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.
Port Askaig 8 Year
Port Askaig is an independent bottling from Elixir Distillers, owned by Sukhinder and Rajbir Singh under their Specialty Drinks Group umbrella. Unlike some independent bottlers, Port Askaig does not always disclose where they source each of their offerings, likely due to contractual obligations. Some research into other reviews on the Port Askaig 8 seem to indicate this offering is sourced from Caol Ila, though there is nothing saying that will always be true. While it’s fun to guess the source, at the end of the day this is an Islay single malt purposefully crafted for a particular profile, which is how we will review it. The first offerings of Port Askaig came on the market in 2009.
Colkegan Single Barrel Apple Brandy Cask
It is always good when distilleries produce a good regular line up. What’s even more exciting is when they get to the point where single barrels start being offered, because that signals individual barrels are aging enough to be good on their own rather than being part of a larger blend to achieve some homogenous whole. Davidsons is a large and diverse liquor store in Centennial, Colorado that bought their own barrel of the Colkegan Single Malt. This store pick was a single malt finished for a year in apple brandy casks, an offering that first appeared in April 2017. These apple brandy casks were from the apple brandy made by Santa Fe Spirits, making this whiskey a complete circle.