Ardbeg

Ardbeg distillery was founded in 1815 by the McDougall family. It quickly became very successful due to the need for growing popularity of blended scotch and the need to be underpinned with at least a small amount of peated whisky as a foundation malt.

The site grew into a small community with housing, a hall, greenhouses, a bowling green and a school for 100 pupils.

Like most distilleries it took the pains of the recessions in the 1920, but it was kept open until eventually becoming part of the DCL and Hiram Walker. Production increases in the 1960’s and 1970’s, when blends started to grow again in popularity. Demand for Ardbeg malt outstripped its capacity to malt and dry its own malt, resulting in peated malt being bought in from Port Ellen maltings from 1974.

Hiram Walker took full control in 1979, buying out DCL’s 50% share for £300,000, and everyone else’s holdings at the same time. By that time, blends were once again on the slide and, to compensate for the drop in demand for smoky malt, an unpeated single malt (Kildalton) began to be produced.

Just 2 years later, in 1981 the distillery was mothballed, but restarted again in 1989, albeit on an intermittent basis, by which time it had joined Laphroaig in the Allied Distillers stable.

In 1996, it was silent once more, but saved a year later by Glenmorangie, who paid £7m for the distillery and stock. By this time, Ardbeg had built its reputation as one of the cult single malts. Glenmorangie’s task therefore was both to manage expectations, eke out the remaining stock, and start recreating the brand.

Under Glenmorangie, the first age statement release was a 17-year-old. It wouldn’t be until 2008 for its own Ardbeg 10 to appear. From 2004, however, there had been incremental releases: ’Very Young’, ‘Still Young’ and ‘Almost There’ showed the work in progress.

Ardbeg Distillery Facts

Circa 1.1 million LPA of production capacity, a 3 still setup, 2 wash stills (18,000 litre capacity) and 1 spirit still (16,900 litre capacity), with 6 wash backs believed to be around 23,000 litres in capacity. It is believed that fermentation is somewhere between 50 and 56 hours with malt from a number of sources but primarily Islay concordat (from Port Ellen) peated to between 50 and 65 ppm. Fermentation yeast source is unknown.

The Range

Ardbeg distillery cranks out a standard core age statement bottlings, but the vast majority of production is dedicated to ultra premium limited edition bottlings.