Ardbeg Ten Review
Ardbeg Ten, bottled at 46% abv. Price NIS 260
Ardbeg Ten is probably the most enigmatic,
perplexing, chameleon like single malt whisky on the mainstream market
today. Just watch the many Youtube video reviews and read the blog reviews of
this whisky and you will get numerous and contradictory impressions. What does
seem to be common is the extremely varied smelling and tasting descriptives
used which on their own sound unflattering at best and often quite awful at
worst, yet somehow unites all reviewers in concluding that this is an
absolutely delicious whisky, even if they cannot agree what it tastes like.
Ardbeg Ten seems to be a mouth feel experience rather than a specific flavour.
I know, it doesn’t make much sense but believe me, it works!
First, a word of advice:
Let me say from the outset that in my opinion, this
whisky is definitely not recommended for the beginner to Islay malts. In fact, in
my opinion, it is guaranteed to put off someone for life who has only ever
experienced Highlanders. It was not an editing mistake that I wrote “in my opinion”
twice because quite a few reviewers actually recommend Ardbeg as the perfect
introduction to Islay malts. I think they are meshuga but isn’t that the
nature of Ardbeg? It seems to completely divide opinion as to what it is.
Anyway, I’m sticking to my opinion and for your convenience, I have composed a table which should give you a gentle and gradual introduction into the wonderful world of Islay malts. Start from the bottom of the table below, say from Bruichladdich or Kilchoman, and work up the table. Caol Ila is a must along the way before you arrive at the really heavy island coastal drams of Laphroaig and Ardbeg.
Anyway, I’m sticking to my opinion and for your convenience, I have composed a table which should give you a gentle and gradual introduction into the wonderful world of Islay malts. Start from the bottom of the table below, say from Bruichladdich or Kilchoman, and work up the table. Caol Ila is a must along the way before you arrive at the really heavy island coastal drams of Laphroaig and Ardbeg.
Table of Islay Single Malt Peat strengths
I took the liberty of adding the brand new distillery, Ardnahoe |
(PPM = Parts Per Million)
Ranking
|
Single
Malt
|
PPM
|
1
|
Bruichladdich
Octomore
|
167
|
2
|
Ardbeg
10
|
45
|
3
|
Bruichladdich
Port Charlotte
|
44
|
4
|
Laphroaig
10
|
40
|
5
|
Lagavulin
12
|
35
|
6
|
Caol Ila
12
|
30
|
7
|
Bowmore Bourbon
Cask
|
25
|
8
|
Kilchoman
100% Islay
|
25
|
9
|
Bruichladdich
Islay Barley
|
5
|
10
|
Bunnahabhain
Darach Ur
|
2
|
On first contact, Ardbeg can be a shock to the senses, even
to those who have been drinking other Islay whiskies for a while. The reason is
that Ardbeg is (well I think so), considerably dryer and less fruity than its
Kildalton coastline neighbours, Laphroaig and Lagavulin, so even though all of
that iodine Islay smoke peat influence (or PPM levels) may not, on paper, be
much higher, Le’Ma’aseh, in practice, Ardbeg displays a much more
intensely pungent and dry Islay Peat taste explosion.
The evening I first tried Ardbeg “Ten” for the very first
time, around 20 years ago now, was after quite a few years under my belt with
Laphroaig, Lagavulin, Bowmore and Caol Ila. However, I still found Ardbeg a traumatic
mouth experience.
I remember as if it were yesterday. My parents had bought me
a 1 Litre bottle of this rocket fuel in a black bottle from London when they
passed through the Heathrow Duty Free to come and stay with us here in Israel for
Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and the festival of Sukkot.
In my humble opinion, anyone who has never experienced the
Yom Tovim and Sukkos in Eretz Yisrael, has never really experienced and
celebrated the chagim (festivals)!
So, there we all were, all of the family sat around the Yom
Tov table where we there upon cracked open our very first bottle of Ardbeg.
I have to tell you; it really didn’t seem likely at the time
that this would be the first of many bottles. You see, Initial impressions by
everyone at the table except my oldest son, were not favourable!
When experiencing Ardbeg for the very first time, a pretty
popular remark is that it smells of old hospital wards, complete with burnt wet
bandages, thick sticky plaster, plaster cast smoke and lemon and pine hospital
disinfectant and Sudocream Zinc Oxide Healing cream. Many on first contact, hate it, vowing never ever to drink it
again. Others fall instantly in love. Out of the first group, (which I must
admit I was one), they will hopefully return to this bottle after a few weeks
or even months and admit that, actually, it really isn’t as bad as they
initially thought. Then, after another few months break, on the third session
they may very well have made a complete 180 degrees U-turn in their opinion and
incredibly, Ardbeg will become a firm favourite. That’s all part of the magic
of getting to know this single malt.
Packaging:
The box design itself is identical to its sister distillery,
Glenmorangie including that classic Glenmorangie inner flap holding the top of
the bottle in place.
This is where the similarities end. Glenmorangie artwork is
bright glaring orange and gold stripes like outlandish Parisian fashion,
begging people to “PICK ME, PICK ME!”. The curvaceous shape of the bottle is
reminiscent of a champagne bottle which is hardly surprising considering that
both these distilleries are owned by the champagne producing French company -
Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
The Ardbeg artwork could not be more different. The bottle
is chunky in feel, the black glass barely opaque. Ardbeg is very much a whisky
with a fanatical cult following and the ancient Gaelic Celtic Island designs and
dark green and black colours emphasises that this whisky is “Not for everyone”.
The message here is one of an understated confidence and pride in its élite
image.
Special Marketing Image
Ardbeg is a distillery with a very special “cool” and
ultra-fashionable marketing image which attracts uncompromising whisky purists
as well as whisky collection investors. To some extent, it deserves that image,
insisting on bottling all its whisky without Chill-Filtration for maximum
flavour and oily mouthfeel, natural colour (although for some reason, it
doesn’t explicitly mention this on the label) and always bottled at higher
alcohol strengths which keeps all that flavour complexity intact right up to
the moment you come to drink it.
The ‘Ten” is bottled at a respectable 46% abv, that magic minimum
alcohol number that seems to go hand-in-hand with non-chill filtered whiskies.
The “Ten” is Ardbeg’s only standard mainstream and
affordable bottling. All other Ardbeg expressions are bottled at natural or
near cask strength, they are given a very fancy name with some very long, “Bube
Miser” tale to accompany it. All this comes with elaborate modern wacky yet at
the same time, ancient Celtic artistic labelling with an equally fancy price
tag. These bottles are unfortunately destined, more often than not, to end up in
some wealthy guy’s whisky investment collection, never to be drunk and sold on
auction at “super nova” premium prices in a few years’ time. Those really
serious hard-core Ardbeg fans will buy two of each of the expensive bottlings,
one to drink and the other to put away for investment.
I have tried some very expensive rare, Limited Edition
expressions of Ardbeg and my honest opinion is yes, the cask strength does
translate into extra flavour but, for the most part, is not worth the extra
money. This “Ten” is going to give you pretty much the very best of Ardbeg and amongst
the standard bottlings found on the shelves of serious wine and spirits shops
around the world, is one of the very best classic and iconic Scotch single malt
whiskies out there.
Halachic Problems but not the usual kashrut ones:
Although the Ardbeg Ten has been matured exclusively in
American white oak Ex-Bourbon casks which means that there are no kashrus
issues at all with this dram, there is however a halachic question when it
comes to putting the box on your Shabbos table! The problem is that just
outside the distillery, on the main road is a famous Chrstian Celtic land mark
called The Kildalton Cross. There are many pilgrims to this junction, some
visiting this stone pesel, others are fanatical pilgrims of a different
sort visiting the distillery; and many combining both reasons for travelling
there.
An image of this Chrstian religious symbol features
prominently on the back of the Ardbeg Ten box. This is not just an
uncomfortable emotional feeling that this is not suitable for the Shabbos
table, there are real halachic issues here.
We are not just dealing with a car badge or Swiss luggage branding. This
is an image of an actual carved pesel depicting possible Avodah Zara. I
have spoken to quite a few Rabbonim and it seems that the consensus is that one
should cover up this image. I use a thick black marker pen to completely
obliterate the possible Avodah Zara image. For those interested, see
these sources:
[See Igros Moshe YD, 1/69) who writes that a cross used in national flags, postage stamps, or commercial branding is not Avodah Zara. But also see Shach (YD, 141/6) who considers a cross used for worship, to be a Safek De'oraysa Avodah Zara and because it is a Safek, the halacha should be to go LeChumra.
Based on that Shach it would seem that it would be asur to even gaze at the image. However, Rav Moshe would seem to allow bringing the image of the pesel into your home as it serves no real benefit.]
So, let’s get down to the tasting notes.
Pouring this Ardbeg into a Glencairn glass is an educational experience.
The colour is a 100% natural clear pale straw yellow. As you can see from comparing the Ardbeg with its nearest neighbour, Laphroaig, Laphroaig has unfortunately had some E150a caramel colouring added to it to make it look more "whisky colour" like.
The Ardbeg sticks to the insides of the glass swirling around as if in slow motion. This is a very oily malt promising a lovely thick mouth feel to come.
Compared to the Chill-Filtered Laphroaig, after a violent swirl, the legs drop to the bottom immediately showing far less viscosity than the Ardbeg.
Being totally non-chill filtered, if you would add water or ice to the Ardbeg at this point you will witness an impressive transformation as the whisky quickly turns into a dirty and cloudy yellow like old murky washing up water. I suppose a more constructive description would be “Scrumpy cider” like?
The Ardbeg sticks to the insides of the glass swirling around as if in slow motion. This is a very oily malt promising a lovely thick mouth feel to come.
Compared to the Chill-Filtered Laphroaig, after a violent swirl, the legs drop to the bottom immediately showing far less viscosity than the Ardbeg.
Being totally non-chill filtered, if you would add water or ice to the Ardbeg at this point you will witness an impressive transformation as the whisky quickly turns into a dirty and cloudy yellow like old murky washing up water. I suppose a more constructive description would be “Scrumpy cider” like?
Smell/Aroma:
OK, so imagine you are walking along the beach in Islay, the
morning after the old abandoned First-Aid medical clinic (which is no longer in
use but still fully stocked), has been blown up and the remnants of the clinic
are strewn all over the shoreline. Amongst the puddles of sea water, wet seaweed,
fine sand and pebbles, there are burnt bandages, fabric plasters, lemon
flavoured mouthwash, sweet pungent pine wood disinfectants, scorched brush
wood, salty heather, oily white pepper, milky toffee, smoked paprika, myrtle
leaves, bamboo sap and lemon grass. So many aromas but there is that constant
odour of heavy salty burnt wood smoke hanging in the air throughout. After a
while you start to notice more background aromas like Etrogim (Citron fruit) and
Hadasim (myrtle leaves).
My son describes it as wet burnt tree bark after a downpour.
Burnt pine cones, spices, something dry and something sweet.
Taste and mouth feel:
Even with a few drops of water to open up all those
flavours, the liquid remains thick and oily. It is like sucking on new leather.
There is resin and wood sap. After your taste buds have acclimatised to the
massive peat influence, you become aware of a delightful milky toffee with
fresh hot creamy white pepper and sea salt crystals. There is a dominant green
note with fresh “hadasim “(myrtle), eucalyptus leaves, white flaky cod grilled
with barbeque briskets soaked malted apple cider, pickling spices, pepper corns
and bitter sweet lemon marmalade. All this sits on a layer of creamy dry
vanilla sponge cake with sour apple and lemon crumble desert.
That strange combination of sweet milky toffee and sea salt
remains constant throughout the first sip right up to the long haunting finish.
The finish itself is very clean with oily salty Dead Sea Cosmetics sun-tan
lotion, sea water, thick sweet yet bitter lemon marmalade, salty beach twigs, Fisherman’s
Friends liquorice lozenges, with menthol and sweet Aniseed balls.
This is a hugely complex whisky with bold yet elegantly combined
flavours. Every time you drink this dram you notice something else. Gradually
add a few more drops of water at a time and notice the subtle changes as the
Ardbeg goes from dry bitterness to soft sweetness.
Lastly, the Ardbeg has one more trick up its sleeve. On a
really hot day, especially after a walk in the sun, take out a large bell shape
Ardbeg glass, add two ice cubes and pour a generous dose of Ardbeg Ten. Then sit-down
in front of the mazgan (aircon) and relax. Bring the glass to your nose
and breath in the freezing aromas of flowers and smoky zesty sweet lemon sherbet,
spices and refreshing yellow fruits. With ice, the Ardbeg is transformed into a
fruity floral sweet single malt with the taste of lemon and vanilla cheese cake.
With ice, because it tones down the peat dominance, you notice a lot sweeter barley
maltiness.
As I said at the beginning, Ardbeg is an amazingly
enigmatic, perplexing chameleon and a must have malt for any remotely serious whisky
lover.
BTW, For a technical explanation of that famous Ardbeg Ten bandages smell,
see here:
I love this very complete review of an important expression. Seriously though, and I've tried to avoid this, what are people thinking when it comes to a bit of marketing garbage? Just drink the stuff for goodness sake and let's respect one another. I think it's pretty perfect as it is and is by far my favourite Ardbeg for the money. Cheers. WT
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. I pretty well agree with everything you have said. Marketing is an annoyance at best, and sometimes (for me), it can actually put me off purchasing the item. I didn't actually mention it in this article I wrote back in 2017, but what do you think of the fact that Ardbeg boast on the label that this is "The Ultimate Islay Malt". Really?
DeleteI could forgive them for saying that (in their opinion), this is best Islay Malt! But “Ultimate”? This actually means that, in order to experience Islay Single malts, all you need to do is buy a bottle of Ardbeg and you can forget about all the rest. Like “The Ultimate Car” suggests that the car has EVERY feature of every other car and more. What Chutzpa! Yes, it’s a great whisky but does it have the salty toffee of an Organic Barley Bruichladdich? Does it have the creamy milky porridge maltiness of a Kilchoman? No!
Wouldn’t is be amazing if someone opened a marketing company dedicated to accurately describing the product, even if they focused on the positives? They just stated the truth and gave us real details like distillation and bottling dates, types of casks used, where the casks were matured, barley type, even calculated angel’s share? Whether they add colouring and whether they Chill Filtered ought to be a legal requirement, in my opinion.
Hi! Thanks for the publish. Im a jew from argentina. Do you know if is there any kashrut issue regarding peat? as peat contains animal remains and these may not be kosher animals
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting, if somewhat macabre question. I have never been asked this question before. As far as Scotch Whisky is concerned, to the best of my knowledge, there is no issue regarding the possibility of animals in the peat, but I will ask, bli neder. It's something I have never though about. Thanks for the question.
DeleteI asked a Rav from the OK who gave me the following answer.
DeleteNot a problem.
A. It is being BURNED
B. It does not necessarily contain dead animals.
C. The flavor does not come from dead animals.
Ardbeg was my first Islay scotch and I absolutely fell in love immediately. I had been a bourbon/rye guy, though no more, not since discovering peat scotch. Hadn’t had many scotches, Chivas, Black&White. A friend suggested I try a peated scotch, so I researched it a bit and bought Ardbeg on a “Go peat or go home” whim, knowing it was a peat bomb. Wow, I fell in love immediately. I felt like I finally found the style of whiskey I’d been seeking for years. I had been a longtime cigarette smoker and this peaty scotch reminds of that smoky flavor ; might sound gross, but there it is. To say that anyone needs to work their way up to a peaty scotch is not true. Maybe on a bell curve, but not across the board. Go peat or go home. Now please excuse me, I have to go buy another bottle of Ardbeg (or Port Charlotte 10 or Octomore).
ReplyDeleteGreat comment and I stand corrected. I was writing from my own experience. I suppose there are those like you who instantly connect with heavily peated whisky. Thanks for commenting.
Delete