held the first Saturday of every June, at the distillery and at satellite events worldwide. The brand always releases something new and limited, in cask-strength versions for Committee members lucky enough to snag a bottle, but in perfectly acceptable 46% ABV form for the rest of us.
What happens to a whisky when you leave in all the stuff that you normally filter out? Enter Heavy … [+]
This year’s Ardbeg Day release is Ardbeg Heavy Vapours, which is… well, it requires a bit of explanation. What distinguishes Ardbeg from the rest of the Islay pack is the balance between its signature peaty campfire/ashtray notes and its more subtle fruity/floral flavors. This is achieved through the purifier in the still, which filters out the heavy vapors — or vapours, if you’re spelling it the UK way — that have more intense, unbridled flavors. Or flavours, if we’re going to maintain spelling consistency. So what would happen if the purifier is removed before distillation and the stuff that normally gets filtered out is left in?
There’s no age statement, but going on looks alone, this is one of the lightest colored whiskies I’ve ever seen, indicating that it may not have spent a whole lot of time in wood. On the nose, it’s big and smoky and relatively intense, in classic Ardbeg style, but on the palate it’s another story. Standard Ardbeg opens up with a rich, dark fruitiness and a smokiness that gradually intensifies as it moves toward the back of the tongue. Here, it kicks off with a riot of tropical fruit, sweet chocolate, and just a hint of mint. While the ashy smoke does intensify, it never drowns out the tiki-tastic banana and coconut flavors. And banana, coconut and campfire smoke actually make for a great combo — a bonfire on the beaches of Hawaii, maybe?
Hardcore Ardbeg fans may yearn for a bit more peat and smoke, but this is a fascinating experiment and a splendid whisky. At $132 (suggested retail price), it’s not cheap, but the more you enjoy Ardbeg in all its various permutations, the more you’ll appreciate Heavy Vapours.