Ardbeg Wee Beastie is $92 this week, and from what we have seen it usually sells around $106, which puts it about as low as we have ever found it sitting in a Dan Murphy's cabinet.
The bottle. The Wee Beastie is a five-year-old Islay single malt raised in ex-Oloroso and ex-Bourbon casks, and for something so young it comes at you hard. The nose is all intense peat first, wood smoke and phenolic vapours and black pepper, a sea breeze behind it and a twist of sour lemon, and then the casks step in with milk chocolate raisins, bacon fat, star anise, orange blossom, a little orchard fruit, vanilla and powdered sugar. On the palate it stays peaty, punchy and oily, and the finish runs long and smoky. It is not a quiet dram, and it does not pretend to be.
What to pay. This week it is $92, and it usually sells around $106, with what we have seen ranging from $90 up to $106. Work it out by the pour and the bottle holds about 26 standard drinks at roughly $3.51 each, which comes in under a pint at the pub at about $6.28 for the same measure, so a good smoky pour at the bench costs you less than the same measure at the pub.
1/If Ardbeg Wee Beastie is your bottle, its closest flavour twin at Dan Murphy's is Lagavulin 8. By the words in the reviews and by what drinkers reach for, it's the nearest match. Lagavulin 8 gives about 95% of what the Wee Beastie does, for 93% of the price.
2/In the glass they sit close. The Wee Beastie comes on as intense peat, wood smoke, black pepper and a squeeze of sour lemon. Lagavulin 8 heads for the shore: mineral, salt, a touch of menthol and Parma violet. Both reviews land on peat and smoke.
3/This week at Dan Murphy's: Ardbeg Wee Beastie is $106 and Lagavulin 8 is $99 for members. A yes for each: stay with the Wee Beastie if it's your pour, or reach for Lagavulin 8 when you fancy a change. Either way, that's under a pint at the pub per standard drink.
I love handing a Laphroaig 10 drinker an Ardbeg Wee Beastie. They'd pay about $68 for it, roughly 62% of what their own bottle costs them, docking it a little for the extra strength. A yes either way, really. More on the Beastie in this week's piece.
A dram of Ardbeg Wee Beastie after the plates are cleared, and the sums are the small ones: about 26 drinks to the bottle, which comes to $3.51 a pour at home. A pint at the pub runs closer to $6.28 for the same measure. The tasting is in this week's piece.
Ardbeg Wee Beastie is $92 at Dan Murphy's this week. It usually sells around $106, so you're catching it below the usual. If you like your Islay loud, peat, smoke and sea air, this one's for you. At about $3.51 a pour it's easy to keep on the bench. More in this week's piece.
Both are Islay single malts built on peat, and they sit side by side nicely. Ardbeg Wee Beastie, $92, brings wood smoke, black pepper and a sea breeze, with milk chocolate raisins and vanilla behind it; Laphroaig Select Cask, $75 for members, is the calmer, sweeter one, gentle peat smoke, iodine and damp earth wrapped in vanilla. Together they come to $167 at Dan Murphy's for members this week, against $181 at their usual prices, and $183 for the same two at Liquorland this week. At home that's a smoky pour for well under a pint.
Two Islays, side by side. Port Charlotte 10 is $146 this week, Caol Ila 12 is $138, so the Port Charlotte costs $8 more a bottle. Pour them and at 50% against 43% it's the cheaper drink: $5.29 a standard drink against $5.81. It runs darker than you'd expect, smoky and a touch medicinal, leaving you reaching for another. Per standard drink this week: — Ardbeg Wee Beastie: $3.51 — Lagavulin 8: $4.26 — Lagavulin 11 Sweet Peat: $4.84 — Port Charlotte 10: $5.29 — Caol Ila 12: $5.81 A pint at the pub is about $6.28 a standard drink. Every pour here sits under it.
Lagavulin 8 is light in colour but no wimp: the nose heads straight to the shore, mineral and salt, then turns sweet and lively. Menthol, bay laurel, brine, a touch of Parma violet. Peat smoke blown off a kiln into salt air. $113 at Dan Murphy's. More in this week's piece.
If Lagavulin 8 is your dram, Ardbeg Wee Beastie, $92, gives a Lagavulin 8 drinker about 92% of what the Lagavulin 8 does for 81% of the price, all wood smoke, sea breeze and black pepper, with more on the Lagavulin 8 in this week's piece.
Hand a Caol Ila 12 drinker a Lagavulin 8 and they'd pay 59% of what their own bottle costs, marking it down for being the younger pour. Still an easy yes for anyone who loves salt, shore and peat smoke. Where would it sit for you? More in this week's piece on Lagavulin 8.
At $4.26 a standard drink, a pour of Lagavulin 8 at home sits under the $6.28 a pint costs at the pub. The $113 bottle holds about 27 standard drinks, 161st of 310 at Dan Murphy's by price per drink. Where does that leave you? More in this week's piece on Lagavulin 8.
Like Lagavulin 8? Laphroaig 10 gives a Lagavulin 8 drinker about 80% of the same pour, for 96% of the price — and it's $109. Brine, iodine, charcoal, a sweet oak finish. The rest sits in this week's piece on Lagavulin 8.
Pale in the glass, but no wimp. The nose heads for the shore: mineral, salt, a sweetness that keeps it fresh. Then menthol, a hint of malt, Parma violet, like peat smoke blown off a kiln into salt air. Lagavulin 8, $99 for members. Pour one this week; more in the piece.
I asked the drinkers of Lagavulin 8's nearest neighbours what they'd pay for it, each starting from their own bottle: $100 to $142. At $99 for members, it lands just inside that range. I've set it all out in this week's piece on Lagavulin 8 — where would you put it?
Lagavulin 8 runs $99, about 27 standard drinks, so $3.73 a pour at home. A pint at the pub is around $6.28 a standard drink. Shore on the nose, menthol and bay laurel on the palate, breezy peat through. One for the drinker who likes smoke fresh. More in this week's piece.
Glen Moray Classic $2.67, Glen Moray Classic 1 litre $2.85, Spey River Bourbon Cask $2.85, Ardbeg An Oa $2.89, Glencadam Reserve American Oak Bourbon Barrel $3.12. The median of the 115 is $4.76.
Two of Islay's benchmark malts are both at their own floor this week at Dan Murphy's. Laphroaig 10 is $97. Ardbeg An Oa is $75. Neither has been cheaper across the eight weeks I've been tracking them.
A mate tips a finger of Lagavulin 8 into your glass at his kitchen bench, says nothing, and waits. You've had the 16. You've not had this one. It's pale in the glass, so you brace for something thin, and then it isn't thin at all.
If Lagavulin 8 is in your glass, here's the fair question: does a peated Islay this bold really suit a table full of people you're pouring for? It does. Lagavulin 8 sits in the top 4% of bottles for how broadly it's liked. Big smoke, wide welcome.
One Ardbeg on the shelf is cheaper than the whiskies it drinks like. The other two are dearer. That split is the whole of this week's story.
Ardbeg's three entry bottles all lead with smoke. Only one of them is tagged under the drams it tastes like, and it is the softest of the lot.
Ardbeg keeps three bottles on the shelf this week, and the softest, cheapest one is the only pour the model says you are not paying over the odds for.
Islay almost never rewards the drinker who trades down. This week Ardbeg does, and its softest, least expensive bottle is the whole reason.
| bottle | region | latest ticket | read | window price | CE 360° mean | premium | shelf rank | per std drink | drink rank | content |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ardbeg An Oa Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky | Islay | $74.50 | observed | $74.50 | $68.59 | 7.9% | #2 of 16 | $2.89 | #1 of 16 | 2 |
| Ardbeg Wee Beastie Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky | Islay | $91.99 | observed | $105.99 | $96.46 | 9.0% | #3 of 16 | $3.51 | #3 of 16 | 18 |