Head to head · same category, comparable price
Ardbeg 10 Year Old vs Laphroaig 10 Year Old
Laphroaig 10 Year Old is the cheaper bottle and the dearer whisky: £161 a litre of pure alcohol against £149. That inversion is the whole of this comparison.
Compiled by WhiskeyCask Editorial · Last verified 2026-07-30
Specifications side by side
| Ardbeg 10 Year Old | Laphroaig 10 Year Old | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Single malt | Single malt |
| Origin | Islay, Scotland | Islay, Scotland |
| Age | 10 years | 10 years |
| Strength | 46% ABV | 40% ABV |
| Cask | Ex-bourbon barrel | Ex-bourbon barrel |
| Bottle | 700 ml | 700 ml |
| RRP observed | £48 | £45 |
| Per 10cl | £6.86 | £6.43 |
| Per litre of alcohol | £149 | £161 |
| Chill-filtered | No | Not stated |
What separates them
Both Islay whiskies, from different distilleries.
Both state 10 years.
Both matured in ex-bourbon barrel; nothing further disclosed.
Chill filtration: Ardbeg 10 Year Old is not, Laphroaig 10 Year Old does not say.
Colour: Ardbeg 10 Year Old natural colour, Laphroaig 10 Year Old silent.
Laphroaig 10 Year Old: specifications not yet producer-confirmed.
What the price buys
Ardbeg 10 Year Old is £3.00 dearer a bottle than Laphroaig 10 Year Old.
Strength reverses that: Laphroaig 10 Year Old is £161 a litre of pure alcohol against £149.
Across the 32 bottles we can cost this way, Ardbeg 10 Year Old is 18th cheapest and Laphroaig 10 Year Old 21st cheapest.
Flavour, compared
View as table
| Axis | Ardbeg 10 Year Old | Laphroaig 10 Year Old |
|---|---|---|
| Peaty | 9 | 9 |
| Sweet | 3 | 2 |
| Fruity | 4 | 2 |
| Spicy | 5 | 4 |
| Woody | 4 | 4 |
| Sherried | 1 | 1 |
| Cereal | 4 | 4 |
| Oily | 7 | 6 |
No axis reaches the 3-point gap we call meaningful. Widest is fruity, 4 against 2.
Identical on peaty, woody, sherried and cereal.
Each bottle in its own right
Ardbeg 10 Year Old
Tar, lime and soot, then a long smoked-vanilla finish. Bracing rather than comfortable.
Ardbeg's own page states the whisky is matured solely in ex-bourbon casks and is non-chill filtered, with no sherry component at all — unusual for a flagship Islay malt. It is bottled at 46% where most competitors at the price sit at 40%.
Full record →Laphroaig 10 Year Old
Medicinal, seaweed and ash. The most divisive dram in mainstream whisky.
Full record →No overlap in what we list them for: Ardbeg 10 Year Old for first serious peated malt and value at 46%, Laphroaig 10 Year Old for testing whether you like peat at all.
Where these specifications come from
Producer and retailer pages for Ardbeg 10 Year Old and Laphroaig 10 Year Old: ardbeg.com, laphroaig.com. Figures are what those pages published when we last checked them, on 2026-07-30.