Ardbeg Anthology 13 Year Old Whisky Review!

"A sauternes cask influenced Ardbeg! One please! Oh wait, what? It's $240? And 46%? OK, let me call you back..."

Despite the Ardbeg limited releases coming thick & fast in the last couple of years, the excitement surrounding this Ardbeg Anthology "The Harpy's Tale" was significant. Not only does it have an age statement of 13-years, it is the first in a new series of bottlings, and it is influenced by - but not 100% matured in - a cask that Ardbeg have never used before. We all knew it was going to be expensive, and to be fair it could've been worse. The sticking point for many came with the ABV, which is "only" 46%. I have no issue with 46% ABV myself, that's often the sweet spot for many single malts, and of course is also the official threshold that negates the need for chill filtration. But ABV does have to be taken into account when a large chunk of the competition at this price point (e.g. Lagavulin 12, Octomore 13.1, among others) weighs in significantly higher. Even in Ardbeg's own current line-up of semi-limited releases you have the 8-year old 'For Discussion' at 50.8% and the more recent 'BizarreBQ' at 50.9%, both of which are roughly 40-50% cheaper ($115 and $145 respectively) than this 13-year old. They're also very tasty, and arguably offer better value than even the regular core range Uigeadail and Corryvreckan do at their current prices. Let's be realistic, it's 2023 and this new 13-year old is a limited release Ardbeg, it was always going to sell regardless of price or ABV. They could have priced it at $300 or upwards - if it had been bottled at 50% they probably would have - and it still would've sold. Aside from attracting less tax/excise, bottling at the (relatively) lower strength also means there are more bottles to go around. The interesting thing is that despite being released last month, at the time of writing this whisky is still available on the Ardbeg Committee website, and probably in local retailers as well. The same applies to Heavy Vapours, the 2023 Feis Ile/Ardbeg Day bottling which was released back in May, even in the higher strength Committee Release version. Not long ago that would certainly not have been the case, these releases would be be long gone. Perhaps the number of bottles in these releases and/or the local allocations are larger than they used to be. Or maybe it's a sign of the times. Or maybe Ardbeg have alienated some of their fan base with all of these special releases...

Slight digression here; that 8-year old 'For Discussion' at $115 AUD from ardbegcommittee.com.au is an absolute bargain, and if you haven't bought one already then you really should. If memory serves it was $130 when it was first released a couple of years ago, which was already a great buy, but at $115 it's currently less than the local RRP for the core range 10-year old bottling. I wouldn't necessarily say that the 8-year old is a better whisky than the 10, but unlike many of the releases in the last few years it's certainly on par with it, and is nicely differentiated from it - being a higher ABV and being matured solely in sherry casks. I've reviewed it here if you'd like more details. Let's get back on topic!

This 13-year old is the first release in Ardbeg's new 'Anthology' series. They haven't said how many releases there'll be in the series or how often they'll be released, and "anthology" is just a fancy term for collection/compilation, so there aren't any clues there. They have told us that these releases will all be influenced by unusual cask types, meaning unusual for Ardbeg. In this case they've used sauternes wine casks, which can work brilliantly with peated whisky if you ask me, and is certainly something new for an official bottling of Ardbeg. Sauternes is a sweet white wine from the Sauternes region of southern France where the grapes have been affected by the botrytis fungus, which is also known as "noble rot". In basic terms this concentrates the sugars in the fruit, with the resulting sweet wine generally having flavours of sweet white & yellow fruit, balanced with some acidity. Some of these wines can also be quite "funky", particularly with age, and can also get very expensive. The interesting thing with this new Ardbeg is that it hasn't been 100% matured in the sauternes casks, nor has it been finished in them. This whisky is a combination of both ex-bourbon casks and ex-sauternes casks, both matured separately and vatted / blended together for bottling. That's significant to us Ardbeg nerds because it's what they used to do with most of their special / limited releases, up until Ardbeg Drum hit the shelves in 2019 which is when cask finishing became more prominent. In theory the separate maturation method should give us more distillery character and more balance, which does seem to be the case with some of those pre-2019 examples. We don't know the proportions of each cask type that went in to this bottling, nor the number of casks or bottles that were released, but based on smell & taste they haven't been shy with the sauternes influence. 

Oh, and what about the name "The Harpy's Tale"? Well, as we've come to expect from Ardbeg, it's a piece of mythology that has nothing to do with the distillery, or the island, or the whisky. A harpy is a half-bird, half-man creature from Greek or Roman mythology, basically a giant bird with a human torso and head. Supposedly Ardbeg have named this whisky after the harpy because it has a combination of sweet and smoky flavours, and a harpy is a combination of bird and person. Moving right along... Actually no. Dear Ardbeg, why couldn't you just give the marketing department the day off and call this "Ardbeg Sauternes Cask"? Or "Ardbeg Sweet Wine Cask"? Or even "Ardbeg Noble Cask"? I get it, it's supposed to add a bit of fun, but the extra fluff & flannel is totally unnecessary with something like this that actually has a genuine unique selling point. OK, now let's move along...

Ardbeg Anthology 13-Year Old "The Harpy's Tale", 46%. Islay, Scotland.

Fully matured in both ex-bourbon and ex-sauternes sweet wine casks, proportions unknown. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Sweet, spicy, and a little nippy. Touches of white wine vinegar acidity, sweet honey, and dried woody herbs. Sweet fruit - pineapple, lychee, white peach, touch of sweet banana. Green grapes and white pepper. Tar, hessian (sack cloth), and ashy smoke underneath. 

Texture: Medium weight. Oily, sweet, herbal. Slight heat but pleasant. 

Taste: Sweet fruit again, white peach nectar / juice. Touches of spearmint and white pepper around the edges. Bitter lemon peel, olive oil, more white wine vinegar, and dried woody herbs. Tarry smoke, hessian cloth again, and some fresh cut wood. 

Finish: Medium-long length. Still a little nippy here. Juicy sweet fruit again with that peach nectar, pineapple, and lychees in syrup. Olive oil and lemon peel again, touch of aniseed & powdered ginger. Tarry smoke, more fresh oak, and fruit syrup to finish. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Certainly does what it says on the tin (box)! The extra sweetness from the sauternes is immediately obvious, with that "white" fruit in syrup. Nicely oily in texture and taste as well. Seems a little rough though, that nippy heat is unexpected at a decent age and (relatively) lower ABV. Almost like the alcohol isn't fully integrated despite the use of active casks. And the texture isn't quite enough to cover it up. Still, I'd say this was a successful experiment! It's hard to resist comparisons with the two reigning masters of sauternes casks; Bruichladdich - e.g. Port Charlotte SC01, Octomore 4.2/10.2/12.2, and some of the Micro Provenance single casks - and Kilchoman - e.g. the Sauternes Matured from 2016 and the Sauternes Finish from 2018, and countless single cask releases. All of those listed were higher in ABV and are/were similarly priced to this Ardbeg when they were launched, albeit years ago now.

Still, this 13-year old is pleasantly fruity, very sweet but not cloying or overwhelming, and softly peaty & smoky with the distillery signature still intact. Which is what we're all looking for in a sauternes cask peated whisky. I have no doubt that being married with ex-bourbon casks has helped keep the cask influence in check, and if you ask me, it would've become overly sweet had they gone with 100% ex-sauternes. So, recommended, yes. But not entirely sure it's worth $240...

Cheers!