WINE & SPIRITS

THE "COMMITTEE" HAS SPOKEN: ARDBEG WHISKEYS DELIVER JUST THE RIGHT KICK

"Arrrghhh!" Dig deep into your gut and growl like a real Ardbeg drinker. The world's smokiest single malt (pronounced "Arrghh-dbeg") packs a feral punch that inspires devotion verging on fanaticism. The most hard-bitten Ardbeg devotees make up the house fan club known as the Committee. The members of this international cult—36,000 and growing—are ever thirsting for news of limited edition releases and new developments at their favorite distillery. They have their own soundtrack courtesy of Ardbeg house band Clann An Drumma, a thunderous quartet of drummers (and one bagpiper) who dress (and snarl) like Braveheart extras. One Committee member even went as far as to tattoo the whiskey's Celtic label onto his back.

Ardbeg is produced on Islay, an island in the Inner Hebrides off Scotland's west coast. It's a mystical place—a rugged, wind-swept land full of lore and legend. Over the centuries many seafaring cultures have left their mark, including the Celts from Ireland and Norse Vikings from across the North Sea. Christianity settled in early on the island; the eighth-century Kildalton Cross, one of the oldest and best preserved Celtic crosses in Scotland, stands on the edge of a peat bog with barely a blemish. (Its Celtic knot-work is replicated on Ardbeg's label.)

Islay's 3,000-odd inhabitants know two things best: whiskey making and whiskey drinking. (They're pretty good fishermen, too, with the bulk of their seafood catch exported to Spain.)