Ardbeg ‘Airigh Nam Beist’
Not enough Ardbeg on this website methinks.
Airigh Nam Beist is variously translated as lair of the beast, or shelter of the beast (romantic end) to just a middling pasture or grazelands of livestock (prosaic end, the same way Airigh Nam Fiadh is just well.. deer pasture.)
We have a vintage date here, 1990, and we know this was during Allied ownership, and Ardbeg was sporadically run in the 90s. Airigh Nam Beist was drawn and bottled in 3 years, 1996 – 1998. Therefore depending on your bottle code, your version could be from 16 to 18 in age. This also immediately gives me ideas of a head to head with a Lagavulin 16, but that’s for another day.
The devout Ardbeggian would also know that Corryvreckan introduced in 2009 was meant to take up where ANB stops (like how ANB was meant to fill the spot the old 17 used to fill), but unlike ANB, Corryvrecken is non vintage and NAS, and has been issued every year since, making the Corry more liable to shifts in style. Also bear in mind the change in ownership and distillation regime when Glenmorangie took over in 1997.
Ardbeg ‘Airigh Nam Beist’ 46% *-how I wish it was cask strength. This is L8¬2008, so 18 years.
Nose: Surprisingly elegant and restrained. Much unlike Uigeadail or the regular 10. Make no mistake the peat is there but it holds together with a very big coastal-ness (brine, fish nets, engine oil) and that tang of wet wool. Past that, there’s this earthy oily medicine that’s not Laphroaig, and a sour citric fruit that’s not citrus, and smoked custard. Complex.
Palette: Earthy peat, brown moss, smoking caramel. Salty tang, and again very marine. Gets drier and more mineraled with more sharp fruit, more menthol jujubes and finally ashes by the spade.
Finish: Long, smoky and ashy. Tobacco leaves.
Not the punch in the gut peat you were looking for. But this seems to be a gentleman’s Ardbeg. Very elegant balance, lots of development and very complex beyond my own amateur description. Should be on everyone’s try list to this point in the distillery’s development.
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