Ardbeg Very Young was a shock the first time we tried it. I picked up a bottle for Duncan following the advice of Loch Fyne Whiskies (I asked for something different and special to knock the socks of an established whisky enthusiast. Boy did they deliver…). Very Young is 6 year old Ardbeg. It’s probably the smokiest thing you have ever tasted. If you see a bottle, grab it - there aren’t many left now as it was a limited run bottling and Ardbeg have moved onto a new range which is the real point of this story.

The same stock that created Very Young is now being bottled as a 7 or 8 year old under the moniker ‘Still Young’. I hadn’t heard about this before we got chatting to the Ardbeg people at Whisky Live and still haven’t had a taste yet, but based on the experience of Very Young and the general skills of those islanders, I’m salivating already.

At the same event where we heard about the Still Young, we got a taste of Lord of the Isles - a 25 year old Ardbeg described to us as the flagship by the Ardbeg experts on the stall. Crikey. It’s got peat (as you’d expect), it’s got smoke (again), it’s bleedin’ smooth. I think this has jumped straight into my top 5 all time whiskies (which include a 21 y.o. Springbank, 25 y.o. Bowmore, practically any Laphroaig and a gorgeous Glenlivet, since you asked - this may have changed next time I list them - I’m not terribly consistent).

There was something that wasn’t there on the nose but appeared in the taste and finish that we couldn’t quite identify at the time. When we got home from the event, I emailed them and got their tasting notes. Unfortunately I didn’t have another dram to hand when reading the notes, but they list marzipan and I think this could well be it. Certainly a good candidate - I like marzipan and I certainly liked Lord of the Isles.