Welcome to Taste Test, where every week our critic Jonah Flicker explores the most buzzworthy and interesting whiskeys in the world. Check back each Sunday for his latest whiskey review.

Scotch whiskey fans who love Ardbeg really love Ardbeg. This Islay distillery, the sister operation to Glenmorangie in the Highlands, even has a global fan club called the Ardbeg Committee, the members of which get first dibs on special release bottles. They also make their opinions known, and one thing they’ve been clamoring for, according to the distillery, is a cask-strength version of the core 10-year-old expression. Well, it’s finally here—and it’s very good—but it won’t be around for long because it’s said to be a one-time release.

Ardbeg actually released a cask-strength version of this whisky back in 2003 to the Japanese market, and people who got a taste of that whisky were very enthusiastic about it. Of course, that would have been a very different whisky in one significant way—it was distilled before the Glenmorangie company acquired the distillery in 1997 (it was later acquired by LVMH) after a period of sporadic shutdowns over the previous decade. Though the distillery has been making whisky consistently since about 1998, Ardbeg’s fans never stopped hunting for its whisky, seeking out casks and bottlings from various stages of its existence (in 2022, a 1975 cask was sold to a private collector for a record-breaking $19 million).

The new Ardbeg Ten Cask Strength is much cheaper than that, thankfully, with a price tag of $90. And this whisky is well worth it. According to director of distilling and whisky creation Dr. Bill Lumsden, this release was compiled from an unusual set of barrels. All were ex-bourbon casks, as is the case with the regular 10-year old, but some were filled with undiluted new make spirit instead of being proofed down to 63.5 percent ABV before filling. That means that some of the casks were filled with spirit at somewhere close to 70 percent ABV, the strength it came off the still.

The resulting whisky clocks in at a high 61.7 percent ABV—compare that to regular Ardbeg Ten which is bottled at 46 percent ABV (92 proof). Even at that strength—or as some might maintain, because of it—this whisky is really good. Yes, of course there’s going to be a lot of heat as you sip, there’s no way around it at that strength. But somehow that high level of alcohol does not take over the proceedings, allowing many other notes to shine through like vanilla, citrus, pepper, char, orange peel, honey, cinnamon, and even a bit of pencil graphite (I mean that in a good way). And it goes without saying that this is a very smoky single malt, as is the classic 10-year-old, but the peat feels a bit restrained and balanced here in a way that you might not expect.

As mentioned earlier, this is a limited release, and the distillery team says that when it’s gone, it’s gone for good. Not to be repeated. It’s now or never. Well, maybe that’s the case, and maybe not. Regardless, if you’re a diehard Ardbeg fan, one of those whisky nerds who have been clamoring for this bottle for some 20-odd years, go out and find one now. And if you’re just a casual admirer of smoky Islay scotch who is up for tasting some cask-strength whisky, I think you’ll really enjoy this new single malt.

Score: 92