Ardbeg Wee Beastie. Deck the Halls in Smoke
Thank goodness for the wee beastie. That cute, clever, mischievous, intelligent, dangerous and somehow endearing creature that pops up in some unexpected quarter to charm us. The pesky squirrel who moves into grandma’s house and becomes front-page news in the small-town paper. As the story tells it, a Rambo-like grandma rages, “I’ll give you a war you won’t believe,” but as the “wee beastie” wins her heart, she ends up baking Christmas cookies for it.
Scots love their wee beasties. Ask a Scot if they’ve seen a wee beastie about and they point to a spider living out of reach in a high ceiling corner or a mosquito they can’t bother to send to its maker. Well, Ardbeg can be bothered. They have a Wee Beastie of their own. It’s cute, clever, mischievous, intelligent, dangerous and no matter how much it begs, never feed it after midnight. This permanent member of their whisky family, at five years old, is a young one too.
Ah, youth. We obsess over it, doing anything to capture its spirit. But, in the world of whisky, youth is sometimes met with scorn. Mention young whisky and watch the elitists scatter like wee beasties on a dog with a new flea collar. News of young whisky is often greeted with doom and gloom. Does this mean a beloved older bottling is coming to an end? Worry not, Ardbeg lovers, the ten-year-old is doing well and says hello.
Wee Beastie began when Ardbeg’s Dr. Bill Lumsden, Gillian MacDonald and Brendan McCarron began bringing various younger samples to workshops and masterclasses. They thought these three to six-year-old whiskies showed off Ardbeg’s feist. The feedback confirmed what Dr. Lumsden always believed – even at a young age, Ardbeg is an excellent whisky. He’d been turning the idea over in his head for ages, but ten years ago, conditions weren’t right. As the scene shifted and people began embracing variations in flavour, distinctive off-the-beaten-path whiskies were welcomed, as long as no one laid a finger on the tried and true.
Ardbeg already had the unusual down pat and exuded confidence when it did things a little bit differently.
Mixing this aesthetic with ideas that have long been percolating in Dr. Bill Lumsden’s brain led to Wee Beastie 5-Year-Old, a single malt that invigorates the palate with excitement. No shock value here, but a new way to experience genuine Ardbeg flavour.
For Wee Beastie, Lumsden combined vattings from oloroso sherry butts and ex-bourbon casks, each aged for at least five years. The whisky pours a light honey golden shade and decks the halls in that signature Ardbeg peat smoke. Dry grassy malt notes prop up a herbal, savoury tone while vanilla and a fruity sweetness charge the mouth. A sea-spray brininess enhances these, building flavours that bite with ginger heat.
Late on the palate, minty spices and sea flavours shift to fresh oak with a splash of citrus pith and a crack of hot pepper. “The unique spirit created at Ardbeg, using our purifier on the spirit stills, allows for more reflux,” says Ardbeg Brand Ambassador Bryan Simpson. “This retains the phenolic and citrus notes but removes a lot of the sulphur. The taste is all upside down and back to front. Generally speaking, heavily peated whiskies of this age shouldn’t have this many sweeter notes, which then complement Ardbeg’s classic savoury and herbaceous flavours and aromas.”
Young whiskies are not a new concept for Ardbeg. The distillery was closed for so long until it re-opened in 1997; the goal was to create a ten-year-old under the new Glenmorangie ownership. But first, they began with younger whisky releases. Not to fool anyone, the series was called the Path to Peaty Maturity. And one of the whiskies in the series, Ardbeg Very Young, is now a coveted collector’s item. But, with a core release whisky, it can’t just be a narrative. If Wee Beastie is the first Ardbeg someone tries, it better be worthy. Instead of just releasing a younger version of the classic ten-year-old, Ardbeg wanted a whisky with an identity that could stand on its own legs.
“This goes beyond a weird curiosity,”
says Simpson.
“The whisky has to be good on its own, period.”
More excellent news for Ardbeg fans is that the distillery has doubled its capacity to at least 2 million litres of alcohol a year. They recently expanded their facilities into a new still house with two additional stills. Of course, these are identical twins to the existing Ardbeg stills, which they also moved into the new building.
This enhanced capacity confirms that Wee Beastie is not here to devour other Ardbeg expressions into extinction. It’s a fully-fledged member of the family, not a wee cannibal. Perhaps this Wee Beastie is less complex than its 10-year-old brother, but there is nothing worse than being compared to a sibling in its defence. This five-year-old whisky stands on its own with its powerful flavour vocabulary and a chin already bristling with Ardbeg stubble. Judge it on its own merits, and you will be pleased. And like ex-Rambo grandma from small-town news, after one sip, you’ll be tempted to welcome this Wee Beastie into your home to share some Christmas cookies.
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