The Legendary Ardbeg distillery is known for being the king of peat in the world of whiskies. Most people would have had tried the Ardbeg 10 years old which is considered along with the Lagavulin 16 years old the benchmark of which what other peat whiskies are compared against. Launched in 2003 this whisky (pronounced “Oog-a-dal”) within 6 years in 2009 won Jim Murray’s whisky of the year and in the previous year 2008 it’s sibling the Ardbeg 10 years also won whisky of the year. In recent year’s bottles of Ardbeg has been very collectible and it shown by an increase of 43% in sales volume in the past two years! This just means this distillery is doing something right!

The simple facts are this whisky is a speyside blended whisky, its 30 years old, it’s only available through Aldi supermarkets and it’s cost $99 AUD. So how can Aldi afford to sell 30 years old whisky for below $100? For the people out there who consider that simply the older the whisky the better it is (you know who you are… …) this is a no brainer… 30 years for $99 roughly $3.30 a year you are paying! Bargain alarm bells BUY BUY BUY!

So with the Yamazaki 12 year’s whisky flying off the shelves, I naturally looked for an alternative and in particular at its northern sibling the Hakushu 12 Years old. Whilst the Yamzaki is of a brown autumn bottle the Hakushu is of a green forest spring bottle. The Hakushu distillery is the second biggest distillery by Suntory, it is located in the northern forest of Japan near Mount Kaikoma (Southern Alps) and in the Yamanashi Prefecture.