DrRHCMadden
Ardbeg Wee Beastie
Single Malt — Islay, Scotland
Reviewed
September 1, 2023 (edited September 25, 2023)
It’s been a beast of a week. And what should of been an Ardbeg every night of the week has not come to pass. Still, Wee Beastie is in the glass and I am pumped. Off the heels of a very solid open on Ardbeg 10, the Wee Beastie comes in at 5 y/o and offers a mix of ex-Bourbon and Olorosso casking.
N: Sharp and punchy, the peat is a little damp and mulchy and gives a rotten wood on the bonfire kind of effect to the smokiness. Behind that though are some toffee, candy sweetness, stewed baking apples, a little sherbet like lemon sourness and an all encompassing salty-oily-peppery-wooded medley. The nose feels young, but it also has a lovely playfulness that is quite enticing.
P: A little thin on arrival. Sweetness and black pepper add a surprising brightness to a sharp dilute lemon squash soaked peatyness. The smoke is salty but a little harsh. Sweetness develops with successive sips and leans towards stone fruits like lychee and nectarine with maybe some ginger-caramel. Theres nothing particularly special here, its on the aggressive side and if anything is a little underdeveloped.
F: Surprisingly long. Oily, peppery, preserved lemon and mulchy peat. The smoke loses out in the finish.
The name Wee Beastie and a 5 year age statement primed me into thinking this was going to be a vibrant, exciting version of the standard 10 year old, albeit a little less nuanced and refined. It’s not quite that in my mind. The nose is the stand out, theres plenty of big bold notes and lots to get excited about but from there it kind of goes down hill into mediocrity. The excellent notes of lemon, sea air influence and delicately perfumed smoke are just not there. A sweetness replaces these that makes the dram seem like a budget blend rather than a gatekeeper of whisky excellence (that I believe Ardbeg are regarded to be). This isn’t a wee beastie, its just a wee impersonation of something quite excellent. That said, its still good. Onwards we forge…
Distiller whisky taste #224
[Pictured here with a Dicranurus monstrous, a real wee beastie. This is a trilobite, a type of marine arthropod from the Devonian Period. These horned monsters are found in Morocco, Oklahoma, and New York. This ones from Morocco. The incredible spines used to be thought of as adaptations for fighting but the position behind the delicate exposed eyes makes this unlikely. They were almost certainly a defensive mechanism against predators and an anti sinking aid for the soft sea floor mud they lived and fed on. A recent hypotheses has speculated that the spines hosted organisms called bryozoans (similar to corals), meaning the spines were like a palaeozoic ghille suit. What a wee beastie!]
Ardbeg running scores:
Ardbeg 10: 4.25/5
Wee Beastie: 3/5
94.95
AUD
per
Bottle
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@Richard-ModernDrinking depends on the species and the location. Some trilobites are preserved prone and flat, others with more contorted positions. Some species were quite flat and plain, others like this one were highly ornate. Different qualities of preparation may also expose more or less of the fossil.
By the way, a very nice diversion, that. ;)
I've seen many trilobite fossils, but this one looks three dimensional from the pic. Is it some kind of reconstruction, or have whole fossilized specimens been unearthed?
@soonershrink nope; but it’s well known as the source of many wee beasties to strange folk like me!
Have you been there?
@soonershrink look up Bob Carroll’s Quarry at Black Cat Mountain :)
So interesting - I didn’t know that about Oklahoma, despite I’m sure seeing them at the natural history museum in Norman. With small kids it’s difficult to stop and read. I tried googling where I could take them trilobite hunting, but I’m not sure such a tourist stop exists.
Ahhhhh now I get you! Haha, yes. The ones from Oklahoma are mostly honey-cream colour. Super cool beasts.
@soonershrink is from Oklahoma lol.....them guys=a wee beastie trilobite
@Ctrexman I have no idea what you just said 😂
You need to send one of them guys to sooner