I've not tried Ardbeg, but I did recently reacquaint myself with a bottle of 10 y.o. Laphroaig (aka "Leapfrog") after a very long absence (>20 years!) It was every bit as satisfying as I remember Back in the day, their advert ran, "The line between love and hate is about 1/3 of the way down the bottle". True enough. The smoky, peaty character is something you either like or don't. (Some poor souls have been known to run screaming from the room.) As to the smokiness, I used to smoke a pipe and the tobacco I liked was a Virginia-Latakia blend (McLelland 5125 I think) and when I opened the Leapfrog, that tobacco came immediately to mind.

Haven't had Lagavulin for an equally long time, but I remember liking it as well. Ardbeg, as I recall from back in the day, was on the extreme end of the smoky/peaty scale.

BTW, for lovers of single malt whisky, you might enjoy this old (1996) CBC Ideas audio programme entitled, "Whisky: the Water of Life" where they sent - not exactly against his will, I suspect - then freelance contributor Paul Kennedy to Scotland to do a feature on the Scotch whisky industry. It's 55 minutes well spent, preferably with a wee dram to accompany it.