Ardbeg 15yo Trudernish
Official 2026 Release | 48.8% ABV
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
Something to make you consider returning to Ardbeg
Redemption?
I’d be quite ready to concede that I tend to score things a little higher than my peers here on Dramface. Except, I’m not sure it would be true.
You see, I think it’s less about me being generous with the scorecards and more about me being motivated to write about decent bottles with obvious value propositions. Should they be available for you to pick up, well then… even better. But, betterer still, we need to remember it’s purely incidental and selling bottles is not a thing for us.
We review it regardless of whether or not anyone can buy it; we write about what we’re drinking and what motivates us to write. But, generally speaking, putting our readers in touch with good bottles of whisky is very much a thing.
So, when I happen upon a bottle which makes me think positively, I’m drawn to write about it; to share it with you, to let folk know that I think it’s quite good. So it tracks that I’ll end up reviewing bottles with higher scores.
These days, I just can’t be bothered to write about stuff that’s lacklustre. There’s so much good stuff around. I’d even go as far to say we’re a little spoiled at the moment - and please don’t take that as a complaint.
While I’m yet to award anything a 10/10, I have dished out nine 9/10s already. And a truckload of 8s. There are a lot of good whiskies out there and it tends to be those that will stir me into writing something that you might care to read.
But honestly what’s even more likely to encourage me to spark up the word processing machinery and smash a few buttons is a story. Or a point. Or a statement. Something interesting. Usually inspiration. Taken directly from the bottle.
And that’s the case today.
You can already see the score; I quite like this bottle. It’s a very good representation of its style and it's worth the investment (I mean I’m always gonna wish it was a tenner cheaper, but in today’s game, this price point is decent).
I’ll write a little more about what I think about it below, but I’d like to take a moment to consider that we may be seeing a blush of rational humility emerging from LVMH recently.
It’s almost become a cliché amongst botherers: but Ardbeg’s core range was always solid, while their special releases and Ardbeg Committee offerings, let’s say, became a try-before-you-buy. But, worse, they soon spiralled into demonstrable and blatantly obvious exercises in let’s-milk-the-fans-and-collectors. It was pretty ugly.
Another cliché: the last decent Ardbeg limited release worth your time was Dark Cove.
It might be controversial but, if you agree that’s true, we’re travelling back in time by a full ten years to find something worthy - both the Committee release and the limited release were very enjoyable.
Since then however, in most markets, Ardbeg have dismantled their once robust and invested, ultra-hardcore fanbase by continually shovelling sub-par specials at a rate only the maniacal could stomach. And this at prices that just added salt to open wounds of naivety, nostalgia and misplaced brand loyalty.
We all suffer from this. No judgement.
I was a serial buyer of Lagavulin 12yo. Every year the price was routinely hiked - that became the year I wasn’t going to buy anymore. Until I did.
But even that’s in the past now, eventually, even those with the stupidity of Wally Macaulay come to their senses. I truly doubt Diageo will, so I may never return there. Which is a real shame. But, in the sentiment of why Ardbeg named Trudernish as such (you can read about stealing pebbles on the box) I may return to Ardbeg.
Anyway, I say all that to say this: whisky is an emotive thing, and whisky botherers can be as weak as anyone. Ardbeg knew this little pony of a trick, and they kicked it until it was dead.
The pinnacle of these crimes was the hilariously clumsy release of their new 17yo in 2024. An exercise in let’s-see-how-stupid-you-all-are went down like a fart in a snorkel. I know no one who bought - or even tried it. This was even more of a betrayal than burying casks in peat bogs, or NFTs, or… look you all have your own axe to grind with Ardbeg’s overly exuberant ideas, share them in the comments.
Anyway, hardly anyone even reviewed that 17yo. Thankfully, our pals over at Two Whisky Bros did and summed things up nicely, awarding it a mere 5.5/10 and suggesting: [t]he distillery has many core range releases that are both more affordable and more flavourful.
Exactly. I sense that the ugly price alongside the sickeningly patronising sentiment of the launch material and press release were enough to send us off in the opposite direction, but more so there was this idea, this belief, that Ardbeg were capable of releasing much, much better stuff.
So, why weren't they? Why on earth dilute your gorgeous, mature, 17-year-old stock down to 40% and serve it up to ‘the fans’ asking far too much of their money?
We knew the liquid could be better, either from the occasional indie - but mostly, and crazily, actually through their own core range stuff.
Their Ardbeg Ten was a wonderfully available and solid Islay stalwart. I’ve had bottles of this over the years that have outperformed their rivals by a margin; it’s always been pretty great. The higher ABV offering in the shape of the Corryvreckan brought a touch more intensity and a smidge of European oak for (once upon a time) not too much more cost and, while it can be very variable batch-to-batch, we’re all quite happy when someone pours us a glass of their Uigeadail.
We’ll avoid the Wee Beastie for now, and their overly sweet An Oa, as I believe that, while they’re still part of the core range, these are products of the leaner times in whisky and I’m not sure how long they’ll be around. This is my opinion, of course. I have no insight into Ardbeg, their core release strategies or stocks. I only speak from my interpretations of what I see offered for sale.
Anyway, all in all, a solid lineup and if you look at the prices asked today and run them through an inflation calculator, they remain there-or-thereabouts against legacy prices. You may argue the Corry has crept into the close-to-uncomfortable area, but some, such as the Ten in the UK, are likely cheaper and, if they’re not, they often go on offer.
So, all in all, a truly solid core range of peaty, smoky, thick Islay whisky. Let’s also be clear that Ardbeg, even before their rebuild and renaissance in the late 1990s, have always had fans. A lot of them. They are vocal and colourful too. So why on earth would you abuse them?
Because, I’m afraid, it’s just too easy - far too tempting.
It simply becomes more about the money and less about the folk who know whisky - on either side of the transaction. And money wins. Year by year, whether releases for festivals or committees became increasingly contrived and cynical statements surface of how they’d jumped the shark.
And yet. In 2025 out popped a release that seemed, to this gormless and puffy-eyed onlooker, like a literal 180º turn.
It was a Ten, but not as we knew it. It was presented in unabashed 61.7% glory, in limited numbers - but still plentiful - for £75. I no longer wept for my Lagavulin 12. This was all I needed. It was South Islay, the Kildalton coast, golden and as if concentrated in a glass. Incredibly, it was a Committee release too. It was epic. A Dramface 8/10 for me. Don’t chase it based on those idiotic secondary prices though. Be patient, because things continue to get better.
It came at a time that we all felt the whisky ship listing a little, and we watched and waited to see how certain parties at the helm might react. This new Ten was a positive move and a statement that things had changed: strategies, attitudes and offerings were potentially going to be very different now. They were righting the ship.
We watched to see what came next, and I was as pleasantly surprised as anyone outside of the LVMH machinations when I learned of what did indeed come next.
Because in 2026, we now have a 15yo for a similar price to that excellent Ten. Well, damn.
Review
Ardbeg 15yo, Trudernish, Bourbon, new charred oak and Oloroso sherry casks, 2026 release, 48.8% ABV
£80-ish and currently generally available in UK/EU
I picked this up the day it dropped but, as I write this, it’s still around for sub-eighty sterlings. For an official, natural, branded Islay malt whisky at 48.8% ABV and - incredibly - fifteen years of maturity, that’s a simply fantastic development. All we need is for it to be good.
Full disclosure; I’m sipping this late in the day and I do find I get better tasting notes earlier. However, dwell less on me finding something between kiwi and lemon and believe me when I say I knew this was an 8/10 on first pour. At any time of the day.
It’s been such on every sip since too.
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
Something to make you consider returning to Ardbeg
Nose
Only good Islay malts do this mineralic, beach pebble, salty, outdoorsy burst of smoke and menthol. It’s truly one of Scotch whisky’s delights. Sit a while and those green and yellow citrus and kiwi notes come along, but they’re softer here. It conveys its maturity with a ripeness; a roundness, even.
A drop of water brings sweeter elements, maybe from wood; confectionery and vanilla, coconut, butterscotch and toffee, maybe some foam bananas too. A second glass without water reassures me I love this at full 48.8 percentages of booze-to-water-ratios.
I actually get a touch of wax too, like a snuffed out tealight.
Palate
Contentment. More reassurance. Texture is good but the overall arrival is round and slightly rich, slightly velvety, with an immediate conduit of the age. It’s sweeter than you might expect, the candy-like vibes step ahead of the fruit a little and they lead you closer to a sweet shop where lemon bon-bons and banana toffees are in the mix. The fruit leans toward a softer, more tropical style. All the while there’s a backdrop of soot and fire and smoky hints of every perfect dram you’ve sipped while looking south from Islay’s Kildalton coast.
Or dreamed of sipping.
The Dregs
I liked to poke as much fun at LVMH - and mostly Ardbeg to be fair - as anyone did. They deserved it, mostly. In my time under the spell of my whisky romance, Ardbeg has gone from Islay’s hot sauce to its cold custard.
Its randomness and continuous need for something newer, crazier, wilder, differenter, every single year, took it to places no whisky should ever be, at prices no distillery should ever charge. Year by year, less and less of us followed. Even those who were devout followers for years began to drift. There were too many other choices, too many genuine ‘newers’.
Even the very effective online marketing and branding initiatives began to fail because, no sooner was someone eagerly skidding through the whisky door on the coattails of Ardbeg's noisy and striking campaigns, they realised there were just too many other earnest, tastier, cheaper alternatives. Thereafter that loyalty - once genuine and robust - couldn’t stick. Ardbeg needed something better in this price slot. Something more. Something special. They needed, at least, an 8/10.
And this wee fifteen year old is, at least, that.
Okay, I’m off to find a stinker to prove my fellow peers wrong about my generosity. But, happily, that is getting harder these days.
Score: 8/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. WMc
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At the point of this article’s publication, Ardbeg currently sits in position #11 in the Dramface Top 40.
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