A ten-year-old whisky at 46%, non-chill-filtered, all ex-bourbon, against a sixteen-year-old at 43%, chill-filtered, with a share of ex-sherry. Ardbeg 10 brings mineral peat, creosote and lemon; Lagavulin 16 has a more elegant smoke, dark honey and dried fruit. The two distilleries are a short walk apart on the Kildalton coast and use malt from the same Port Ellen Maltings, so the gap comes from what happens after the kiln. In the UK Ardbeg sells for £42-45, Lagavulin for £73-80.

Specs side by side

What they share

Three distilleries sit along the Kildalton road: Laphroaig first, then Lagavulin, then Ardbeg at the end, a kilometre and a half further on. Ardbeg and Lagavulin both use Port Ellen Maltings malt: around 55 ppm for Ardbeg, around 35 ppm for Lagavulin. Both bottles are permanent core range and easy to find.

Two higher-strength variants are the Lagavulin 8 Year Old at 48%, created for the distillery’s bicentenary and still in the core range, and the Ardbeg Ten Cask Strength at 61.7%, a Committee Release currently sold out on Ardbeg’s website and not easy to track down on international online shops.

Ardbeg 10 at 46%

Ardbeg 10 has been the distillery’s core ten-year-old since 2000: ex-bourbon casks, 46%, non-chill-filtered. UK price in September 2026: £42-45.

Nose: creosote first, dense and dark. Tar, railway sleepers, a coal mine. Then fresh lemon, light vanilla from the bourbon casks, a base of wet ash. Swirling the glass brings up a grassy note, almost like hay. With water, a briny iodine note opens up.

Palate: a firm attack of smoke and citrus, without the medicinal burn you might expect from a 55 ppm malt. Black pepper develops mid-palate, with a malt sweetness that balances without becoming cloying. The texture is oily, full for 46%. Later in the sip, anise and black liquorice come through, with a hint of salt at the end. Water softens the pepper but does not shut down the smoke, and opens up more citrus and a note of damp ash.

Finish: long, dry, with lemon and ash coming back. The creosote stays at the back like a signature, joined by a bitter espresso note. It dries slowly without becoming astringent. The smoke is the last thing to fade.

Score: 85/100.

Lagavulin 16 at 43%

Lagavulin 16 dates from 1988 and the Classic Malts Selection. At least sixteen years in ex-bourbon casks plus a share of ex-sherry (the split is not published), bottled at 43%, chill-filtered and coloured. UK price: £73-80, with wide swings from one shop to the next.

Nose: it opens as pure Lagavulin: compact peat smoke, fine ash, and that salty signature that recalls seaweed, iodine, and wet rock. After a few seconds, sweeter notes appear, with malt and vanilla, plus a hint leaning towards dark honey and caramel. With some air, deeper notes show up: sweet tobacco, leather, wood, spice, and dried fruit.

Palate: the entry is warm and rounded: peat is there immediately, but it does not bite. More enveloping than aggressive, it develops by alternating sweet and salty. Malt, toffee, and vanilla return, then a drier, spicier, almost peppery phase arrives, drying the mouth and giving it a more mature feel. The coastal thread remains present throughout.

Finish: long, smoky, with persistence that comes back to ash and spice. On the finish, a gentle sweetness often remains (vanilla, caramel) alongside more bitter, drier notes of wood and cocoa.

Score: 87/100.

Where they really differ

Start with the cask, and with age. Six more years and a share of ex-sherry give the Lagavulin its dark honey, tobacco, dried fruit and the cocoa on the finish; the smoke stays in the background. The Ardbeg at ten years, bourbon only, leaves the spirit more exposed: lemon, light vanilla, ash, with the creosote up front.

The second is the smoke, and here the numbers mislead. Technically Ardbeg uses the peatier malt, around 55 ppm against 35, but the spirit still at Ardbeg has a purifier on its lyne arm, which returns the heavier vapours to the pot and sends on a lighter, cleaner spirit. Lagavulin does the opposite: its first run takes about five hours and the second more than nine, with lyne arms that slope downwards and let the heavier compounds through. The result is an oily spirit that can stand up to sixteen years in cask. In the glass the Ardbeg has more direct smoke, tar and ash; the Lagavulin has less smoke, but what there is is denser, more coastal and softer.

The third is body: 46% non-chill-filtered against 43% chill-filtered and coloured. The Ardbeg is oily and full; the Lagavulin seems heavier, but that comes from sixteen years and the sherry casks, not from the alcohol. A few drops of water open up more citrus and damp ash in the Ardbeg without shutting down the smoke; the Lagavulin gains more from ten minutes in the glass than from water.

Price is the other gap: about thirty pounds more in the UK, between twenty-five and forty euros more in Italy. Six extra years in the warehouse justify part of that; the rest is mostly the name.

Tar or dark honey

Go for Ardbeg 10 when you want a strong peated whisky, with a full body and a price that still fits our list of peated whiskies under €50. Go for Lagavulin 16 when you want the smoke tamed by age and sherry, a slower dram for after dinner. Both sit next to Laphroaig 10 and Caol Ila 12 in our four-way comparison.