When master blender Gillian Macdonald reviewed samples from three experimental parcels of stock aged in Sauternes, Madeira and ‘designer’ bourbon barrels, she noticed an overarching theme. The whiskies offered three distinctive takes on sweetness, yet still bristled with the wood smoke, lemon, pine, olive oil, coffee grounds, and herbal freshness Ardbeg’s spirit is known for. Identifying that these first-fill casks were very much ready to be enjoyed, she decided to frame them as a trilogy of sweet-and-smoky ‘hybrids’— blending the familiar with the unexpected.

 “The way the whiskies in the Ardbeg Anthology Series were put together wasn't obviously at the inception point when we filled these casks. It was very much at the point where we were looking for unusual pockets of stock,” says Gillian. Having enjoyed full-term maturation in each of the experimental cask types, making them genuine rarities, these whiskies each had well over a decade to absorb the full gamut of characteristics that the Sauternes, Madeira, and designer bourbon barrels had to offer. If it strikes you as unusual to hear of whiskies receiving full-term ageing in these cask types, you’re not alone. This kind of stock is scarce even at Ardbeg, a distillery known for experimentation.

“We’re keeping back a couple of casks, but really, this is all there is of them, because there wasn’t much to begin with,” Gillian admits. Rather than drip-feeding these stocks out over time as single casks or losing them in the batch of a larger release, a decision was quickly taken to use the vast majority of the whisky available for a new collection—and so the Ardbeg Anthology Series was born. 

The result is a series of whiskies almost exclusively matured in their named experimental cask: only a very small (and it really is very small) proportion of the spirit used to create The Harpy’s Tale and The Unicorn’s Tale was matured in the distillery’s regular bourbon barrels before being carefully married with the ‘full term’ Sauternes and Madeira-matured spirit respectively, to fine-tune the final balance of flavours.

Meanwhile, the latest release, The Beithir’s Tale, is the product of 100 per cent maturation in the ‘designer’ bourbon barrels our readers might know from the stable of Ardbeg’s sister distillery.

“They’re not that dissimilar in age, so it shows you what putting the same sort of character, the same new-make spirit in one end, how it comes out completely differently as a result of these casks,” says Gillian, before pouring a dram of each Anthology Series release for us to taste side by side.

Composed mainly of spirit filled into 225-litre, first-fill French oak barriques that previously held sweet and fruity Sauternes wine, The Harpy’s Tale reveals Ardbeg’s softer side: lemon oil, smoked apricots, olive oil, and crème brûlée glide in on a gentle haze of peat reek. A small component of bourbon-matured stock brings balance to the French oak, so though the Sauternes-cask influence is front and centre, the overall effect is nuanced and complex.

While some shorter Sauternes-finished whiskies can be big and syrupy, The Harpy’s Tale is surprisingly delicate and nuanced. Due to the almost unheard-of 13-year maturation in Sauternes casks, the wine's characteristics have integrated exceptionally well, while reining in the tannins that can be expected from longer ageing in French oak. Think breakfast pastries dusted with fireplace ash — unexpected yet harmonious.

Sweet Madeira casks push the pendulum the other way with The Unicorn's Tale. Here we find banana bread, tropical fruit, and eucalyptus frolicking alongside lime zest, camphor and coal smoke. A backbone of classic bourbon barrels tethers the exuberance of these punchy fortified wine casks, but the overall effect remains aromatic and full-bodied, with a whiff of machine shop oils. This is a much bolder, chewier whisky, and, though older than The Harpy’s Tale by a year, it seems noticeably more peaty to our taster, bucking the expected trend that would usually see whiskies present as less peaty with time.

“I think the Madeira is a bit more gutsy, whereas the Sauternes is a bit more elegant and a bit more fragrant,” Gillian adds — and we’re inclined to agree. Though one might initially think to serve this dram second, as the ‘heaviest’ of the three Anthology Series whiskies, readers might choose to save this one for the finale.

The trilogy’s finale, The Beithir's Tale, hits the shelves in August 2025 and coils around bespoke bourbon barrels crafted to Ardbeg’s own specification. Gillian describes the result as “smooth, mysterious, with a smoky, menthol bite,” rather like the legendary slithering beithir itself.

The whisky opens with treacle, candied fruits (think Tutti Frutti), tarte tatin, chamomile, and smouldering herbs before sliding into lemon balm, pine and cooling menthol. Its smoke is silken rather than fiery, with the designer casks lending a distinctive, mouth-coating creaminess that lingers long after the last sip. But don’t just take our word for it: judges at the 2025 International Wine & Spirits Competition agreed, awarding it Gold Outstanding (98 points) following its blind tasting.

To understand the origins of these ‘designer’ casks, we need to go back to the 1980s, to a project run by Ardbeg’s parent The Glenmorangie Company, alongside Pentlands Scotch Whisky Research (the precursor to the Scotch Whisky Research Institute) with the late, great, whisky scientist Dr. Jim Swan.

“We committed loads of different styles of oak to maturation,” explains Gillian. “So that they could be drawn upon, analysed and tested, to come up with the perfect cask, or the cask best suited to the style of whisky that we wanted to produce. It was called the Spur Project.” One of the outcomes of the project was the ‘designer’ cask that has since become a staple of Ardbeg’s sister distillery, Glenmorangie, but until now they had yet to take centre stage in an Ardbeg release.

“They’re like bourbons on steroids,” says Gillian. “They give us this long and creamy vanilla character, and, in this case, a sort of smoked butter characteristic.” The resulting whisky is perhaps the most recognisably ‘Ardbeg’ of the trio and will especially appeal to those who have a taste for Ardbeg Ten, while being simultaneously more nuanced and complex than its younger sibling. “There's a lot of sweetness in Ardbeg anyway, so it’s that with extra sweetness on top. It's almost like a layering up.”

According to Gillian, this layering of sweet notes has helped showcase the influence of the purifier on Ardbeg’s spirit stills. By redirecting heavier vapours back into the still for re-distillation, the purifier plays a crucial role in the ‘peaty paradox’ Ardeg is famous for: a balance between citrus, herbal and floral notes with the deep smoky notes. “Or, as we sometimes say, the balance of ‘soot and fruit’!” adds Gillian.

Bottled at 46% ABV, The Beithir’s Tale is the final release in the Ardbeg Anthology Series and will be on sale for RRP £135 from 12 August 2025 at Ardbeg.com and selected retailers, with members of the Ardbeg Committee being alerted first. (Not a Committee member? Sign up here for free for full details on how and where to get your hands on a bottle.)

For those who already have The Harpy’s Tale and The Unicorn’s Tale in their collection, Gillian suggests comparing the three drams side-by-side and exploring the distinctive influence of these experimental casks just as she did in the distillery’s warehouses. For extra perspective, Gillian recommends lining the Anthology drams up alongside the flagship Ardbeg Ten, as a benchmark for classic bourbon maturation, and even the 19-year-old Traigh Bhan, to explore how allowing Ardbeg’s spirit to age on another four years in less active casks tames its spirit. Seen in that context, each Ardbeg Anthology Series whisky becomes a sensory signpost to what its experimental casks contribute and how many different roads the distillery’s whiskies can take during maturation.

Ultimately, the Anthology Series underlines Ardbeg’s willingness to experiment — a luxury that was far from certain just a few decades ago, when the distillery was fighting for survival during the 1980s and 90s. Today, Ardbeg’s cult status gives Gillian, her partner-in-crime Dr. Bill Lumsden, and their blending team room to pursue ideas that once would have seemed indulgent, but are now very much par for the course.

So, did a harpy really swoop over Kildalton? Did a unicorn rear up beside the pagoda roofs? Did a beithir wriggle between the stills? After tasting this line-up of unexpected sweet-and-smoky hybrids, we can believe anything’s possible. Whether seeking a dram that’s a bit of fun or a serious exploration of cask types rarely seen on Islay, the Ardbeg Anthology Series promises to deliver the unexpected. Open them, share them, debate them. And who knows, perhaps you’ll end up with a tale to tell yourself.

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