Ardbeg Spectacular
The Ardbeg Committee was founded in 2000, born from a fan club of sorts started in 19999. Ardbeg was officially founded in 1815, though it had been producing whisky there for over almost twenty years there previously. It shuttered in the early 1990s and was purchased by Glenmorangie in 1997 and reopened, with the Ardbeg Committee soon following to foster love of the brand and make sure the distillery never closed again. While the Committee offers communications and solidarity for the affecionados, there has also been yearly whisky releases under the Committee banner. The 2024 Committee offering is the Ardbeg Spectacular, which was matured in a blend of ex-bourbon and ex-port casks. This is different than past releases that made use of cask finishing. The circus connection is unknown.
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.
Kilkerran Heavily Peated
Glengyle distillery was founded by William Mitchell, one of the co-founders of Springbank, in 1872 and closed in 1925. After many attempts to restart throughout the 20th Century, the distillery finally began production again in 2004 with new stills and other equipment under the same ownership group as Springbank. The distillery sells their offerings under the brand name Kilkerran because the name Glengyle is owned by Loch Lomond and used for their blended malt. The Kilkerran Heavily Peated is a single malt that, as the name implies, is made using heavily peated barley. This is the 8th Edition and was released in May 2023. Though past bottles have listed ppm levels (phenolic parts per million), this edition does not.