If Ardbeg 10 is the whisky you reach for, the one that comes closest for less money carries the same name on the label. Ardbeg Wee Beastie, $106, gives an Ardbeg 10 drinker about 88% of what their own bottle does. Same distillery, a shorter wait, and most of the character still in the glass.
Start with what's in the Ardbeg 10 itself. The nose arrives salty and medicinal, smoked haddock over citrus, a note of milk chocolate behind it. The palate is where it earns the name: full-on hot peat, pipe tobacco, black coffee and liquorice, with more chocolate underneath. The finish runs long and malty, sweet smoke trailing off. Non-chill filtered. It tastes like the southern shore of Islay bottled with the door left open.
Ardbeg 10 is $121 at Dan Murphy's this week. It usually sells around $121, and across what we've seen it has run from $105 to $121. Per standard drink that works out at $4.76, with about 25 standard drinks in the bottle — a pour at home against $6.28 for a standard drink in a $13 pint at the pub.
Now the question underneath all of this. What would the drinkers of the bottles nearest Ardbeg 10 pay for it, each starting from what they already pay for their own? A Wee Beastie drinker would pay about $93, which is 88% of what their own bottle costs them, marking Ardbeg 10 down for being older than theirs. The other way round, an Ardbeg 10 drinker puts the Wee Beastie at about 88% of their own bottle, marking it down for being younger. Across the drinkers of the bottles closest to Ardbeg 10 the answers run from $86 to $138. This week's $121 sits inside that.
Three other bottles are worth knowing, each measured against the Ardbeg 10.
Lagavulin 8, $99 for members, reads like peat smoke carried off a kiln into salt air. Mineral and brine on the nose, then menthol, bay laurel and a touch of Parma violet, breezy all the way through. To an Ardbeg 10 drinker it gives about 96% of what the Ardbeg does, for 82% of its price.
Caol Ila 12, $99 for members, is a beach barbecue in a glass. Fish wrapped in bacon with a squeeze of lemon, floral and allspice notes rising behind it, the palate lightly oily and softly spiced with pineapple and melon before it dries. To an Ardbeg 10 drinker it gives about 95% of what the Ardbeg does, for 82% of its price.
Port Charlotte 10, $146, sits between meaty smoke and butterscotch, a subtle sherry edge running under it and the iodine kept understated. It usually sells around $146, and we've seen it from $120 to $146. To an Ardbeg 10 drinker it gives about 94% of what the Ardbeg does, for 121% of its price.
So, who's it for? If Ardbeg 10 is already your bottle, $121 is the week's number and nothing here asks you to move. If you'd take the same distillery for less, the Wee Beastie is the short answer. If you lean towards brine and breeze, Lagavulin 8. If you want the barbecue end of Islay, Caol Ila 12. And if you'll follow the smoke wherever it goes darkest, Port Charlotte 10. A sibling does the job, and so does every bottle on this list.
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