Ardbeg Ten Years Old is a heavily peated Islay single malt Scotch whisky from the Ardbeg Distillery on the south coast of Islay. It is matured for ten years in first-fill and second-fill ex-bourbon American oak casks and bottled at 46% ABV, non-chill filtered and with no added colour.

Ardbeg malts its barley to around 55 parts per million of phenols, among the highest of any core-range single malt. Peat at that level could easily overwhelm a whisky. In Ardbeg 10 it doesn’t, because of the way Ardbeg distils its spirit.

Ardbeg Ten Years Old Tasting Notes

• Nose: Intense peat smoke with lemon and lime, vanilla, orchard fruit and sea spray.
• Palate: Rich peat smoke, sweet vanilla and citrus, toffee and black pepper, with a creamy espresso note.
• Finish: Long and smoky, with vanilla, malt and citrus zest, fading to a clean, peppery dryness.

The Purifier

Ardbeg’s spirit still is fitted with a purifier, a pipe on the lyne arm that sends the heaviest vapours back into the still to be distilled again. No other Scotch whisky distillery uses one. It lightens the spirit and brings out fruit and sweetness beneath the smoke. Ardbeg calls the result the “peaty paradox”: a whisky that is both one of the smokiest single malts and one of the sweetest.

Non-Chill Filtered at 46%

Most whiskies are chill-filtered and reduced to 40% ABV. Chill filtration removes oils and fatty compounds that can cloud a whisky when it is cold, but those compounds also carry flavour and texture. Ardbeg bottles the 10 at 46% without chill filtration, so it keeps a fuller, oilier body. It may turn slightly hazy over ice or when water is added. That is normal.

Ardbeg Distillery

Ardbeg was founded in 1815 on Islay’s Kildalton coast, a few miles east of Port Ellen, between Laphroaig and Lagavulin. It closed and reopened several times in the late twentieth century, working only intermittently through the 1980s and 1990s. The Glenmorangie Company bought it in 1997 and restored production, and Ardbeg 10 has been its flagship since.

Who It Suits

Ardbeg 10 suits drinkers who already enjoy peated whisky, and those ready for a serious one. Try it neat first, then add a few drops of water, which brings out the citrus. It also makes a strong smoky highball.