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.
Spirit of Hven Seven Stars No. 5 Alioth
The Spirit of Hven is a craft distillery located on the island of Ven, which lies in the Öresund strait between Denmark and Sweden. It is also a conference and hotel resort, replete with restaurant and pub. It is a remarkably small grain-to-glass distillery, which is why their releases are so often limited. The Spirit of Hven make a number of spirits but it is clear they are fans of single malt whisky. And astrology, as shown by their beaker-shaped bottles and copiously detailed product sheets. The Seven Stars is a series of single malts, each named after one of the stars in the Ursa Major (Latin for “Great Bear”) constellation, the third brightest modern constellation in the night sky. It is more familiarly known as the Big Dipper. One of the stars, Polaris, is also known as North Star. The fifth in the series is Alioth, which comes from the Arabic alyat al-hamal (“the sheep’s fat tail”), and is the brightest star in the constellation.
Corsair Wildfire
Since its founding in 2008, Corsair has been making creative spirits on the cutting edge of American craft distilling. In the early years, like many young distilleries, Corsair had to outsource part of the process. Introduced in 2015, the Corsair Wildfire is their first “grain to glass” offering, meaning the distillery handles every part of the production process. The barley is grown on a farm in Tennessee owned by the distillery and is smoked with hickory, a wood often associated with southern BBQ.