Written by Mika Tanimoto, Owner-Bartender, Bar Little Happiness
Once a year, Ardbeg releases its annual limited bottling for Ardbeg Day — the final day of the Feis Ile festival on Islay. The 2026 bottling is called DOLCE. It has a story worth telling.
La Dolce Islay: The Film Reference
The name and theme pay tribute to Federico Fellini’s 1960 masterpiece La Dolce Vita — “The Sweet Life” — which gave the world its shorthand for luxurious, indulgent living. Ardbeg’s twist: La Dolce Islay. The sweet life — but very, very smoky. What Fellini depicted as bittersweet beneath its glamour, Ardbeg makes explicit: richness and smoke, together, without apology. Sicily and Islay — two islands, one bottle.
The Marsala Wood Finish
The defining feature of DOLCE: Sicilian Marsala Dolce (sweet) wine casks plus classic bourbon casks. Marsala Dolce is the sweetest style of Sicily’s famous fortified wine — rich with dried fruit, apricot, raisin, vanilla. On Ardbeg’s heavily peated new make, the effect is striking: the peat does not disappear, but is wrapped in something uncharacteristically lush.
Tasting Notes
Aroma: Apricot, plump raisins, dates, bright green apple. Orange marmalade. Deeper: roasted mushroom, pine needles, salted fish, capers, olives.
Palate: Cinnamon, star anise, liquorice. Then maple-smoked wood, walnut-stuffed baked dates, honey, dark chocolate. Lemon peel, salted nuts, dry herbs.
Finish: Smoked wood, dry tobacco, bonfire ash — and Ardbeg’s characteristic generous peat oil, long and satisfying.
A Personal Note
Ardbeg was the first distillery I visited outside Japan — in 2009, when Bar Little Happiness had just moved and I had very little money. I brought back an Ardbeg Lord of the Isles. When the DOLCE shipment arrived in 2026, I opened the box and found an Ardbeg 25-year-old — one of 2,000 worldwide given by lottery alongside the DOLCE release. Seventeen years of relationship with this distillery, held in one cardboard box.
DOLCE is available to taste at Bar Little Happiness in Hiroshima.
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Bar Little Happiness | Hiroshima, Japan
Rum & Whisky specialists | 1,000+ bottles | English menu available
Open Mon–Sat 7PM–12:30AM, Sun 7PM–midnight
No cover charge. Walk-ins welcome.
english.little-happiness.jp