Ardbeg Anthology: The Harpy’s Tail

Ardbeg launched the Anthology series in 2023, inspired by tales of unbelievable encounters. The distillery’s marketing department has long loved to connect their releases with stories digging into the legends around Islay and of Ardbeg, and the Anthology opens with just such panache. The Harpy’s Tail is a 13 year scotch that is partially matured in ex-bourbon casks and partially matured in ex-Sauternes casks, then combined much in the same way that a Balvenie 12 year Doublewood would be. The actual tail of the harpy in question is told on the box and involves some highjinks around the distillery, even if it involves a creature out of Greek and Roman legends rather than Scottish, it is a creature still said to control storms, something the Scots on Islay would be long familiar with.

Distillery: Ardbeg
Region: Islay
Age: 13 years
Strength: 46%
Price: $159.99
Maturation: ex-bourbon and ex-Sauternes wine casks
Location: Port Ellen
Nose: Smoke, banana, peat, peppermint, chili pepper, iodine, floral, bergamot, pine sap
Palate: Smoke, brine, black pepper, vanilla
Finish: Smoke, hickory, pecan

Comments: Seems to punch hotter even at 46% but adding water doesn’t seem to calm it down overmuch. Consider pairing with chocolate.

Adam – A bloom of sweet smoke greets you on the first approach to The Harpy’s Tail. Underneath that is a lovely peat tinged with a little fruit, though slightly different than the distillery’s normal citrus. The wine cask influence is really noticeable here. The brine hits hard on the palate along with some pepper, battling it out with a more typical smoke. Some wood comes out on the finish, through the smoke. The more you drink it, the more noticeable the pepper becomes, which is a characterstic I’m not used to finding in Ardbeg. I enjoy both the overt and suble ways the Sauternes influences this whisky, being more present in the nose but also doing things to subtly alter the flavor of things you’re expecting so that it becomes a bottle of surprise, though a pleasant one. 

Kate – There’s a fruity astringency, like apples that are amost starting to turn in the nose. It is waxy, olive oil/soap, herbal quality, lemon, woodsy note too. 

Henry – A wonderfully layered nose of pine sap, light florals, bergamot, candy sugar, iodine, and smoke. Big iodine and black pepper on the palate, with sweetness following through. A small note of tannic astringency enters on the transition to the finish, but the winey sweetness pervades from start to finish and prevents any charry notes from becoming too prominent.

Ben – The Harpy’s Tail makes my nose happy. I detect the vegetal peat in the nose and I usually don’t get that prominently but here it is. There is a line drawn down the center of my tongue, one side has the sauterenes and the other is Ardbeg.

Bill – There’s a uniformity here that joins together all the elements of the spirit together. There’s a brightness there. This is a different Ardbeg. Like it’s not a marketing thing just to push Ardbeg. The Harpy’s Tail feels like damn good whisky, not the marketing of damn good whisky. It’s something new, based on something old, and I think that’s its strength. 

Mike – The very, very beginning of it, before the smoke took over, I got what amounted to some sort of chili pepper, maybe a plabano. Very sweet, very vegetable, right at the beginning and then it disappeared right after the smoke took over. 

Sam – There’s a champagne element in the nose, a brightness. Nose is sweet, peppermint, and peaty. Hints of vanilla and banana. Palate is sweet and smokey with strong astringency on the swallow. Like a robust cigar with a Brazilian wrapper. Fades into hickory and pecan flavors on the finish.