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Ardbeg 10 Year Old - Introducing
Ardbeg Introducing 10 Year Old. 70cl. 46%.
An earlier bottling of Ardbeg 10 Year Old, the Islay distillery's flagship single malt, presented in the classic “The Ultimate” packaging and bottled at 46% without chill filtration.
Ardbeg 10 Year Old was launched in 2000, shortly after the distillery's revival under Glenmorangie, and quickly became one of the defining modern Islay single malts. These earlier bottlings are particularly interesting as they date from the first years following the relaunch, when the whisky necessarily incorporated spirit distilled before Ardbeg's 1997 takeover and return to full production.
Matured predominantly in ex-bourbon casks, Ardbeg 10 became renowned for combining the distillery's powerful peat smoke with citrus, maritime and medicinal characteristics, while its 46% bottling strength and non chill-filtered presentation helped establish the style that remains closely associated with Ardbeg today.
A great example of an earlier Ardbeg 10 Year Old and an interesting opportunity to compare the distillery's flagship whisky from the early years of its modern revival with today's bottling.
Founded in 1815, Ardbeg is one of Islay’s iconic distilleries. Ardbeg was purchased by Diageo forerunners DCL and Hiram Walker in 1973, with Walker taking full control in 1977, the year the distillery’s maltings were closed. Ardbeg was mothballed for most of the 1980s; production began again in 1989 under new owners Allied Lyons, but only for two months a year until 1996 when the distillery closed again. In 1997 the dilapidated Ardbeg distillery was bought by Glenmorangie plc (now part of LVMH) and its fortunes turned. Ardbeg was restored and relaunched, kickstarting the craze for heavily peated single malt whisky.
Ardbeg was seldom commercially available before the Allied/DCL takeover - the old white label official bottlings are now very rare. Allied bottled a handful of black label Ardbegs in the 1990s including the popular Ardbeg 30-year-old. The breakthrough bottlings were the Ardbeg 17-year-old and Ardbeg 1974 Provenance released by Glenmorangie in 1997 - these were soon followed by numerous magnificent single casks from 1970s vintages that cemented Ardbeg’s reputation. Independent Ardbeg is uncommon nowadays.
Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.
This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.