Kildalton 15 yo 2005/2020 (54.2%, The Single Cask, cask #ADBG008, hogshead, 304 bottles)
There's a few hints to chose from here, but my favourite is that they chose to bottle this at exactly the same strength as the official Uigeadail bottlings. I'm sure that was totally on purpose ;) Colour: pale white wine (yes!) Nose: crisp, hyper clean, pure 'white' smoke. This wonderful mix of crushed chalk, shells and beach pebbles all mingling together with seawater, oysters and lemon juice. Indeed this fresh shellfish vibe only intensifies with time, also pasta water with lots of lemon juice and olive oil. Some puffs of coal smoke too. With water: a pristine salinity that remains superbly fresh, pointed and sharp, but also with a good deal of intricacy to keep your nose coming back for more. Mouth: big, gutsy, powerful arrival. On herbal peat smoke, salt-encrusted white smoked fish, tar, beach sand, kelp, iodine and petrol. A big fistful of mineral salts too. On Islay, power still lies in the South! With water: we're really into green olives in a dirty martini territory now. Grizzled, gristy peat smoke, coal embers, natural tar, ointments, hessian and TCP. Hotly medical I would say. Finish: long, deeply smoky, powerful, dried seaweed, smoked sea salt, tar, beach wood and a little aniseed. Comments: Pretty uncompromising and heartily powerful stuff. A cursory sip of this might lead you to conclude this is just another excellent modern peated malt. However, it rewards close attention, and there remains something additionally, and undeniably, 'Ardbeg' about this. Beneath all the nonsense, it's still a terrific distillate. Great selection.
SGP: 367 - 91 points. 

Ardbeg 19 yo 2001/2020 (51.8%, Elixir Distillers 'Single Malts Of Scotland', bottled for USA, refill barrel / 1st fill barrel, 216 bottles)
This one spent 10 years in a refill barrel then 9 years in a first fill barrel, so the epitome of a proper double maturation. Colour: gold. Nose: what I love here is that you can tell the cask in this case was rather active, but it has fused with the distillate in such a way as to create this rather singular and gelatinous profile that suggests peat-infused olive oil, herbal extracts and sugary cough medicines. Beneath that natural tar, embrocations, camphor and a touch of seawater. Superb! With water: fresher with some ozone and sea breeze, although also a hint of swimming pools. Mercurochrome and sardines in oil. Mouth: the oak spices are a little louder here, some hot green pepper, graphite oil, tar extract once again, paprika, umami paste and hessian. Smouldering wood embers and dried seaweed. I really like it but the cask is perhaps just a notch too active. With water: more singularly peaty, tarry, peppery and classical now. Big, weighty, spicy and chewy Ardbeg. Finish: long, these warming notes of toasty green pepper and wood spice are back mingling with the peat smoke, brine and tar. Comments: At times it is an extremely classical, contemporary Ardbeg, whereas there's moments when you certainly feel that second cask dragging it in more wood-dominant direction. A very different animal to the 05, but the quality is in the same ballpark. I think water does clever and necessary things here.
SGP: 566 - 90 points.

Ardbeg NAS / 10yo? (80 proof, OB, -/+ 1970)
There are many fakes around with this label, however this bottle comes from within the UK and with impeccable provenance. It's also to be noted that some had a 10yo age statement as a neck label, so this bottling is either NAS or it lost its age label somewhere along the way. The original owner also helpfully informs us that this distillery is 'No longer in existence' - someone should probably tell LVMH. Colour: white wine. Nose: fresh and extremely typical old 60s (or pre-60s as may well be the case here) Ardbeg. Which is to say full of sheep wool, wet rocks, lightly tarred hessian, a kind of chalky, brittle peat smoke and many softer mineral and dried seaweed touches. The DNA of the 70s style is very present but the peat is dialled down while things like medicines and coastal complexities have been turned all the way up. You can add bitter citrus peels, petrol, seawater and ink. I would also say there's a farmyard quality that later styles do not quite possess. Mouth: extremely briny, kippery smokiness, more old rope, hessian, tar, black pepper, smoked teas and tiny impressions of pickled ginger and preserved lemons. Altogether a softer, yet also arguably deeper and more complex style. Some camphory, oily textured peat flavours, green peppercorns in brine, herbal smoke and a perfectly drying, brittle saltiness. Finish: long, bone dry, salty, a sense of citric acidity, tar, phenolics and seaweed once again. Comments: über fresh, pin sharp and almost wine like with its highly chiselled and taut structure. The interplay of peat, coast and farmyard is beautiful. It feels incorrect to call it 'lighter' in style; perhaps it's just that it is more ethereal and complex, but the lasting impression is of a huge and deeply intricate whisky. Majestic and fascinating old Ardbeg.
SGP: 365 - 93 points.