One of the releases I’ve looked forward to most, I was most pleased when it happened to have made its way into local stores despite the pandemic. It wasn’t the described flavor or the distillery that appealed to me, despite me liking both, but rather the age statement. Typically an exciting age statement is one that is quite high, but what appealed to me about this was the very low age statement. The occasional IB, Octomores, and stuff from newer distilleries like Kilchoman had thus far been the only distilleries to put an age statement under 8 on their expressions that I’ve had. So many releases that serve the same role for their distilleries as Wee Beastie does for Ardbeg, with a recent uptick in that past few years, are released NAS. Bowmore No. 1, Bunnahabhain Stiùireadair, Caol Ila Moch, Laphroaig Select, Talisker’s Skye, Storm, Dark Storm, Port Ruighe, Neist Point, 57° North, even Classic Laddie could be considered part of this (though Bruichladdich does essentially disclose and age statement for each batch via their transparency codes), and that’s just the distilleries with which I’m familiar. As soon as I heard about this it made me hopeful other distilleries would follow suit with their entry-entry-level expressions and disclose an age, young as it may be. I’m not the kind of person to dismiss a whisky for being NAS, but the more information about an expression I have, the happier I am. Besides, with a 5 year age statement I know the youngest whisky is 5 years old, rather than assuming it just turned 3 as I might for typical NAS releases. Anyway, all that to say the thing about this that excited me the most was the potential influence it might have in hastening the growing trend toward transparency being seen in the whisky world. Though the likelihood of that certainly depends on whether Ardbeg delivered something worthwhile rather than a dud that confirms the silly bias that something with a low age statement can’t be good. (Sticktap to Ardbeg for also going with a respectable ABV rather than the standard 40% a lot of distilleries would go to for whiskies of the type listed above).
Minutia: Matured 5 years in ex-Bourbon and ex-Oloroso Sherry casks. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn.
Color: Yellow gold, 0.5.
Nose: Earthy smoke, vegetal, briny, butter cookie.
Taste: Herbal, salty, ashy.
Finish: Medium long. Charred meat/jerky. Salty, but less than the taste. Vague sense of sweetness.
They released a respectable, low age statement expression that I think will help catalyze that trend toward transparency. It’s certainly young, but this shows that isn’t always bad. The negative with this is the proximity in price to the 10 year old. With only about a $5 difference it’s hard to tell whether these are meant to occupy the same tier of whisky or not, and if not Ardbeg is kind of competing against themselves in that market. Under $50, even a $10 difference in price is enough to have them be considered of different tiers, but $5 is just not different enough. That said, rather than being an entry-level and budget option, the 10 and Wee Beastie, respectively, kind of fill the same role but differently. With Laphroaig Select, at its proximity in price to the 10 I’m always buying the 10 as the Select is too expensive to be a budget option. But for Ardbeg, neither are a proper budget option and I might alternate between the two when a bottle runs out and needs replacing or could possibly keep both on hand. I don’t think the same could be said for the other distilleries’ entry-level expression and their more budget-friendly options.
Score: 80
Musical Evocation: Jeff Buckley – “Kick Out the Jams”
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