Review #582 - Ardbeg Heavy Vapours — Me, My Wife & Whisky

Ardbeg's spirit still has a relatively uncommon feature: it uses a purifier, which is an additional copper pipe that descends from the lyne arm at the top of the pot still back down toward the main volume of the pot. Both cooled and non-cooled versions of this device exist on a few still around Scotland; Ardbeg's is the latter style, with no additional water on the purifier to reduce the temperature.

The purpose of the purifier is to return some of the spirit vapors which have risen to the top of the still back down to the main pot for re-distillation; in essence, it's creating additional reflux in the still, which brings a lighter, more refined style of spirit.

For this special Ardbeg release, the distillery decided to disable the use of the purifier during runs of their spirit still operation; in theory, the result would be a slightly heavier, more oily spirit character entering the casks for maturation due to the lack of that additional reflux. After distillation, Ardbeg employed just ex-bourbon casks for that maturation, which means we should have a better chance to see the results of that pot still modification without the interference of, say, wine cask influence.

Two releases of this whisky were bottled, like the other special releases; a committee release version at a higher strength (50.2% ABV), as well as this wider release, bottled at their standard 46% ABV.

Ardbeg Heavy Vapours

Scotland/Islay - Single Malt

Price: USD 100 (2025)

Age Statement: NAS

Strength: 46% ABV

Cask Makeup: Ex-bourbon casks

Details: Not chill filtered; bottled 2022

Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 3 times over 1 month; bottles at 90%, 80%, and 60% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 15+ minutes

Nose: Light and bright, with dry, ashy peat smoke. Dry oak, buttered toast, and white pepper bring more notes on the sharp side of the spectrum; there's a subtle creamy heft in the background. Lemon oil and green apple add tart fruit, and we get some spirit character, too: brine, minerals like slate, and hints of agave and iodine.

Palate: A medium thickness mouthfeel; again, it's generally dry and sharp, with light oak, medium strength peat smoke, lemon-lime soda, and a peppery spice. There is a subtle buttery, soft side to the spirit's texture; sweetness from the soda note grows stronger with time. We get a bit of a margarita flavor, too: a combination of lime, agave, and salt.

Finish: Sweet lemon candies, green apple, and orange citrus are balanced by dry peat, very mild oak, and tart lemonade. Better balance in the finish, and little hints of guava, sweet vanilla, and lime linger in the aftertaste; it's a medium-long finish due to the peat.

Final Note: This bottle started out a bit closed up for us, but some air time did bring out a bit of nuance, more so in the palate and finish than the nose. We did get a soft 'creamy' element to the texture - perhaps that's the effect of the theoretically heavier spirit due to the lack of purifier in this whisky? A fun experiment, but ultimately, we didn't find that it was different enough from other ex-bourbon Ardbeg whiskies to justify the higher price. Decent whisky, just not quite differentiated enough.

Because of that higher price, value does suffer a little bit. This whisky does have subtle differences from, say, Ardbeg 10 Year, but you're also paying almost double the price for this bottle.

Our Average Rating: 6.7 / 10

In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.

Value Rating: 5.98

About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.