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Ardbeg

SCOTCH SINGLE MALT WHISKIES > A
ARDBEG        
19 years old
40 %      
CONNOISSEURS CHOICE
Distilled 1974
Bottled 1993
Trademark of Proprietors:
Ardbeg Distillery Ltd
Gordon & Macphail, Elgin

ARDBEG        
22 years old
40%     
CONNOISSEURS CHOICE
Distilled 1974
Bottled 1996
Trademark of Proprietors:
Ardbeg Distillery Ltd
Gordon & Macphail, Elgin

ARDBEG        
23 years old
40%      
CONNOISSEURS CHOICE
Distilled 1975
Bottled 1998
Trademark of Proprietors:
Glenmorangie pic
Gordon & Macphail, Elgin

ARDBEG         
19 years old
40%      
CONNOISSEURS CHOICE
Distilled 1976
Bottled 1995
Proprietors: Ardbeg Distillery Ltd
Gordon & Macphail, Elgin

ARDBEG         
23 years old
40%     
CONNOISSEURS CHOICE
Distilled 1976
Bottled 1999
Trademark of Proprietors:
Glenmorangie pic
Gordon & Macphail, Elgin
               
ARDBEG         
21 years old
40 %         
CONNOISSEURS CHOICE
Distilled 1978
Bottled 1999
Trademark of Proprietors:
Glenmorangie pic
Gordon & Macphail, Elgin

ARDBEG         
18 years old
56 %      
CADENHEAD'S
AUTHENTIC COLLECTION
LAST  BOTTLE  AND  EMPTY
Cask Strenght
Distilled 1975
Bottled December 1993
Not diluted
No chill filtration
No colouring
Wm. Cadenhead, 32 Unionstreet,
Campbeltown

ARDBEG         
28 years old
53,2 %            
VINTAGE 1967
'BLACK ARDBEG'
Distilled 15.2.67
Matured in a dark oloroso butt
Butt no. 574
Bottled 11.95
488 bottles
Signatory Vintage
Scotch Whisky Co, Ltd, Edinburgh

ARDBEG         
28 years old
53,7 %             
VINTAGE 1967
Distilled 15.2.67
Matured in a pale oloroso butt
Butt no 575
Bottled 11.95
548 bottles
Signatory Vintage
Scotch Whisky Co, Ltd, Edinburgh
        
ARDBEG        
23 years old
51,2 %
LAST BOTTLE  AND EMPTY
VINTAGE 1974
Distilled 22.3.74
Cask No. 1063 & 65
Bottled 8.8.97
386 bottles
Signatory Vintage
Scotch Whisky Co, Ltd, Edinburgh

ARDBEG         
20 years old
43 %      
VINTAGE 1974
Distilled 27.9.74
Cask nos. 4383
Bottled 5.95
220 bottles
Signatory Vintage
Scotch Whisky Co, Ltd, Edinburgh

ARDBEG         
23 years old
43 %      
VINTAGE 1974
Distilled 22.3.74
Cask Nos. 1059,60 & 62
Bottled 8.97
610 bottles
Signatory Vintage
Scotch Whisky Co, Ltd, Edinburgh

ARDBEG        
8 years old
43 %     
VINTAGE 1992
SIGNATORY 2000
SIGNATORY MILLENNIUM EDITION
Distilled on 19th March 1992
Cask Nos. 414-415
Bottled on 28th March 2000
Natural Colour
910 bottles
Signatory Vintage
Scotch Whisky Co, Ltd, Edinburgh

ARDBEG         
11 years old
55,4 %       
THE SPIRIT OF SCOTLAND
Distilled 1991
Cask no. 1176
Bottled 3-12-02
Proprietors: Glenmorangie pic
Speymalt WhiskyDistiller Ltd, Elgin
               
ARDBEG         
TEN years old
46 %     
The Ultimate
Single Islay Malt Scotch Whisky
Non Chill - Filtered
Ardbeg Distillery Limited,
Isle of Islay, Argyll

Nose:
Exceptional balance and depth. At full strenght the aroma is a beguiling mix of toffee and chocolate sweetness, cinnamon spice and medicinal phenols. Fresh citrus and floral notes of white wine are evident as are melon, pear drops, general creaminess, fresh phenolic aroma of seaspray (iodine) and smoked fish. Hickory and coffee emergelater as the most volatile top notes fade.
Taste:
An initial moderate and clean sweetness is rapidly followed by a mouthful of deep peat notes, with tobacco smoke and strong espresso coffee, which then gives way totreacle sweetness and liquorice. The mouth feel is firstly lightly spiced (straingent), then chewing, mouthwatering, full and finally dry.
Finish:
Long and smoky. A smoky sweetness is left on the palate, with a crushed peat malted cereal character

ARDBEG         
17 years old
40 %     
The Ultimate
Single Islay Malt Scotch Whisky
Ardbeg Distillery Limited,
Isle of Islay, Argyll

Nose:
The gentlest of peats, yet deep and confident with an enticing sweetness - a heady mixture of malts and vanillins. Vaguely salty and very complex with the oak present but very much in harness. Just a hint of bourbon and an even fainter hint of tangy orange to widen the spectrum.
Taste:
There is a much greater presence of the peat in the taste than the nose suggests. The smo-kiness quickly hits the palate then tapers off. That said, the middle shows an exellent chewy malt alongside a touch of cocoa.
Finish:
The peat returs and guarantees an enormously long finale. The taste of the malt clings on and hints of liquorice and dry toast are detected. This form of oakiness continues but never becomes sappy or too dry as the peat balances this out beautifully.

ARDBEG         
29 years old
50 %     
THE OLD MALT CASK 50o
A Single Cask Bottling
Distilled March 1972
Finished in Sherry Cask
- Minimum 6 Months
Bottled August 2001
432 bottles
No Chill Filtration
No Colouring
Douglas Laing & Co, Ltd, Glasgow

ARDBEG        
27 years old
50 %
LAST BOTTLE  AND  EMPTY     
THE OLD MALT CASK 50o
Single Cask Bottling
Distilled March 1973
Bottled July 2000
282 bottles
No Chill Filtration
No Colouring
Douglas Laing & Co, Ltd, Glasgow

ARDBEG         
24 years old
50%      
THE OLD MALT CASK 50o
Single Cask Bottling
Distilled October 1975
Bottled May 2000
713 bottles
No Chill Filtartion
No Colouring
Douglas Laing & Co, Ltd, Glasgow

ARDBEG         
10 years old
50 %     
THE OLD MALT CASK 50o
Single Cask Bottling
Distilled September 1990
Bottled March 2001
312 bottles
No Chill Filtration
No Colouring
Douglas Laing & Co, Ltd, Glasgow

ARDBEG         
19 years old
43 %     
THE ULTIMATE SINGLE MALT
SCOTCH WHISKY SELECTION
Distilled 27.9.74
Cask No. 4395
Bottled 6.94
300 bottles
Genummerde flessen
Van Wees, Amersfoort

ARDBEG         
11 years old
55,6%      
SPIRIT OF SCOTLAND
Distilled 1991
Cask no. 1182
Bottled 21-08-02
Proprietors: Glenmorangie pic
Speymalt Whisky Dist.Ltd, Elgin

ARDBEG         
11 years old
55,8 %      
SPIRIT OF SCOTLAND
Distilled 1991
Cask no. 1174
Bottled 12-11-02
Proprietors: Glenmorangie pic
Speymalt Whisky Dist. Ltd, Elgin.
                 
ARDBEG         
29 years old
43%      
CONNOISSEURS CHOICE
Distilled 1974
Bottled 2003
Trade Mark of Proprietors:
Glenmorangie pic.
Gordon & Macphail, Elgin

ARDBEG   
UIGEADAIL                        
geen leeftijd vermelding
54,2 %    
The Ultimate
Single Islay Malt Scotch Whisky
Traditional Strenght
Non Chill - Filtered
Ardbeg Distillery Limited,
Isle of Islay, Argyll

Ardbeg 'Uigeadail' (pronounced Oog-a-dal) takes its name from the brooding, mysterious loch which provides the peat-laden water for Ardbeg. It is a special vatting of 1993 Ardbeg matured in bourbon barrels and many older sherry casks. The older casks bring luscious, sweet, raisiny tones to the unique Ardbeg taste.

Ardbeg 'Uigeadail' is non chill - filtered at traditional strenght which retains maxi¬mum flavour and gives more body and added dept. On adding water a little cloudiness may occur which is perfectly natural and is not a matter for concern

Nose:
The undiluted nose is deep and rounded - chocolate caramels and barley sugar combine with dates, raisins and smooth sherry notes. Later, you find leather and linseed oil. With water the sweetness gives way to malted honeycomb with flowering currants emerging through the smoky sweetness of a well-fired fruit pudding.
Taste:
Sweet, chewy and oily with a silky mouthfeel. The flavour is initially sweet, revealing fruit cake and treacle. This is followed by smoked, barbecued or honey-roast food with the slightest hint of olives.
Finish:
Again long, both sweet and dry with honey, treacle and a trace of lint

ARDBEG        
6 years old
58,9 %     
VERY YOUNG ARDBEG
Exclusive Committee Reserve
Single Islay Malt Scotch Whisky
For Discussion...
Distilled 1997
Bottled 2003
Ardbeg Distillery Limited,
Isle of Islay, Argyll

Since the distillery re-opened in 1997 many entusiasts of Ardbeg have been keen to sample our 'work in progress'. We have therefore decided to release a limited quantity of Ardbeg at six years old exclusively for members of the Committee. This expression has been bottled at cask strenght, is non chill-filtered and is drawn entirley from 'first fill' casks.
The result is a young gristy Ardbeg doing well, which haralds a continuing bright; future for the Ultimate Islay Malt. Your comments are welcome!

ARDBEG         
1975   
23 years old
43 %   
The Ultimate
Single Islay Malt Scotch Whisky
Distilled 1975
Bottled 1998
Limited Edition
Ardbeg Distillery Limited,
Isle of Islay, Argyll

ARDBEG         
1977    
46 %      
The Ultimate
Single Islay Malt Scotch Whisky
Very Old Single Islay
Distilled 1977
Non Chill - Filtered
Limited Edition
Ardbeg Distillery Limited,
Isle of Islay, Argyll
Jim Murray: simple one of the greatest experiences, whisky or otherwise, of your life.
David Broom: stunner, immense, incredibly, long, you 'll it the next day 96 points


ARDBEG     
1978      
19 years old
43 %   
The Ultimate
Single Islay Malt Scotch Whisky
Distilled 1978
Bottled 1997
Limited Edition
Ardbeg Distillery Limited,
Isle of Islay, Argyll

ARDBEG        
30 years old
40 %          
Finest Islay
Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Ardbeg Distillery Limited,
Isle of Islay, Argyll

After thirty years maturing on a wild shoreline, our weatherbeaten malt has come to be regarded as the Old Man of the Sea. Mellow and outstandingly smooth wihout losing any of its legendary stature
            
ARDBEG         
8 years old 46 %           
Distilled 1990
Cask Ref: MM 2998
Cask Type: Bourbon
Bottled June 1999
No Chill Fltration
No Colouring
Murray McDavid Ltd, Glasgow and London

For many years it was owned by our friends at Allied Distillers. Criminality allowed to languish in obscurity. Islay's greatest distillery was even closed bewteen 1981 and 1989. For several years we tried to persuade Allied to sell it - they finally agreed - but sadly not to us. Why Allied never did anything with this outstanding distillery remains one of the Scotch Whisky industry's greatest enigmas. Thankfully now, sailing under competent captaincy, we will all see more of this full, mellow, yet heavily peated aristocrat of a malt... Long live Ardbeg !

ARDBEG         
over 9 years old
43 %  
THE McGIBBON's PROVENANCE
AUTUMN DISTILLATION
Distilled Autumn 1990
Bottled Spring 2000
No Colouring
Not Chill Filtered
Douglas McGibbon & Co, Ltd, Glasgow

ARDBEG         
11 years old   
58,4%      
SPIRIT OF SCOTLAND
Distilled 1990
Bottled 2001
Trademark of Proprietors:
Glenmorangie pic
Speymalt Whisky Dist. Ltd, Elgin

ARDBEG        
25 years old
46 %     
LORD OF THE ISLES
Single ARDBEG
Islay malt scotch whisky
the ultimate whisky experience
Ardeg Distillery Limited, Isle of Islay

The Ardbeg distillery lies on the most southerly part of islay on the rugged, wind blown shores of the Atlantic ocean. Of all the islay whiskies, it is Ardbeg which stands alone as the most delicate and complex. At 25 years old this supreme 'Lord of the Isles' expres-sion perfectly reflects Ardbeg's hall mark aroma's; a peaty complexity of wood smoke,   -tarry rope and leather; all balanced by a delicate sweetness, a dram worchy of somerled hinself!
This rare old malt whisky is the supreme expression of Ardbeg, it has been slowly matured in oak barrel for twenty five years and non chill-filtered to retain maximum flavour. The lords of the isles ruled the western isles of Scotland from their 'council isle' on Islay from the 12th to the 15th century. The Celtic, norse warlord, somerled, founder of the lordship dynasty through his three sons dugall, ranald and angus was thus the progenitor of the two great clans od macdonald and macdougall.

The Ardbeg distillery was founded on islay in 1815 by John Macdougall.

Nose:
An exceptionally deep, rich and sweet nose: the sweetness of chocolate, marzipan and cherries, surrounding a deep and peaty centre. Cocoa and a rich maltiness are discovered woth layers of smoke and salt giving woodsmoke and saddle soap. Later, there is a hint of madarin fruit a gentle heather and lavender scent.
Taste:
Powerfully peaty and chewy with a luscious silky and oily mouth feel balanced by a mouth¬watering effect. The taste is initially sweet with vanilla and chocolate giving way rapidly to a crescendo of peat and cocoa.
Finish:
Finish is long and dry with chocolate malt, cocoa and crushed peat resting satisfyingly on the palate.

ARDBEG
6 years old
58,3%      
VERY YOUNG ARDBEG
Committee approved
Single Islay Malt Scotch Whisky
Distilled 1998
Bottled 2004
Non Chill - Filtered
Ardbeg Distillery Limited, Isle of Islay,
Argyll

This Very Young Ardbeg has been bottled at natural strenght, is non chill - filtered and drawn entirely from 'first fill' casks. The result is a vigorous Ardbeg on its path to full maturity, already packed full of flavour.

Since the distillery re-opened in 1997, many enthusiasts of Ardbeg have been keen to sample our work in progress - none more so than the worldwide aficionados of the Ardbeg Committee, formed to 'ensure that the doors of Ardbeg distillery never close again'.

It was to them that we released a limited bottling of Very Young Ardbeg to elicit their comments.

Such was their approbation that we have been emboldened to offer it to a wider audience so that other enthusiasts can monitor its path to 'full maturity', when it becomes our famed 10 years old.
Committee Approved.

ARDBEG         
10 years old
59,9%          
SINGLE CASK SCOTCH MALT WHISKY
Distilled May 94
Bottled Oct 04
Society Cask code 33.51
Outturn 293 Bottles
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society,
The Vaults, Leith, Edinburgh

The name means 'small headland' in Gaelic and this distillery has graced the southeast coast of Islay since 1815. This sample, from a refill hogshead is the colour of buttercup shine under the chin. The nose is smoky, salty and oily (smoked Appiewood cheese, charred pizza base, pancetta and olive oil). Water takes us from the kitchen to the farmyard - cut hay and udder wash (don 't ask!) The neat taste is big, warm, smoky and sweet whilr water brings out grass, putty and oily engines, while maintaining its fine balance.

A rather mellow, culinary version of a big boy's whisky.

The Society selected and bottled this Cask code 33.51 of Ardbeg, specially for the members of the Benelux Society, so this whisky is not for sale anywhere else in the world.

To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society in the Benelux in October 1994.

ARDBEG         
24 years old
57,6 %          
KILDALTON
Lightly Peated
Bottled at Cask Strenght,
Distilled: 1980
Bottled: 2004 in Cask Strength
Limited Edition 1300 Bottles
'A very unusual experience'.

Of all Islay's whiskies it is Ardbeg which stands alone as the peatiest, yet the most deli¬cate and complex.
However, back in the far off says of 1980 an experiment took place when distillery manager Hamish Scott produced small batches of un-peated and lightly peated malt at the distillery maltings. Limited quantities of a very special whisky, christened KILDALTON, followed which we are now delighted to share as a 'one off experience'.
By removing the peat, the fruity flavours of the purifier on the still are brought to the fore along with the waxiness of the wooden washbacks and more of the grainy flavours of the barley itself.
Ardbeg aficionados around the world will no doubt savour this very unusual experience along¬side some of their favourite (and very peaty Ardbegs) and applaud the invention of those who worked at the distillery back in those far off days. The 8th Century Celtic Cross which stands in the graveyard of Kildalton Church, a short distance from the distillery, has been an inspiration to pilgrims down the centuries. It continues to inspire us at the distillery, and visitors to Islay, to this day.

Tasting Notes:
An exceptional whisky that brings the subtle complexitty and sweetness of Ardbeg to the fore.
Colour: Deep gold
Nose: An immensely sweet, fruity and floral expression of Ardbeg, this is a sensational example distilled from very lightly peated malt. On first nosing, the aroma is reminiscent of an orchard of oranges, peaches and apricots, with rose hip syrup and pineapples. On futher nosing, chocolate and hints of tea tree oil are detected with eucalyptus oil and simmering spices in the background. With water, the exceptional complexity oh this whisky is dicovered as the flavours open up revealing a myriad of sweet and subtle aromas:- at first, creamy vanilla makes a huge en¬trance and takes centre stage, swiftly followed by fruit and nut cake, hints of apricot syrup and later the etheral fragrance of balsamic oil and bergamot.
Taste: Sensationally smooth and syrupy on the palate, yje initial sip is sweet and full with a dessert—like mixture of honey, pineapple chunks and lashings of condensed milk topped with fresh cream. Later, layers of the subtle fruits evolve on the palate with hints of orange blossom, peaches and apricots followed by tingling spices and lightly drying chocolate powder.
Finish:
The finish is an intriguing mixture of slimmering spices, chocolate powder and cream.

ARDBEG         
28 years old
43%      
CONNOISSEURS CHOICE
Distilled 1975
Bottled 2003
Proprietors: Glenmorangie pic
Gordon & Macphail, Elgin

ARDBEG         
10 years old
59,5%     
SINGLE CASK
SCOTCH MALT WHISKY
Distilled May 94
Bottled Oct 04
Society Cask code 33.50
Outturn 383 Bottles
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society,
The Vaults, Leith, Edinburgh
'Lang may your lum reek'.

Shouts of joy echoed in the whisky,world when this distillery was reborn in 1997. Moans of delight may be heard in the member's room now that it has returned to the bottling list.
A refill hoggie has produced this very pale but bright dram. It has a rather maculine nose-peat smoke and pears, coal tar soap and silage. With water it is like well-worked plasticine on an autumn heath. The palate is powerful, with soot, tar and smouldering sticks -'like sticking your head up a chimney' someone said - but the sweetness balances it up perfectly.

ARDBEG   
SERENDIPITY            
12  years old
40 %
SUPREME BLENDED
MALT SCOTCH WHISKY
Limited Edition

Serendipity
Blended malt born by mistake at Glenmorangie’sblending plant after some clever lateral thinking.
The Glenmorangie Company had no plans to produce this accidental blended malt; its creation arose from a mistake made in the blending hall at the company’s blending facility at Broxburn.
As a result of the error, Serendipity became a blend of Ardbeg and Glen Moray single malts, with Ardbeg making up most of the mix.
The result was a toned-down Ardbeg that Glenmorangie marketed as a ‘lighter taste of Islay’ bottled as a 12-year-old.

One production manager at The Glenmorangie Company described the creation of Serendipity as a disaster. Marketing manager Hamish Torrie had another view.
The mistake occurred in 2005 in the blending hall at Broxburn when a nameless operative dumped a large volume of 12-year-old Glen Moray into a much larger volume of older Ardbeg. However, Torrie decided to take advantage of the situation by releasing the accidental vatting as a limited edition expression he named Serendipity.
Some 16,000 bottles were produced – under the old Macdonald & Muir company name – which sold out very quickly at £39.99 per bottle. There are, however, a large number of bottles available at online auction sites, although their value has somewhat increased.
Serendipity was not the first large-scale blending error to have occurred at Broxburn. In 1999 a vat of Glenmorangie 21-year-old was accidently mixed with a smaller amount of another whisky. The mistake, which contained 80% Glenmorangie, was subsequently released as 80:20 by the company’s Douglas McNiven & Co. subsidiary

Tasting notes:
A whiff of fudge a very long nose
Colour:
Deep orange/gold
Nose:
Sweet, fruity and floral with hints of smoke. On first nosing, the aroma is reminiscent of the sweetness of a vanilla slice, followed by flowering currants and brambles, apricot syrup and figs, the scent of parma violets and a background of earthy/smoke tones. Rich chocolate notes simmer beneath the surface.
With water, the complexity of this whisky is discovered as the flavours open up, revealing a myriad of luscious soft and sweet aromas: - Highland toffee, chocolate limes and orange blossom emerge in between wafts of smoke. As the water mixes further with the whisky, rich malty notes are discovered revealing barley sugar, honeycomb and hints of almonds.
Taste:
Warming and tingly on the palate, the initial sip is sweet with a mouth-coating ef¬fect. The sweetness is detected as honeycomb, toffee and barley sugar dissolving on the tongue until smoke wafts into the centre of the palate bringing treacle and parma violets. The mouthfeel then becomes lightly drying with sugared almonds, chocolate powder and ground nutmeg resting on the palate.
Finish:
The finish is long with a curious mixture of sugared almonds, mint hunbugs and smoke, and vaguely fishy ?

SERENDIPITY
Someone must pay for this !
Now despite our veracious effotrs to be as upfront as possible, the harder hearted souls among you may still be alarmed to learn that a quantity of one's beloved Ardbeg has been calamitously transmogrified.
But let's be absolutely clear (not unlike the glass bottle this one-off whisky arrives in). At only £ 29,99 for this surprisingly pleasing expression, we believe - and hope you'll agree - that justice has prevailed.

We thought a pardon may be in 'Order'
Every order of Serendipity we receive will surely attest to the Committee's equitable appro¬val and lead th complete exoneration. Which is why we are asking the Committee to issue us with an official Pardon i.e. please sign the declaration when completing the order form, en¬closed.
Hush hush

Due to the extraordinary nature of events surrounding Serendipity, stocks are limited and thus, a speedy response is recommended. And while certain compulsory duties are aligned with the role of Committee Member - i.e. it is your mission to impart to the world 'all news Ardbeggian' - on this occasion however, we'd ask you to hold your tongue.
Well, at least until the whisky loosens it...
Technical note: Serendipity is 8 parts 'Very Old' Ardbeg with 2 parts Glen Moray

Thus it was that notorious day
We fused Ardbeg with neat Glen Moray
They weren't meant to mate
But it must have been fate
Cos everything turned out okay
 
The unforeseen but fortuitous union of two great single malts (you fd be forgiven for thinking it was deliberate) Macdonald & Muir Limited, Scotland
As we all know, mixing Ardbeg with anything other than water could be considered a mortal sin. But as the men who make it are-believe it or not- mere mortals, mistakes can happen. A recent such mix-up resulted in the creation of a supreme blended malt whisky made up of two parts of 1992 Glen Moray to eight parts of a very much older Ardbeg. At 40 %, chill-filtered and peaty, but with a refreshing lightness, it was a happy accident indeed. So we named it Serendipity (for surely it's a pity to waste it).

Serendi(pity) (pity to waste it!)
Noun. The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. Origin 1754: coined by Horace Walpole, from The Three Princes of Serendip, the Sri Lankan fairy tale in which the heroes were always making fortunate discoveries.
Distillery Manager's note: the predominant Islay Malt, is subtly softened by the lighter tones of the Glen Moray. At the lighter strenght of 40 % and chill-filtered it is a rare opportunity for Ardbeg lovers and the uninitiated to experience a lighter taste of Islay.

ARDBEG    
1978     
27 years old
43 %        
CONNOISSEURS CHOICE
Islay
Distilled 1978
Bottled 2005
Trade Mark of Proprietors:
Glenmorangie plc
Gordon & Macphail, Elgin

ARDBEG   
6 years old
56,2 %         
SINGLE CASK
SCOTCH MALT WHISKY
Date distilled May 98
Date bottled Apr 05
Society Cask code 33.57
Outturn 779 Bottles
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society,
The Vaults, Leith, Edinburgh
'Stornoway black pudding
wrapped in Elastoplast'

Whisky connoisseurs heaved a sight of relief when this distillery was bought by Glenmorangie in 1997, since its previous owners, who also owned Laphroaig, had allowed the distillery to languish.

This sherry gorda is owned by the Society, and was selected on account of the exellence of its performance last fill: it has done a stupendous job this time. The colour is deep mahogany, the nose deeply mature, with treacle toffee and rich Stornoway black pudding ot the fore, backed by light medicinal phenols (fabric plaster). The flavour at full strenght is very powerfull - 'like eating an entire barbeque, charcoal and all'. Water brings up some sulphur, but this is soon replaced by fishing boats (swabbed down with Dettol), and then a return to treacle toffee. The flavour is smooth, sweet and smoky; a big heavy texture and a long finish, with lingering smoke and some maple syrup in the aftertaste. Amazing!

ARDBEG   
6 years old
59,4%        
SINGLE CASK
SCOTCH MALT WHISKY
Date distilled May 98
Date bottled Apr 05
Society Cask code 33.55
Outturn 262 Bottles
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society,   
The Vaults, Leith, Edinburgh
'Young but devine'

The distillery nearest Kildalton (meaning 'the church of the disciple') has many disciples.
This light gold sample is from a first fill barrel. The nose is light and smooth with subtle smoke, salty sea breezes and the fragrance of pine needles and dill. Water brings woollen cassocks to the nose. The palate has initial sweetness, a touch of salt and big srnoke inthe finish. Especially with water there is a delicious balance of vanilla and icing sugar sweetness agaginst the fragrantly robust smoke. Young but devine - you could be on the Kildalton seashore or in Heaven - take your pick.

ARDBEG     
9 years old
40 %         
CONNOISSEURS CHOICE 1996
Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Distillation Date: April 1996
Barrels Bottling Date: April 2005
Cask Type: Refill Bourbon
Trade Mark of Proprietors:
The Glenmorangie Company Ltd
Gordon & Macphail, Elgin

Rich and full flavoured with a sweet phenolic character, balanced with some spice and herbal notes and a salty edge.

Dramatically perched on the southern edge of the island of Islay, surrounded by treacherous seas and battered by strong winds, Ardbeg Distillery has produced one of the heaviest and peatiest malts likely to be encountered.
                
ARDBEG  
1996   
9 years old  
53,1  %         
SPIRIT OF SCOTLAND
Single Islay Malt Scotch Whisky
Distilled 1996
Cask no. 937
Bottled 1-9-05
Trade Mark of Proprietors: Glenmorangie plc
Speymalt Whisky Dist, Ltd, Elgin

ARDBEG   
16 years old
46 %         
AIRIGH NAM BEIST
ARDBEG - THE UNTAMED SPIRIT OF ISLAY
Limited 1990 Release
Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Bottled in The Year 2006
Non Chill - Filtered
Ardbeg Distillery Limited,
Isle of Islay, Argyll

(arry nam baysht)
The phonetic pronunciation of Airich Nam Beist which in the Gaelic language literally means 'shelter, or pasture of the animals'. It is also the name given to the small hill loch that forms the fulcrum between Loch Uigeadail and Charlie's Dam at Ardbeg Distillery.
Release The Beast...
The small hill loch at Airigh Nam Beist has a balancing role in delivering the peat-laden water of Uigeadail to the distillery. This perfectly sums up the balance and complexity in all Ardbeg, where the peatiness is tamed by the sweet alchemy of the Ardbeg distillation process.
Entirely drawn from very rare whisky stocks that were distilled and laid down in 1990 and aged in oak d !casks,

ARDBEG       
2008                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
ALMOST THERE  
54,1 %    
Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky
The Ultimate Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Distilled 1998
VERY  YOUNG  Bottled 2004
STILL  YOUNG  Bottled 2006
ALMOST  THERE  Bottled 2007
2008   TEN  YEARS  OLD
3 rd  RELEASE   BOTTLED  2007
Non Chill - Filtered
Ardbeg Distillery Limited, Isle of Islay, Argyll  

The Peaty Path to Maturity  1998 - 2008
Since the distillery re-opened in 1997, many enthusiasts of Ardbeg have been keen to sample our
work in pogress – none more so than the worldwide aficionados of the Ardbeg Committee, formed
to ‘ensure that the doors of Ardbeg distillery never close again’. It was to them that we released a
limited bottling of ‘VERY  YOUNG’ Ardbeg for discussion and comment.

“Still Young” Ardbeg was bottled in 2006 and “Almost There” Ardbeg is now the third and final
limited release along the peaty road                                                                                                                          

ARDBEG
2008                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
RENAISSANCE  
55,9 %                                                           
Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky
The Ultimate Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Distilled 1998
VERY  YOUNG  Bottled 2004
STILL  YOUNG  Bottled 2006
ALMOST  THERE  Bottled 2007
WE' VE  ARRIVED  Bottled 2008
Final Release Bottled 2008  RENAISSANCE
Non Chill - Filtered
Ardbeg Distillery Limited, Isle of Islay, Argyll                            

ARDBEG  
40 %                                                               
BLASDA
LIGHTLY  PEATED
Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky
THE  UNTAMED  SPIRIT  OF  ISLAY
Limited Release
Ardbeg Distillery Limited
Isle of Islay, Argyll

In Gaelic, Blasda means ‘sweet and delicious’ welcome to the lighter taste of Islay !

Blasda, ‘sweet and delicious’. Ardbeg may be famed for packing a peaty punch, but there is more to The Ultimate Islay Malt than meets the eye 9or indeed nose or tastebud). To prove
it, we undertook an experiment: to tame our usual mighty peating level and allow Ardbeg’s
‘lighter’qualities to shine. The happy result is Blasda, which in Gaelic means ‘sweet and
delicious’

Blasachd, ‘a tasting’. So how does a lightly peated Blasda compare with the peatiest of all
Islay malts, Ardbeg 10 years old ? With the peating level  tamed to an average of only
8 parts per million phenol; (8 ppm) in the bottle. Blasda unmasks the delicious sweetnes of
sherbet vanilla, chocolate limes and the ethereal floral fragrance that in inherent in all ex-
pressions of Ardbeg

Blasdagraich, ‘smacking your lips’. Here at Ardbeg, we like to serve Blasda as an aperitif.
before the main event that is Ardbeg 10 years old. Wherever you are in the world, join us
for a Blasda at 8 ppm and enjoy the lovely, lip – smacking, lighter taste of Ardbeg

Blasphemy ?What have we done? In taming the peat to 8ppm and, inusually for Ardbeg,
bottling it ‘chill – filtered’ at 40 % ABV, some might say we have challenged Ardbeg’s
most sacred truths. But when the result is so light, sweet and delicious,

ARDBEG  
Aged 10 years
57,2 %                                         
SINGLE  MALT  SCOTCH  WHISKY
FROM  A  SINGLE  CASK  
Society Single Cask No. 33.72
THE  ANNIVERSARY  25  YEARS
1983 - 2008
Distilled May 1998
Cask type 1st Fill barrel / Ex Bourbon
Outturn 255 Bottles
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society,
The Vaults, Leith, Edinburgh
'Mellow treat'

We, the Tasting Panel, verify that the Scotch Malt Whisky inside this bottle has been passed
under some of the most scrupulous noses in the world and approved for release as a Society
bottling. Only single cask whiskies that promise to intrigue, entertain and delight our
members are selected, true to our motto: ‘To leave no nose upturned’

A real treat. The full strength nose is medicinal and harbour – like with burning heather.
Sweet with water, but earthy. The palate is cool with oomph; Fisherman’s friends, saccharin
and latte. Water brings chimney soot and rich fruit.

This Islay distillery ceased its production in 1981. Happily in 1997, this beautiful malt began
to flow again. One whiff of this and the Panel knew they were in a treat ! The nose at full
strength was medicinal and harbour – like as well as burning heather. With water it was sweet
and sharp but earthy. There was also pipe tobacco in the nose. The palate was sweet and cool
but had an oomph. It had Fisherman’s friends, saccharin and latte in the aftertaste

With water there was chimney soot and a rich fruit mix. It appeared to be more rounded and
integrated with water. A mellow version of a peated legend

ARDBEG  
Aged 10 years
57,8 %                                         
SINGLE  MALT  SCOTCH  WHISKY
FROM  A  SINGLE  CASK
Society Single Cask No. 33.73
THE  ANNIVERSARY  25  YEARS
1983   -  2008
Distilled May 1998
Cask type 1st Fill Sherry Gorda
Outturn 782 Bottles
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society,
The Vaults, Leith, Edinburgh
'An entire meal - and more !

Gorda, oak Butt, 600 liter inhoud.
We,  the Tasting Panel, verify that the Scotch malt Whisky inside this bottle has been passed
under some of the most scrupulous noses in the world and approved for release as a Society
bottling. Only single cask whiskies that promise to intrigue, entertain and delight our members are slected, true to our motto: ‘To leave no nose upturned’

The nose is a menu of caramelised onions, burnt toast, hot – smoked salmon and lemon. Also
antiseptic and smoke. A rich palate; cinder toffee, heather smoke and walnut whip. Water
brings a pistachio, macadamia and coconut nose, sweet smoke and ashes to the palate.

We were contemplating the nose – someone mentioned cheap lipstick, the lady – chef was
going on about damp woolly socks (again) – when the polevaulter said ‘this is making me
hungry’. Sure enough, it communicated caramelised onions, burnt toast, hot – smoked salmon
toffee and lemon cheesecake – an entire meal ! We also found antiseptiv and smoke. The
palate was exceptionally rich with cinder toffee, heather smoke and walnut whip in the finish
The reduced nose had grapefruit, sticky toffee pudding, pistachio, carob and coconut, while
the sweet – but – tannic palate contained golden syrup, leather cleaner, smoke and ashes.
A mouth – watering dram from the southeast corner of Islay.    

ARDBEG                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
STELLAR  RELEASE                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
58,9 %          
SUPERNOVA
THE  ULTIMATE  ISLAY
SINGLE  MALT  SCOTCH  WHISKY
THE  UNTAMED  SPIRIT  
OF  ISLAY
Non chill - filtered
Limited Release
Ardbeg Distillery Limited,    
                                                     
Supernova, bottled at high strength and non chill – filtered, is the peatiest Ardbeg
ever with a peating level well in excess of 100 parts per million.

This is a limited release, previously discussed  (at length) with the Ardbeg Commit-
tee – the true heroes of Ardbeg’s meteoric rise to peaty power
           
Supernova, bottled at high strength and non chill – filtered, is the peatiest Ardbeg            
ever with a peating level well in excess of 100 parts per million.
           
This is a limited release, previously discussed  (at length) with the Ardbeg Commit-             
tee – the true heroes of Ardbeg’s meteoric rise to peaty power
       
The  Peatiest Ardbeg ever !         
The Ardbeg Distillery lies on the most southerly part of Islay and on the rugged shores         
of the Atlantic Ocean
         
Just outside Port Ellen, on the road to Ardbeg , there is an ancient standing stone; the         
remains of a prehistoric observatory built by our ancestors to track the movement of          
the stars and planets across the sky. But could they have predicted that, one day, an         
even greater star would be born ?
        
Gazing up at the stars in the dark Islay skye, we reflected on Ardbeg’s dazzling repute-         
tation as the best whisky on Earth
         
Which got us thinking about earth. Or more specifically, peat…. What if we could cre-         
ate the peatiest Ardberg ever ? Would it be possible for all that peat to shine, without          
overpowering the galaxy of deliciously complex yet subtle Ardbeg flavours ?
        
Welcome then to Ardbeg Supernova, where the full, peaty punch of this legendary dis-         
tillery  is brought alive in an exceptional and limited release. Ardbeg has long held its          
reputation as the peatiest, most complex and balanced of all the Islay whiskies, whilst
          
Supernovae are one of the most powerful, heavenly phenomena known to man – an en-         
tirely apt description therefore, for what the foryunate few can anticipate in every glass
         
Techical  Wizardry        
Our boffins, who measure and calculate everything, used something called H P L C,         
(High Perforance Liquid Chromatography0 to measure the peatiness of this very rare
          
Ardbeg in infinitesimally precise amounts. After much test tube bubbling they told          
us what our taste buds had already suspected, that this mighty Ardbeg has a staggering          
peatiness level well in excess of 100 parts per million – way beyond the customary          
heavy peat levels foun din our famed Ardbeg Ten Years Old. Supernova thus perfectly            
describes this ‘Stellar explosion’ of flavours   
          
Flavour  
Constellation            
Deep Gold             
Salt Explosion            
Smoke             
Hot             
Big            
Sizzling            
Flowering Currants             
Gristy Sensations           
Powerful             
Peaty Punch             
Barbecue             
Peat Oils             
Cigar Smoke            
Deep Herbal             
Peat Moss            
Earthy             
Tarry Ropes             
Peaty            
Long             
Coffee            
Deep             
Blast of Brine             
Poweful             
Warm & Drying            
Spritely Display
                                                       
ARDBEG  
1976   
over 31 years old  
52,4 %                               
SINGLE  CASK
Single Islay Malt Scotch Whisky
CASK  STRENGHT
Date Cask Filled: 4 Nov 1976
Cask No: 2397
Cask Type: Sherry Butt
Date Bottled: 10 June 2008
Numbered Bottles
Output: 519 Bottles
Signature: Michael Head, Distillery Manager
Ardbeg Distillery Limited, Isle of Islay, Argyll

Tasting Notes Cask No. 2397:
Colour: Deep golden
Aroma:
Ardbeg at its most paradoxial – powerful and pungent, yet displaying a degree of delicacy and
balsamic freshness. At full strength, dark chocolate is filled with cherry brandy and infused with tarry peat smoke. Marzipan, toffee and vanilla mingle with rum and raisin ice cream; then the sweetness is sliced through by pungent black peppercorns, fennel and the salty – balsamic complexity of menthol, pine resin and sea spray. Barbequed bananas, cinnamon –
spiced pears and caramalised walnuts bring sizzling warmth and deep maturity.

With water, waves of classic Ardbeg notes emerge, fused with juicy malt, luscious fruits
and oily nuts: tarry ropes, briny sea – salt and fresh zesty limes battle it out against blueberry
pie, spiced plum skins and weighty crushed sultanas. Creamy honey, treacle toffee and hazel-
nuts collide with pinesap, cedar and iodine. Espresso and cream simmers bin the background.

Taste:
Rich and oily with an intense burst of smoked berry fruits, treacle and juicy malt. The taste is
initially deep and powerful as an avalanche of mouthwatering baked blueberry pie, dried
apricots, dates and plums deepens and rolls over the tongue, drizzled with treacle and sprink-
ling of peaty – demerara sugar. A mouthful of Macchiato coffee and clotted cream rises to
a crescendo bringing a robust and earthy warmth, before a wave of briny – iodine, powdery
violets and walnut oil freshens then dries the palate with lingering tarry espresso.

Finish:
Long, spiced, oily and salty with spiced blueberry, treacle, sun – dried raisins and walnut oil.

Dr. W.B. Lumsden, Master Distiller  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
ARDBEG  
Aged 10 years   
56,6 %            
SINGLE  MALT  SCOTCH  WHISKY
FROM  A  SINGLE  CASK
Distilled May 1998
Cask type: 1st Fill Sherry Gorda
1 of only 497 bottles
Society Single Cask No. 33.74
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, The Vaults,
Leith, Edinburgh
"A dirty dram for Mary Poppins"

We, the Tasting Panel, verify that the Scotch Malt Whisky inside this bottle has been passed
under some of the most scrupulous noses in the world and approved for release as a Society
bottling. Only single cask whiskies that promise to intrigue, entertain and delight our members are selected, true to our motto: “To leave  no nose upturned”

The nose has Deep Heat, menthol and plum jam. The palate swoops and dives with coal – tar
and chimneys at full strength, but toffee and smoke with a sherry and raisin finish in reduction. Water brings sweetness to the nose – puff candy and sticky – toffee pudding.

The Vault – maniac said it cleared his sinuses ! Others found Deep Heat, menthol and seaweed; the nose then developed plum jam and prunes. The magnificient unreduced palate
had sweet parma violets, smoke and coal – tar. “Like licking an ashtray” someone said,
while the manager called it “A Dick van Dyke chimney –sweep’s dram”. Water promoted
sweetness on the nose – puff candy, stick – toffee pudding and vanilla, with Fruit ‘n Fibre
and tobacco pouches. The palate became toffee and smoke with dried fruit and sweet sherry
in the finish. The distillery draws water from Loch Uigeadail and the whisky swoops and dives in the mouth.  
  
ARDBEG
Aged 10 years
56.3 %                                  
SINGLE  MALT  SCOTCH  WHISKY
FROM  A  SINGLE  CASK
Distilled May 1998
Cask Type: First Fill Barrel
1 of 242 bottles
Society Single Cask No: 33.76
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, The Vaults,
Leith, Edinburgh
"A civilized scout camp"

Over – ripe melon to start, soon swamped by charred wood and carbolic soap, with barbecued
pineapple. Fireworks and space dust to taste. Water brings hemp roses, toasted bananas and a
sweet, salty taste, with smoke and dark chocolate in the finish

We, the Tasting Panel, verify that the Scotch Malt Whisky inside this bottle has been passed
Under some of the most scrupulous noses in the world and approved for release as a Society
bottling. Only single cask whiskies that promise to intrigue, entertain and delight our members
are selected, true to our motto:” To leave no nose upturned “

A full – on example of the make ! Rich fruitiness (over – ripe Gallia melon) is soon swamped
by charred wood and carbolic soap. “Parma ham on a charred stick”, “barbequed pinapple chunks”
The taste at full strength is surprisingly sweet and salty, then an explosion – Wow ! – like a com-
bination of fireworks and space –dust. Water brings on the boy – scouts: hemp ropes and canvass,
but also barbequed banana with dark chocolate. The taste, reduced, is still sweet but not so salty,
with wafts of smoke, “like someone’s  clothes when they’ve been sitting by a bonfire, and dark
(70 % cocoa) chocolate in the aftertaste. Think Kildalton, you got it !

ARDBEG                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
CORRYVRECKAN    
57.1 %                
THE  ULTIMATE  ISLAY  SINGLE
MALT  SCOTCH  WHISKY
Not for the Faint Hearted !
THE  UNTAMED  SPIRIT  OF  ISLAY
Ardbeg Distillery Limited, Isle of Islay, Argyll                                
Ardbeg – not for the Faint Hearted !

The Ardbeg Distillery lies on the most southerly part of Islay and on the rugged shores of the
Atlantic Ocean

To the north of Islay and Jura is the world’s second largest whirlpool, the famous Corryvreckan,

This thunderous, seething cauldron is named after the Viking Prince Breacan, who apparently met
his watery end there, proving his devotion to the daughter of the Lord of the Isles

Spinnning a different  tale…

This is the legend of Corryvreckan, but not as you have heard it before. Here on Islay we spin a
different tale, beginning with the same threads but its ending not yet woven. You remember Breacan,
the Viking prince who fell in love with an Islay princess and was challenged to prove his devotion
by surviving three nights in Cailleach’s whirlpool. The brave suitor sailed into the perilous mael-
strom, but by one the three ropes which he carried to anchor his vessel were puled asunder

Thus, says the legend, Breacan perished beneath the whirlpool that now bears his name: the time has come Corryvreckan.  But it is not so !  For Cailleach Bheare, the ancient goddess who guards the
whirlpool, chose life for the prince and took him to her watery lair, where he has sleeping, in dark
silent stillness. Now the time has come for her to return him to us. What form will he take? We do
not now, yet we are dawn towards it. Fearing it, yet daring ourselves to see it. Powerful and dangerous. A terrfying spectacle… A wild, untamed spirit….

Ardbeg Corryvreckan is a heady and powerful expression. Swirling aromas and torrents of deep
peaty, peppery taste lurk beneath the surface of this beautifully balanced dram. It is the epitome
of Ardbeg, ‘the untamed spirit of Islay   

ARDBEG
Aged 11 years  
55.4 %                                
SINGLE  MALT  SCOTCH  WHISKY  
FROM  A  SINGLE  CASK
Distilled May 1998
Cask Type: First Fill Barrel
1 of 198 bottles
Society Single Cask No: 33.78
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, The Vaults,
Leith, Edinburgh
"Leaves little flickering fires"
spoorloos of leeg

ARDBEG    
Aged 10 years  
56.4 %
SINGLE  MALT  SCOTCH  WHISKY
FROM  A  SINGLE  CASK
Society Single Cask No. 33.86
Distilled Sept.1999
Cask Type: 1st Fill Barrel
Outturn: 243 bottles
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society,
The Vaults, Leith, Edinburgh
"Hot N Cold"

The nose evokes a fusion of hot and cold (chocolate mint, jalapeno pepper, smoke and
menthol); water brings beeswax, citronella, patchouli and vanilla. The hot neat palate
( chillies in dark chocolate, spicy spare ribs) changes with water to citrus – spiced tea,
ozone and mint.

The nose was a fusion of contrasts: dark chocolate Kendal mint cake and jalapeno
pepper, hot smoke and cool menthol, clean swimming pool and dirty coal dust. The
neat palate was big, hot and peppery – chillies in dark chocolate, hot and spicy
blackened Cajun spare ribs with Tabasco sauce, drying out to leave coal smoke into
the long finish. The nose with water softened (like taming Yogi bear someone said)
revealing beeswax and fragrant citronella with patchouli incense  and creamy vanilla.
The reduce palate was like citrus – spiced tea – with cinnamon and cloves, lemon
and ginger tea. Ozone cleansed the palate whilst more water brought a powdered
chalkiness. This distillery on the southern shore of Islay was mothballed between 1981
and 1989.
 
We, the Tasting Panel, verify that the Scotch Malt Whisky inside this bottle has been
passed under some of the must scrupulous noses in the world and approved for release
as a Society bottling. Only single cask whiskies that promise to intrigue, entertain and
delight our members are selected, true to our motto”To leave no nose upturned”.

ARDBEG
SUPERNOVA   
60.1 %
THE  ULTIMATE  ISLAY  SINGLE  MALT
SCOTCH  WHISKY
S N   2 0 1 0
Limited Release
Ardbeg Distillery Limited, Isle of Islay, Argyll

Back by populair demand, this 2010 limited release has a deeper, earthier character
With the same phenomenal peatiness as the 2009 edition.

ARDBEG  
Guaranted  
10  years old  
46 %
Ardbeg Distiklery Limited, Isle of Islay

ARDBEG     
Aged  10  years  
57.6 %    
SINGLE  MALT  SCOTCH
WHISKY  FROM  A  SINGLE  CASK
Society Single Cask No. 33.87
Distilled February 2000
Cask Type: 1st Fill Barrel
Outturn: 255 bottles
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society,
The Vaults, Leith, Edinburgh
"Mossy Mohito"

We, the Tasting Panel, verify that the Scotch Malt Whisky inside this bottle
has been passed under some of the most scrupulous noses in the world and
approved  for release as a Society bottling.Only single cask whiskies that
promise to intrigue, entertain and delight our members are selected true to
our motto:” To leave no nose upturned”

The nose was balanced, multi – layered and full of flavor collisions: soot with
fresh peach and elderflower: damp moss, grilled trout and lemon; pine needles,
pathchouli and ash. The neat palate fused sweetness and smoke – fresh tobac-
co  leaves , hot spices and soot; earthy and perfumed smoke. Addition of water
revealed more sweetness with juicy peaches and zesty limes. The, the contrasts
of birch tar, plasticene and clean ash appeared to provide smoky depth and
intensity. The reduced palate became juicy, salty and herbal – Kendal mint
chocolate with mossy lime mohito, and coal dust lingering in the bachground.
From the ‘litte head – land’ distillery near Kildalton.

ARDBEG    
Age  8 years  
57,5 %     
SINGLE  MALT  SCOTCH  WHISKY
FROM  A  SINGLE  CASK
Distilled   October 2001
Cask Type: 1st Fill Bourbon Barrel
1 of 234 Bottles
Society Single Cask No: 33.92
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, The Vaults,
Leith, Edinburgh
"Earth daughter"

We the Tasting Panel, verify that the Scotch malt Whisky inside this bottle has been
passed under some of the most scrupulous noses in the world and approved for
releases as a Society bottling.

Only single cask whiskies that promise to intrigue, entertain and delight our members
are selected, true to our motto:  “To leave no nose upturned”

Dried peat, singed heather and bog myrtle, with fresh citric and mineral notes behind.
The phenols in the taste are more earthy than smoky; green tea and jasmine tea at
reduced  strength, with lemon and lychees.

Behind the first impression of dried peat, singed heather and bog myrtle, are fresh
citric notes and mineral bath salts, becoming smoky after a while, in the mouth
the phenols are more earthy than smoky, after a sweet, acidic and salty start – war-
ming, Water freshens it even more, introducing lemon and lychee notes; behind this
“a damp boathouse on a lake surrounded by woods” – but vital overall, not flat.

Sweetness and lemony acidity now dance across the tongue with lightly smoked
green tea, and jasmine tea in the finish.

This is a lightly peated expression of a usually heavily peated malt from Islay’s cult
distillery.

ARDBEG  
Aged 11 years  
46 %                               
CHIEFTAIN's  SINGLE  MALT
SCOTCH  WHISKY
LIMITED  EDITION  COLLECTION
Islay
Distillation date: june 1998
Wood type: Barrel
Cask number: 1778
Bottling date: March 2010
Number of bottles: 276
Unchill - Filtered
Natural Colour
Ian MacLeod Distillers Ltd, Scotland        

ARDBEG      
Age 10 years  
55,9%                  
SINGLE  MALT  SCOTCH  WHISKY
FROM  A  SINGLE  CASK
Distilled August 1999
Cask Type: Refill Butt / ex sherry
1 of 626 Bottles
Society Single Cask No: 33.93
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, The Vaults,
Leith, Edinburgh
"Tarry peppermint tea"

Vanilla fudge then Coal Tar soap and fragrant smoke. Densely sweet to taste, with
salt, green sticks and charcoal, and a cooling mintiness which becomes morapparent when water is added – like tarry peppermint tea

We, the Tasting Panel, verify that the Scotch Malt Whisky inside this bottle has been
passed  under some of the most scrupulous noses in the world and approved for
releases as a Society bottling.

Only single cask whiskies that promise to intrigue, entertain and delight our members
are selected, true to our motto: “To leave no nose upturned”.

Vanilla fudge is soon overwhelmed by Coal Tar soap – “a light breeze of fragrant smoke wafting over carbolic”- and later charcoal. Tasted at natural strength, we
discerned a “dense sweetness”then green sticks and charcoal sticks, and a fresh
clove- or toothpaste-like mintiness. Water places it “down on the farm”- perhaps
in a stable canvas, hemp rope and mature horse manure (according to one).

The texture is soft and smooth, the taste sweet and lightly salty, with smoke in the finish and tar in the aftertaste, but also a fresh, cooling effect “like peppermint tea”

A mild example of an unusually pungent malt, made at the northern – most end of
Kildalton Parish.

ARDBEG  
Age  5  years   
60.8 %    
SINGLE  MALT  SCOTCH  WHISKY
FROM  A  SINGLE  CASK
Date Distilled: 20 Dec 2005
Cask Type: 2 Fill Sherry Butt
Outturn / One of only 252 Bottles
Society Single Cask No: 33.112
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society,
The Vaults, Leith
"Powerful, elegant and atmospheric"
.
We, the tasting Panel, verify that the Scotch Malt Whisky inside this bottle has been
passed under some of the most scrupulous noses in the world and approved for re-
lease as a Society bottling.

Only single cask whiskies that promise to intrigue, entertain and delight our members
are selected, true to our motto: “To leave no nose upturned”.

The nose, with its peat smoke and bog myrtle, evokes Islay – also beeswax, chocolate
tar and carbolic; water brings pine resin, citrus, lobster and chorizo.

The palate attacks with powerful, outhful energy; birch tar, toffee, leather and grilled
crab – just stunning.

Youthful, powerful – yes – but also elegant and atmospheric – the nose seemed quin-
tessentially Islay – peat fire smoke and bog myrtle – as well as chocolate, beeswax,
salty earthiness, tar and carbolic.

The unreduced palate had a tongue – shriveling  attack, yet with amazing toffee sweet-
ness; birch tar and waxy textures.

Water altered the nose to combine seafood saltiness, herbal, pine resin and citrus ele-
ments and something savoury (someone suggested lobster and chorizo).

The reduced palate evoked lobster or crab from the grill, some leather, plenty of sweet-
ness and a juicy, outhful energy – we thought it stunning.

From the distillery that Glenmorangie re – awakened in 1997.

ARDBEG   
Age  11  years  
55,6 %   
SINGLE  MALT  SCOTCH  WHISKY
FROM  A  SINGLE  CASK
Distilled August 1999
Cask type: Refill Butt / ex Sherry
Outturn: 1 of 468 Bottles
Society Single Cask No: 33.109
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society,
The Vaults, Leith, Edinburgh
“Delightful intensity of sherry and smoke “

We, the Tasting Panel verify that the Scotch Malt Whisky inside this botlle has been
passed under some of the most scrupulous noses in the world and approved for
release as a Society bottling. Only single cask whiskies that promise to intrigue,
entertain and delight our members are selected, true to our motto: “ To leave no
nose upturned “.

The varied nose offers maple syrup, honey, ginger , cassis, leather, heather, sherry
and burnt toast.

Water adds barbecued pork, and lavender. The intense palate combines sherry and
smoke, but also has roasted chestnuts, scorched heather, parma violets and coffee
dregs.

There seemed to be a bit of everything on the nose – maple syrup, caramel and
honey, pear and blackcurrant, ginger, sherry, heather, leather, mushrooms compost
and burnt toast.

The unreduced palate was a delightful intense combination of sherry and smoke, with
roasted chestnuts, scorched heather, parma violets and smoething earthy, like a
dunnage warehouse floor.

The reduced nose held our interest, with barbecued pork, smoked fish, charred nuts
and  lavender fudge.

The palate now had coffee cup dregs, lavender soap and a curious jelly after taste.

The distillery, at the end of the Kildalton Road  , has three pagoda roofs.

ARDBEG
Aged  13 years   
55.2 %   
SINGLE  MALT  SCOTCH  WHISKY                     
FROM  A  SINGLE  CASK Distilled October 1997
Cask Type: Second Fill Barrel / ex Bourbon of only 223 Bottles
Society Single Cask 33.102
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society,
The Vaults, Leith, Edinburgh
"Smoked porcine"

We, the Tasting Panel verify that the Scotch Malt Whisky inside this bottle has been passed under some of the most scrupulous noses in the world and approved for release as a
Society bottling.

Only single cask whiskies that promise to intrigue, entertain and delight our members are
Selected, true to our motto: “ To leave no nose upturned “.

Sweet and savoury – maple syrup drenched smoky bacon, hot smoked pork fat, lavender honey, pulled pork, and with maritime character of fish boxes, anchovies, dune grass, sardines on toast and salt pans.

This is a well balanced dram.
                          
With dune grass, peat reek, hot smoked pork fat, thyme, smoked bacon & banana sand –wich ( on wholemeal toast ) and fish boxes the Panel were transported in various places

some were on Islay, some were just on the beach, others were in heaven.

Smooth, smoky, and savoury to taste maple syrup drenched smoky bacon, salted whisky
fudge, and smoked lavender honey.

Diluation increased the maritime characteristics with saltpans, sardines on toast and an -
chovies,  although there were pear skins and star fruit.

Extra `oomph ` on the palate now with smoked crystallized lavender and pulled pork
from a hog roast.

ARDBEG  
Aged  11 years  
55.7 %
SINGLE  MALT  SCOTCH  WHISKY
FROM  A  SINGLE  CASK
Distilled August 1999
Cask Type Refill  Butt / ex sherry
1 of only 538 Bottles
Society Single Cask: 33.104
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society,                                        
The Vaults, Leith, Edinburgh
"An Algerian café"

We, The Tasting Panel verify that the Scotch Malt Whisky inside this bottle has been passed
under some of the most scrupulous noses in the world and approved for release as a Society
bottling.

Only single cask whiskies that promise to intrigue, entertain and delight our members are
selected, true to our motto: “To leave no nose upturned “.

Rich aromas evoke Algerian cafès – tobacco, coffee, vanilla, almonds, wood smoke,
sultanas and figs, with water, chocolate, citrus and gamey wild boar.

The palate, even smokier, has salty almonds, tar, raisins, cocoa and honey, turning sweeter
And spicer with water.

The rich combination oof aromas seemed to evoke an Algerian cafè – tobacco, coffee, vanilla, liquorice, almonds, wood smoke, sultanas and figs.

In the mouth, the smoke seemed to loom larger, with salty almonds, tar, raisins, cocoa
and honey behind it.

The reduced nose had chocolate, citrus and spicy B B Q smoke, with something gamey,
like hunting pheasants or wild boar on the forest floor.

The reduced palate was lighter and fresher, but with the delicious sweetness of toffee
and honey, intens tar, smoke and spice (ginger cake, five – spice taste powder) to
liven it up.

The distillery draws water from Loch Uigeadail

ARDBEG   
Aged  7 years  
59.6 %
SINGLE  MALT  SCOTCH  WHISKY
FROM  A  SINGLE  CASK
Distilled July 2003
Cask Type: First Fill Barrel / Ex Bourbon
Society Single Cask No. 33.101
Outturn One of 245 Bottles
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society,
The Vaults, Leith, Edinburgh.
“ Fabulous , thigh – slapping smoke “

We, the Tasting Panel, verify that the Scotch Malt Whisky inside this bottle has been
passed under some of the most scrupulous noses in the world and approved for re-
lease as a Society bottling.

Only single cask whiskies that promise to intrigue, entertain and delight our members
are selected true to our motto: “To leave no nose upturned “.

The nose has pineapple, flower meadows, sea breezes, toffee and fruity sweets; with
water it finds tar and honey on toast.

The palate has whacking amounts of smoke , sherbet lemons, caramel and straw – less complex with waterbut still delicious.

The nose (neither young nor fierce) had the freshness of pineapple, flowe meadows
and sea breezes, with light toffee, fruity sweets , Love Hearts and midget gems.

The palate was an instant wake – up fabulopus thigh –slapping smoke, but with com –
plexity  too – soft caramel, creamy toffee, straw, sherbet lemons, burnt lemon peel –
beautifully complex for its age.

On the reduced nose we found distant tar, tinned apricot on slabs of slate and honey
on buttered toast.

The reduced palate was more straightforward than before but still delicious and very
drinkable;  sweet, citric, tar and brine.

From the last distillery on the Kildalton Road.

ARDBEG     
ALLIGATOR    
51, 2  %     
THE  ULTIMATE  ISLAY  SINGLE  MALT
SCOTCH  WHISKY
UNTAMED  RELEASE
RARE  LIMITED  RELEASE
Non Chill – Filtered
Ardbeg Distillery Limited, Isle of Islay, Argyll
Ferocious ‘Alligator’ charring of new American white oak casks has created a spicy,
dark  dram of hidden depths, within which lurk deep tarry coffee, barbeque sizzle
and sooty aromas.

You are entering Alligator country…

In the deep south of Islay, a dark new inhabitant is ready to emerge. In silent darkness
it has lain captive within warehouse number 3, brooding and untamed. Now it is ready
to be released into the wild, with a unique spicy bite that íl catch you unavares.

A breed unlike any other seen before at the Distillery, Ardbeg Alligator is an expression
that will prove a challenge to the unvary and test the palate of even the most hardened
Ardbeg adventurer.

Lurking within is an Ardbeg of hidden depths. Extremely fierce charring of the oak cask
gives  Ardbeg Alligator a unique spicy bite that’ il catch you unavares. Charge your
glass with a splash of water and roll it around and around in your jaws!

Long Nose: Warming signs of cumin and barbeque sauce
Big Taste: Hot and spicy flavours grip you, ginger and chocolate thrash
Deep Finish: Slow and long mocha espresso while cigar smoke ebbs.

Stirring beneath eucalyptus and menthol it broods, mahogany in spices, biding its time
before the sudden rush takes hold, springing forth with ginger snaps, chewy steak and overpowering in waves of smoke. Now it subsides, slow and satisfied, sinking back deep
and down into peat.

Ardbeg Alligator. Tread carefully.

ARDBEG   
SPACE  1 9 9 9    
49 %   
ARDBEG  GALILEO
CELEBRATING  ARDBEG' s  FIRST
EVER  EXPERIMENT  IN  SPACE
EXPLORING  SPACE
THE  FINAL  FRONTIER
THE  ULTIMATE  ISLAY  SINGLE
MALT  SCOTCH  WHISKY
Distilled in 1999
Bottled in 2012
Ardbeg Distillery, Isle of Islay, Argyll
In the headlong rush of science in the late autumn of 2011, a rocket ship blasted off this
earth at 25.000 mph. Deep within it, no ordinary cargo, for the rocket carried research
vials of precious Ardbeg  - crafted  molecules, the beginning of a fascinating first in re –
search experiment by Ardbeg in …… space!

This is the most audacious adventure ever undertaken by Ardbeg Distillery ( or any other distillery for that matter). Ardbeg have been invited by U S based space research company
NanoRacks L L C  to take part in an experiment to test this micro organic compounds in a
maturation experiment  ( the interaction of these compounds with charred oak) between
normal gravity on Earth  and micro – gravity,” far up in space on the International Space
Station. The vials contain a class of compounds known as “terpenes” a set of chemicals
which are very widespread in nature and often very aromatic and flavor active. The expe –
riment could explain the workings of these large, complex molecules as they will remain
on the International Space Station for at least tow years and help us uncover new truths
about the change that these molecules undergo  in this near ‘ zero gravity’  environment.
The experiment will have applications for a varity of commercial and research products
including perhaps, one day, future generations of ARDBEG. Working is close collaboration
with the ARDBEG Distillery team in Scotland, the team will closely monitor the experiment
against control samples here on earth, both in Houston, Texas at the NanoRack’s facility
and more familliary, in Warehouse 3 at ARDBEG distillery on Islay!This historic step will
allow us to reach out to other scientic bodies across Scotland ( and the world) led by ARD-
BEGS’s own renowed distilling and chemistry expert, Dr. Bill Lumsden, with regular updates
on progress at Ardbeg.com However, what goes up must go down, and ARDBEG is destined
to go down well whatever the atmosphere. So when the experiment successfully lands back
on our own planet, join us and your fellow peaty – earthlings in saluting this momentous
ARDBEG GALILEO – let’s celebrate! To celebrate this research initiative, please welcome a
very unusual and very limited ARDBEG, aptly named ARDBEG GALILEO. At its heart ARDBEG
GALILEO is hallmark 1999 ARDBEG which has been matured in classic  ex – bourbon barrels
and some ex – Marsala casks from Sicily. The result is a deep golden, rich and smoky ARDBEG
Bottled at a strength of 49 % it is non chill – filtered for extra texture and mouthfeel.

Celebrate Ardbeg’s Ultimate Journey into Space !

1 September 2012

Ardbeg Islay Malt Whisky labceert vandaag haar nieuwste Limited Edition ter ere van de
deelname aan een uniek experiment in de ruimte. Deze expressie is een eerbetoon aan
galileo Galilei, een van de grondleggers van moderne atstronomie.

Ardbeg Galileo  is een speciale vatting van verschillende stijlen Ardbeg whisky die te rijpen
zijn gelegd in 1999. Het hart van de Galileo is spirit gerijpt in ex – Marsala wijnvaten uit
Sicilie.

Dit is gecombineerd met Ardbeg ‘klassieke stijl’,  gerijpt in 1st fill en 2nd fill ex – bourbon
vaten. Het resultaat is een 12 jaar oude van 49 % A B V, non – chill filtered, met een zoetig
en rokerig karakter. De Marsala – vaten zorgen voor fruitige aroma’s en texturen in Ardbeg’s
befaamde geturfde en rokerige huisstijl.

De whisky genoemd naar een sleutelfiguur in de moderne astromie, viert Ardbeg’s deelname
aan een baan brekend experiment. Eind 2011 is de distilleerderij gevraagd door nanoRacks L L C. een ruintevaartonderzoeksbureau in Houston, texas om deel te nemen aan een uniek    ex periment. Geen enkele andere distilleerderij heeft dit eerder gedaan. Op 11 Oktober 2011
is de Soyuz raket vertrokken naar het Internationaal Space Station I S S met aan boord 4 test
tubes. In houston en in warehouse 3 van de Ardbeg distillerderij op Islay liggen de controle
tubes, zodat de rijping bij normale zwaartekracht op aarde en rijping bij micro – zwaarte-
kracht op het I S S vergeleken kunnen worden. Dit wordt gedaan door micro – organische deeltjes uit de Ardbeg new make spirit in de test tubes te laten reageren met deeltjes van
de eikenhouyten vaten die Ardbeg gebruikt voor de rijping.

De tubes bevatten deeltjes die bekend staan als ‘terpenen’ een chemisch element dat veel
voorkomt in de natuur en dat vaak zeer aromatisch en ‘ flavour active ‘is. Het experiment
zal minimaal duren en hopelijk meer inzicht bieden in de werking van deze grote, complexe
moleculen. Daarnaast kan het Ardbeg helpen bij het vinden van nieuwe chemische bouw-
stenen in het eigen smakenspectrum. De resultaten van het experiment kunnen toegepast worden in een scala aan commerciële en onderzoeksproducten waaronder dus wellicht ooit
toekomstige whiskies van Ardbeg.

Dr Bill Lumsden Director of Distilling. Whisky Creation and Whisky Stocks reageert: “So
far, so good – het experiment in live gegaan in Januari 2012 toen de wetenschappers
de barriere tussen de twee componenten doorbraken. Het zal nog zeker een jaar duren
voor de eerste resultaten zichtbaar zijn, maar in de tussentijd willen wij het experiment
vieren met de introduktie van Ardbeg Galileo. Onze eigen aardse bijdrage in de ruimte’.

De whisky uit 1999 is apart gelegd kort na de overname van de distillerderij door Glenmorangie Company en de voorraad beslaat ook maar uit enkele duizenden vaten.

Kleur: Diep amber
Geur: Op volle sterkte ruik je roet en teer, pittige toffee, popcorn en vleugjes van rijpe
tropische vruchten zoals banaan, mango, perzik en lychee. Met iets water opent het
geurpalet zich met frisse antiseptische aroma’s en een hint van zeewind.
Smaak: Stevige, olieachtig, zoete, romige fudge, gerookte  romige abrikozen ,rijpe
Banaan, specerijen zoals kaneel, kruidnagel en ook wat anijs.
Afdronk: Rokerig, zoet, lang nablijvend met tropische vruchten.

ARDBOG   
52,1 %  
THE  ULTIMATE  SINGLE  MALT SCOTCH  WHISKY
THE  UNTAMED  SPIRIT  OF  ISLAY
At least 10 years old Matured in Manzanilla sherry casks  
Non Chill - Filtered
Ardbeg Distillery Limited, Isle of Islay, Argyll             

Islay’s peaty earth has yielded much: Mesolithic flints, arrowheads from 4000 – 2500 BC,
bronze axes, gold brooches and the greatest prize, a leaf – shaped bronze sword, the same
deep ochre colour of ARDBEG itself. The weapon was said to have been thrust into its
earthly resting place 3000 years befor, in honour of the man who yielded it.

Surely hidden still, are hordes of historical treasures. But it is the spirits we release from
the peat that will gift us the essence of true and ancient Islay – in every sip of ARDBEG.
And that is the greatest treasure of all.

ARDBEG THE UNTAMED SPIRIT OF ISLAY.

Cut 3 foot into the bog ansd you’ll have dug 1000 years in the past. Dig deeper and you’ll
discover peat formed from prehistoric vegetation – the essence of Ardbeg.

Bronze sword unearthed near Oa – the cutting edge in clan warfare fashion 3000 years
ago.

Eons have passed, continents have collided, oceans have drifted on fiery mantles. From ship
wrecks to T – Rex, who knows what lurks beneath?

See a penny, dig it up’, and all day you’ll have to clean off the muck. Silver coin board dating
from 1635 found buried at Ardnave.

Make mine a double…Silver, bronze and gold were found in a ‘ His & Hers’ Viking grave on Islay.

Where woolly mammoths once roamed, Woolly hill sheep and Committee Members now
flock here.

Underboot you may well find the skull and crossbones of smugglers and pirates who perished whilst plying their illicit trade.

A fessilised monster footprint, found near Airgh Nam Beist.

Ancient crustacean – believd to be a very early member of the Clan MacDougall, forefathers
of Ardbeg’s founders.

ARDBEG is renowed as the peatiest, smokiest and most complex of all of Islay’s whiskies.
In ARDBEG we celebrate our peaty roots in the marshy wetlands of Islay. ARDBEG’s smoky
sweetness has been intriguingly interwoven with salty, savoury whiskies which have slumbered undisturbed in rare ex – Manzanilla sherry casks, all for at least ten long years                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
ARDBEG
Aged 11 years
56.1 %                          
SINGLE  MALT  SCOTCH  WHISKY
FROM  A  SINGLE  CASK  
Date distilled: 30TH  April 2002
Cask type: 2ND  Fill Barrel ex Bourbon
Society Single Cask no: 33.130
Outturn: One of only 242 bottles
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society,
The Vaults, Leith, Edinburgh
"The Farmyard and the Chip Shop"

We, the Tasting Panel, verify that the Scotch Malt Whisky inside this bottle has been
passed under some of the most scrupulous noses in the world and approved for re-
lease as a Society bottling.

Only single cask whiskies that promise to intrigue, entertain and delight our members
are selected, true to our motto: “TO  LEAVE  NO  NOSE UPTURNED “.

The panel divided into two camps. Malt in hessian sacks, silage, tomatoes and compost
versus fish and chips and lobster pots in the other. Coal buckets and barbeque smoke.
Blankets with mothballs and laundry day at the beach

This presented two distinct scenarios which had the panel scratching collective heads.

Malt in hessian sacks, sillage, tomatoes and compost in one camp. Fish and chips, in
paper, oyster shells and lobster pots in the other.

Vanilla pods and apple chutney and some tropical fruits popped up.

Then the Islay personality roared into action with coal buckets, Germoline and barbeque
smoke.

With waterit remined one of a cedarwood chest of blankets with mothballs and another
of laundry day at the beach.

A curious creamy  mouthfeel of peach yoghurt left the panel scratching their heads to the
Last drop.

ARDBEG
Established 1815
47.4 %                                               
PERPETUUM
1 8 1 5   -   2 0 1 5
The Ultimate Islay Single Malt
Scotch Whisky
Ardbeg Distillery Limited
Isle of Islay, Argyll

Here’s to the next 200 years. A never ending, rich and enticing combination of
classic Ardbeggian notes and incredibly creamy flavours.

Times change . Ardbeg remains. The past, present and future in a glass….Classic
of Ardbeg’s yesteryear on the nose as mellow, Rich and enticing Ardbeggian flavours
mingle with dark chocolate, Treacle and Nutty oak. Then like standing on Ardbeg’s
pier this morning, water brings forth briny sea – spray with a Pine Resin lime top
note for a remarkably Fresh Bouquet. On the palate Robust Peat smoke and savoury
Smoky Bacon meet creamy Sweet Vanilla, milk chocolate with the hint of Sherry
Casks culminating in a taste of the future… an aftertaste that is never ending..

Celebrating 200 years of Ardbeg.
200 years is a long time. But not in whisky years. If one year equals 7 years in Shortie’s
life, Ardbeg only ages every 10 years. Se we’re still a young pup and there’s plenty of life
in the old dog yet. Yet who could have known back in 1815 that two hundred years later
Ardbeg would still be made in the same place, from the same ingredients, in the same way.

Today everyone at Ardbeg knows that Ardbeg – both the place and the whisky – will endure
for the next 200 years. So on this momentous occasion, our 200th Anniversary, we raise a glass
to the past, the present and the future safe in the knowledge that there will never be
a robot that could take the place of the people who made Ardbeg. We pledge Ardbeg will
never be automated or simulated. Only over celebrated…

no synthetic nose or tastebuds will ever come close to replicating the skills of our whisky
creators and no man – made machine will ever be capable of producing man – made
whisky because times change but Ardbeg remains which is why….

ARDBEG
TEN  YEARS  OLD
46 %
WAREHOUSE
The Ultimate Islay Single malt Scotch Whisky
Non Chill – Filtered
Sea spray. Terry rope,. Immense smoky intensity
Ardbeg Distillery  Limited, Isle of Islay, Argyll

ARDBEG
Est 1815
AN  OA
46,6 %
The Ultimate Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Smoky, Sweet, Singularly rounded
Non Chill – Filtered
Ardbeg Distillery Limited, Isle of Islay, Argyll
“Unquestionably the greatest  distilley tob e found on earth.
If perfection on the palate exists this is it”
Jim Murray’s “The complete book of whisky”.

The Ardbeg Distillery lies on the most southerly part of Islay on the rugged shores of the
Atlantic Ocean.

Ardbeg Distillery is subject to fierce winds, driving rain and eerie coverings of mist.
These weather conditions would be more extreme were it not fort he shelter of the Mull
of Oa. The Distillery is sheltered from the harsh excess of the mighty Atlantic by the
rounded Oa, the inspiration fort he outstanding Ardbeg An Oa.

Like the peninsula that shares its name, Ardbeg An Oa is particularly rounded, due in no small part to  time spent in the gathering vat. Here we marry together whisky from
several different casks, including new charred oak, PX sherry and first fill bourbon. Here
they beca,e fully familar with each other.

The result is a dram with smoky power, mellowed by a delectable, smooth sweetness.
Hallmark Ardbeg peat, dark chocolate and aniseed are wrapped in smooth, silky
butterscotch, black pepper and clove, before rising to an intense crescendo of flavour.

ARDBEG
Aged 7 years
60,5 %
SINGLE  MALT  SCOTCH  WHISKY
FROM  A  SINGLE  CASK
Society Single Cask No.33.85
Distilled Nov.2002
Cask type: 2nd Fill Barrel / ex Bourbon
Outturn 215 bottles
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society,
The Vaults, Leith, Edinburgh
“Amazing for its age”

The nose is quite meaty (smoked sausage, five – spice pork) with polished wood,
leather and bananas rolled in ash; water brings Plasticine, lemon and biltong. The
palate is earthy and spicy (smoked haddock, tar, ash, scorched heather) but sweet
(Liquorice Allsorts)
         
We, the Tasting Panel, verify that the Scotch Malt Whisky inside this bottle has been
passed under some of the most scrupulous noses in the world and approved for release
as a Society bottling. Only single cask whiskies that promise to intrigue, entertain and
delight our members are selected, true to our motto: “To leave no nose upturned”.

The nose had a decidedly meaty character, smoked sausage and caramelised five –
spice pork – yummy! – and the feast was spread on a polished wood table ( we
also found new leather jackets and bananas rolled in ash) The unreduced palate
assailed our tongues with earthy, spicy flavours of smoked haddock, tar, ash and
fresh tarragon; strawberry coulis sweetness lurked behind. The reduced nose pro-
duced Plasticine, lemon and biltong, while the sweetness on the palate swelled
to ash – flavoured fondant and Liquorice. Allsorts with scorched heather. We
thought it quite amazing for its age. Gavin D. Smith has written a book about the
distillery      

ARDBEG
Est 1815
WEE  BEASTIE
Guaranted 5 years old
47.4 %
The Ultimate Islay Single Malt
Scotch Whisky
Non Chill Filtered
A Monster of a Dram
Young and intensely SMOKY with a rich explosive mouthfeel of CHOCOLATE
TAR and SAVOURY MEATS cracked by BLACK PEPPER and sappy PINE EESIN
on the SNOUT
Ardbeg Distillery Limited, Isle of Islay, Argyll

Wreaking Flavour in its Path
There are plenty of things in the world that cannot be fully explained.
One such pecullarity has emerged from the peat bogs of Isaly. Said to
be a feisty young creature, witnesses have spoken of its formidable bite.

Senses are heightened with each encounter. First comes an intense aroma
of cracked black pepper, mingling with sappy pine resin and the sharp tang
of smoke. Suddenly, the explosive mouthfeel  bursts forth with chocolate,
creosote and tar.  Savoury meats sink into the palate, before the long salty
mouth coating finish slinks away.

At just 5 years old the legendary smokiness of Ardbeg is untamed by age revealing the inner beast of this Islay icon.



    

ARDBEG

SWEET, SMOKY

Distillery lies on the most southerly part of Islay on the rugged shores of the
Atlantic Ocean.

Ardbeg Distillery is subject to fierce winds, driving rain and eerie coverings of mist.
These weather conditions would be more extreme were it not fort he shelter of the Mull
of Oa. rounded Oa, the inspiration fort he outstanding Ardbeg An Oa.

Like the peninsula that shares its name, Ardbeg An Oa is particularly rounded, due in no
several different casks, including new charred oak, PX sherry and first fill bourbon. Here
they beca,e fully familar with each other.

The result is a dram with smoky power, mellowed by a delectable, smooth sweetness.
Hallmark Ardbeg peat, dark chocolate and aniseed are wrapped in smooth, silky
butterscotch, black pepper and clove, before rising to an intense crescendo of flavour.

Port Ellen, Islay, Argyll. Licentiehouder: Ardbeg Distillery Ltd.

Sinds 1798 was de familie MacDougall actief als boeren op grond te Ardbeg, Airigh nam Beist en de helft van Lagavulin. Er werd toen ook al gedistilleerd, maar hoofdzakelijk voor eigen gebruik.

Het commercieel distilleren nam een aanvang in 1815 toenJohn MacDougall, financieel gesteund door Thomas Buchanan Jr, koopman te Glasgow een distilleerderij begon.

In 1835 was de produktie ongeveer 2260 liter spirit per jaar.

In 1838 verleende Walter Frederick Campbell, de landeigenaar, een pachtovereenkomst voor de Ardbegboerderij en distilleerderij, en 8000 vierkante meter grond voor zeven en vijftig jaar aan Thomas Buchanan Jr, het bedrag was £ 1800.

John's zoon Alexander, die de handelsnaam voerdeAlexander MacDougall & Co. Alexander raakte later invalide en zijn zuster Margaret werd mede licentiehouder.Colin Hay, de zoon van de koetsier van Walter
Frederick in1853 werd Flora, de zuster van Margaret partner.Tijdens het leiderschap van Colin Hay groeide Ardbeguit tot een kleine gemeenschap van ongeveer 200 mensen.

Colin Hay werd de alleen eigenaar na de dood van de zusters Margareth en Flora. Colin Hay had twee zoons, waarvan Colin distillateur werd en Walter dokter, en ook aandeelhouder in de distilleerderij.
De Buchanan's waren nog steeds financieel betrokken bij Ardbeg.

Barnard, die Ardbeg bezocht in 1886, nam waar dat Ardbeg toen een wash still had van 18.160 liter, een spirit still van 1362 liter en men met 60 man personeel, 1135 miljoen liter per jaar produceerde !

In 1888 werd een nieuwe huurovereenkomst verleend aan Alexander Wilson Gray Buchanan en Colin Hay, met het recht gebruik te maken van de pier te Ardbeg. De huur van de pier was £ 100.

Colin Hay stierf op 10 Februari 1899.

In 1902 werd Alexander MacDougall & Co een limited company. In 1922 werd Ardbeg gekocht voor £ 19000, inclusief het land van Captain Iain Ramsay, de landeigenaar, die in financiële moeilijkheden was geraakt £ 9000 werd kontant betaald, de rest zou in gedeeltes worden betaald, maar door de heel moeilijke tijd toen, werd in 1927 het bedrag verminderd tot £ 5000 en in 1932 geheel afgeschreven.

In 1959 werd Ardbeg Distillery Ltd gevormd, gevolgd door Ardbeg Distillery Trust in 1973, met als deelnemers The Distillers Company Ltd (D.C.L) en Hiram Walker & Sons Ltd.

Distillery operating hours:6 days/week,
24 hours/day
Number of employees:  13 full-time;
2 part-time; 8 seasonal
Water source: Loch Uigeadail
Water reserve: est 55 million gallons
Water colour: brown
Peat content of water: trace
Malt source: Port Ellen
Own floor maltings: no
Malt type: Optic
Malt specification phenols:
average 54 ppm
Finished spirit phenols:
average 23-24 ppm from May 1998;
16-17 ppm previously
Malt storage: 70 tonnes
Mill type:  Boby, installed 1881
Grist storage: 5 tonnes
Mash tun construction:
stainless steel, semi-lauter
Mash size: 4,5 tonnes
First water: 17.500 litres at 64o C
Second water: 8.000 litres at 82o C
Third water: 17.500 litres at 90o C
Number of washbacks: 6
Wash construction: Oregon pine
Wasback charge: 23.500 litres
Yeast: Mauri cultered yeast
Amount of yeast: 75 kg per washback
Lengt of fermentation: 65-68 hours
(shorts: week):96 hours (longs: weekend)
Initial fermentation temperature: 20o C
(16o C idfa Fridays)
Strenght of wash: 8 per cent abv
Number of wash stills: 1
Eash still built: 1974
Wash still capacity: 18.279 litres
Wash still charge: 11.700 litres
(64 per cent of capacity)
Heat source: steam coil with heating pans
Wash still height: 12 feet 3 inches (3.73 m)
Wash still shape: lamp-glass
Lyne arm: very gently rising
Lenght of low-wines run: around 5 hours
Low-wines collection range:
46 per cent abv - 1 per cent abv
Number of wash stills: 1
Wash still built: 1974
Wash still capacity: 18.279 litres
Wash still charge: 11.700 litres
(64 per cent of capacity
Heat source: steam coil with heating pans
Wash still height: 12 feet 3 inches (3.73 m)
Wash still shape: lamp-glass
Lyne arm: very gently rising
Lenght of low-wines run: around 5 hours
Low-wines collection range:
46 per cent abv - 1 per cent abv
Number of spirit stills: 1
Spirit still built:  2001
Spirit still capacity: 16.957 litres
Spirit still charge:
13.660 litres (81 per cent of capacity)
Strenght of spirit still charge: 25 per cent abv
Heat source: steam coil with heating pans
Spirit still height: 12 feet (3.66 m)
Spirit still shape: lamp-glass
Lyne arm: gently rising
Purifieryes
Condensers:
two, externally sited, containing 238 tubes
Lenght of foreshot run: around 10 minutes
Lenght of spirit run:around 5 hours 15 minutes
Lenght of feints run: around 3 hours 30 minutes
Spirit cut: 73 per cent abv - 62.5 per cent abv
Distilling strenght:
69.5 per cent abv - 70.5 per cent abv
Storage strenght: 63.5 per cent abv
Average spirit yield:
402.1 litres of pure alcohol per tonne of malt (2003)
Disposal of pot ale and spent lees  
to local contractors for spreading on farmland
Type of casks filled for branded malt:
50 per cent first-fill bourbon (chiefly
ex-Jack Daniels air-dried wood, barrels rather than
hogsheads); 50 per cent second-fill bourbon
(same origins); very little sherry;
futher finishes and experiments in hand
Current annual output:  950.000 litres of pure alcohol
Number of warehouses:
5 (numbered 3, 9, 10, 10 X and 11)
Type of warehouses  dunnage:
(3, 9, 10 X); racked (10, 11)
Storage capacity on Islay: 24.000 casks
Percentage of branded malt entirely:
100 per cent at present. In future all branded malt
aged on Islay will spend at least 10 years on Islay
Vatting and bottling location: Broxburn
Distillery expressions: 10 year old, 17- year old,
Uigeadail, Lord of the Isles (25- year old)
Vintage-dated bottling, Ardbeg committee bottlings,
Major blending roles:   Ballantyne's, Teacher's,
Black Bottle

In 1977
werd Hiram Walker de alleen eigenaar, voor £ 300.000.
In 1982
werd Ardbeg gesloten met een verlies van 18 banen.
Tussen 1982 en 1989 werd Ardbeg verbouwd en
toen verdween ook de mouterij.
In 1989
Ardbeg opened again with only two month production
a year till 1996 when ardbeg was closed again
There was a great inconsitency in stock, duing a
longer time: some cask from the 60s and 70s,
little from the 80s, many casks from the 90s and
Bill Lumsden tried to buy whatever he could
from Allied, Diageo, William Grant and others.

In Maart 1997 verkoopt Allied Domecq Ardbeg aan Glenmorangie Plc voor £ 7.000.000, inclusief merknaam en voorraad.

Glenmorangie Plc heeft enorm geinvesteerd in Ardbeg. Naast het op de markt brengen van de verschillende bottelingen heeft men ook de distilleerderij zelf grondig onder handen genomen .
Men beschikt nu over een lunchroom, congresruimte en een bezoekers centrum met winkel. Dit alles is gevestigd in de oude mouterij No. 1 waar vroeger in twee kilns de gerst werd gedroogd.
In de toekomst wil men ook zelf weer gaan mouten.Ardbeg heeft twee met stoomverhitte ketels met een kapaciteit van ongeveer 600.000 liter spirit per jaar
.
De gebruikte vaten zijn sinds de overname doorGlenmorangie Plc, Amerikaanse refill Bourbon vaten, afkomstig van Heaven Hill en Makers Mark. Het koel- en proceswater komt van de Loch Uisgeadale en Loch Iaran. De mout komt van Port Ellen Maltings.

Ian Henderson was de manager van Ardbeg tot in 1997 toen Edwin Dobson afkomstig van Glen Moray, manager werd.

De Mash tun is 4 ton.
De zes Wash backs zijn groot 28.000 liter.
De Wash stills is groot 21.000 liter,
de Spirit still 17.000 liter.

Edwin Dobson, de eerste manager na Henderson van Ardbeg, en een soort wegbereider werd opgevolgd door Stuart Thomson. De toekomst van Ardbeg werd onzeker in 1978 toen Hiram Walker en Allied samen gingen. Men bezat nu twee distilleerderijen op Islay: Ardbeg en Laphroaig. Ardbeg was gesloten van 1981 tot 1989. Gedurende 1989 - 1996 was Ardbeg jaarlijks twee maanden in bedrijf.

Toen in 1997 Ardbeg werd aangekocht door Glenmorangie plc was de distilleerderij in een staat van verval. Glenmorangie ging toen ook de verplichting aan jaarlijks 150.000 liter Ardbeg te leveren voor de blends Ballantines en Teachers. Ardbeg produceerde maar een paar maanden in 1997.

De staat van de distilleerderij was zo siecht dat als gevolg van technische Problemen de produktie moest worden gestaakt van October 1997 tot April 1998.
£ 3,5 miljoen investeerde Glenmorangie in reparaties
en herstel, alleen het bezoekerscentrum vroeg al een bedrag van £ 750.000. 0p 28 Juni 1997 kwam er voor het eerst weer whisky uit de ketels van Ardbeg.

Ardbeg gebruikt voor het distillatie- en koelingproces ongeveer 700.000 liter water per week.

Brand owned by: Glenmorangie Plc
Manager: Stuart Thomson
Production: 18.000 litres pure alcohol per week
Share used for single malt: Half of total production;
the rest is sold for blending, though this may change
Degree of peating: 50 ppm compared to Laproaig's 35 ppm
Water source: Loch Uigedale, three miles from the distillery
Peculiarities of wash still:It has a purifier on the lyne arm
which captures the heavier more impure alcohols and brings
them back to the still for further distilling.
This explains the complex character of Ardbeg.
Wood: Ex-bourbon casks
Shorty: a Jack Russell terrier, is the dog at Ardbeg.

1975
Delicate nose but pungently peaty on the palate, big and robust with hints of oak

1978
Oak on the nose with traces of bourbon against a peaty background. Well-balanced on
the palate with floral traces and refined oak.

PROVENANCE
Peaty, bourbon nose, plenty of smoke; palate big with smoke tar, chocolate and cocoa,
long memorable finish.

17 YEARS OLD
Peaty and sweet on the nose with hints of bourbon. Smoky peat with good balance and a
hint of orange choclate.

ARDBEG
1794  Er wordt melding gemaakt dat op de plek waar in 1815 de Ardbeg distilleerderij
zou worden gebouwd
1815  Ardbeg wordt gesticht door John MacDougall
1853  Na de dood van Alexander MacDougall, de zoon van John, nemen zijn zusters,
distillery for that matter). Ardbeg have been invited by U S based space research company
NanoRacks L L C  to take part in an experiment to test this micro organic compounds in a
maturation experiment  ( the interaction of these compounds with charred oak) between
normal gravity on Earth  and micro - gravity," far up in space on the International Space
Station. The vials contain a class of compounds known as "terpenes" a set of chemicals
which are very widespread in nature and often very aromatic and flavor active. The expe -
riment could explain the workings of these large, complex molecules as they will remain
on the International Space Station for at least tow years and help us uncover new truths
about the change that these molecules undergo  in this near ' zero gravity'  environment.
The experiment will have applications for a varity of commercial and research products
including perhaps, one day, future generations ofARDBEG. Working is close collaboration
with the ARDBEG Distillery team in Scotland, the team will closely monitor the experiment
against control samples here on earth, both in Houston, Texas at the NanoRack's facility
and more familliary, in Warehouse 3 at ARDBEGdistillery on Islay!This historic step will
allow us to reach out to other scientic bodies across Scotland ( and the world) led by ARD-
BEGS's own renowed distilling and chemistry expert, Dr. Bill Lumsden, with regular updates
on progress at Ardbeg.com However, what goes up must go down, and ARDBEG is destined
to go down well whatever the atmosphere. So when the experiment successfully lands back
on our own planet, join us and your fellow peaty - earthlings in saluting this momentous
ARDBEG GALILEO - let's celebrate! To celebrate this research initiative, please welcome a
very unusual and very limited ARDBEG, aptly named ARDBEG GALILEO. At its heart ARDBEG
GALILEO is hallmark 1999 ARDBEG which has been matured in classic  ex - bourbon barrels
and some ex - Marsala casks from Sicily. The result is a deep golden, rich and smoky ARDBEG
Bottled at a strength of 49 % it is non chill - filtered for extra texture and mouthfeel

ARDBEG  SPACE  GALILEO
Celebrate Ardbeg's Ultimate Journey into Space !
September 2012
Ardbeg Islay Malt Whisky lanceert vandaag haar nieuwste Limited Edition ter ere van de
deelname aan een uniek experiment in de ruimte. Deze expressie is een eerbetoon aan
Galileo Galilei, een van de grondleggers van moderne atstronomie.
Ardbeg Galileo is een speciale vatting van verschillende stijlen Ardbeg whisky die te rijpen
zijn gelegd in 1999. Het hart van de Galileo is spirit gerijpt in ex - Marsala wijnvaten uit
Sicilie.
Dit is gecombineerd met Ardbeg 'klassieke stijl',  gerijpt in 1st fill en 2nd fill ex - bourbon
vaten. Het resultaat is een 12 jaar oude van 49 % A B V, non - chill filtered, met een zoetig
en rokerig karakter. De Marsala - vaten zorgen voor fruitige aroma's en texturen in Ardbeg's
befaamde geturfde en rokerige huisstijl.
De whisky genoemd naar een sleutelfiguur in de moderne astromie, viert Ardbeg's deelname
aan een baan brekend experiment. Eind 2011 is de distilleerderij gevraagd door nano Racks L L C.
een ruintevaartonderzoeksbureau in Houston, texas om deel te nemen aan een uniek ex periment.
Geen enkele andere distilleerderij heeft dit eerder gedaan. Op 11 Oktober 2011
is de Soyuz raket vertrokken naar het Internationaal Space Station I S S met aan boord 4 test
tubes. In houston en in warehouse 3 van de Ardbegdistillerderij op Islay liggen de controle
tubes, zodat de rijping bij normale zwaartekracht op aarde en rijping bij micro - zwaarte-
kracht op het I S S vergeleken kunnen worden. Dit wordt gedaan door micro - organische deeltjes
uit de Ardbeg new make spirit in de test tubes te laten reageren met deeltjes van
de eikenhouyten vaten die Ardbeg gebruikt voor de rijping.
De tubes bevatten deeltjes die bekend staan als 'terpenen' een chemisch element dat veel
voorkomt in de natuur en dat vaak zeer aromatisch en ' flavour active 'is. Het experiment
zal minimaal duren en hopelijk meer inzicht bieden in de werking van deze grote, complexe
moleculen. Daarnaast kan het Ardbeg helpen bij het vinden van nieuwe chemische bouw-
stenen in het eigen smakenspectrum. De resultaten van het experiment kunnen toegepast worden
in een scala aan commerciële en onderzoeksproducten waaronder dus wellicht ooit
toekomstige whiskies van Ardbeg.

ARDBEG  SPACE  GALILEO
Dr Bill Lumsden Director of Distilling. Whisky Creation and Whisky Stocks reageert: "So
far, so good - het experiment in live gegaan in Januari 2012 toen de wetenschappers
de barriere tussen de twee componenten doorbraken. Het zal nog zeker een jaar duren
voor de eerste resultaten zichtbaar zijn, maar in de tussentijd willen wij het experiment
vieren met de introduktie van Ardbeg Galileo. Onze eigen aardse bijdrage in de ruimte'.
De whisky uit 1999 is apart gelegd kort na de overname van de distillerderij door Glenmorangie
Company en de voorraad beslaat ook maar uit enkele duizenden vaten.

The Ardbeg distillery lies on the most southerly part of islay and on the rugged shores
of the Arlantic Ocean.

Release the peat in the spirit…
Islay is an antique land, where Celtic monks found refuge from raiding Norseman and
early distillers smuggled their illicit 'agua vitae' at ARDBEG'S rocky cove. Where the
Lords of the Isles ruled from Loch Finlaggan between 1130 and 1493 - the clan kings
whose bloodline continued through the MacDougalls ofARDBEG, the founders of our                                                                                                                                                                                                   
Malted barley is harvested and dried in smoke from burning peat turfs carved from this
ancient land, locking the peating levels into the whisky. The peat of Islay entombs the
deep and primeval spirit of this place. So to fully understand the story of ARDBEG you
have to dig a little deeper.
Stand on Islay peat bogs and under your feet lie thousands of years history. The peat
that is the essence of ARDBEG embodies a heady mix of life and death and everything
in between.
For to dig into the peat is a travel back in time. Down and down. To when clans fought
and ruled. And Viking treasures were lost and trodden into the yielding ground+ until
you reach the remains of vegetation, last walked upon before the first century.

Release the spirit in the peat…
Our forefathers and their forefathers toiled to ´win´ the peat to dry the barley, to make
our whisky. ARDBEG is born on peat and the deep, marshy bogs which give such com/
pelling flavours to all things Islay. ARDBEG´S classic smoky, but sweet, whisky has been
intriguingly interwoven with salty, savoury whiskies, rare drams which have slumbered
undisturbed for at least ten long years in rare Manzanilla sherry casks. The end result is                                                                       
a whisky of great depth and maturity, but one which also displays ARDBEG´S captivating
complexity.   

ARDBOG
Islay's peaty earth has yielded much: Mesolithic flints, arrowheads from 4000 - 2500 BC,
bronze axes, gold brooches and the greatest prize, a leaf - shaped bronze sword, the same
deep ochre colour of ARDBEG itself. The weapon was said to have been thrust into its
earthly resting place 3000 years befor, in honour of the man who yielded it.
Surely hidden still, are hordes of historical treasures. But it is the spirits we release from
the peat that will gift us the essence of true and ancient Islay - in every sip of ARDBEG.
And that is the greatest treasure of all.

ARDBEG THE UNTAMED SPIRIT OF ISLAY.
Cut 3 foot into the bog ansd you'll have dug 1000 years in the past. Dig deeper and you'll
discover peat formed from prehistoric vegetation - the essence of Ardbeg.
Bronze sword unearthed near Oa - the cutting edge in clan warfare fashion 3000 years ago.
Eons have passed, continents have collided, oceans have drifted on fiery mantles. From ship
wrecks to  Silver coin board dating from 1635 found buried at Ardnave.
Make mine a double…Silver, bronze and gold were found in a ' His & Hers' Viking grave on Islay.
Where woolly mammoths once roamed, Woolly hill sheep and Committee Members now flock here.
Underboot you may well find the skull and crossbones of smugglers and pirates who perished whilst plying their illicit trade.
A fessilised monster footprint, found near Airgh Nam Beist.
Ancient crustacean - believed to be a very early member of the Clan MacDougall, forefathers ofArdbeg's founders.

ARDBEG is renowed as the peatiest, smokiest and most complex of all of Islay's whiskies.
In ARDBEG we celebrate our peaty roots in the marshy wetlands of Islay. ARDBEG's smoky
sweetness has been intriguingly interwoven with salty, savoury whiskies which have slumbered undisturbed in rare
ex - Manzanilla sherry casks, all for at least ten long years

Water: Loch Iarran, Loch Uigeadail
Mash tun: 1 x 4 tonnes
Washbacks: 6 x 28000 litres
1 wash still x 21000 litres
1 x spirit still x 17000 litres
Output: 600.000 litres

Ardbeg Supernova flavoured from space
September, 2015
The Glenmorangie Company has released a new expression of Ardbeg, its Islay single malt scotch whisky, following an experiment to investigate how micro or zero gravity would affect the flavour of whisky.
The company says the experiment began in October 2011 when vials of new make Ardbeg distillate and shards of Ardbeg casks were sent to the US National Lab on the international space station by the distillery's partner, US space research company, NanoRacks.
The vials orbited Earth at 17,227 miles an hour for nearly three years.
Glenmorangie/Ardbeg's director of distilling and whisky creation Dr Bill Lumsden then analysed them alongside control samples. He said: "When I nosed and tasted the space samples, it became clear that much more of Ardberg's smoky, phenolic character shone through - to reveal a different set of smoky flavours which I have not encountered here on Earth before."
Further analysis, looking at ratios of types of wood extractive compounds showed differences between the two sets of samples, which the company says shows that gravity has an effect of maturation.
So, the distillery has released what it describes as its final bottling of Ardbeg Supernova (non-chill filtered, bottled at 54.3% abv, £124.99) exclusively to its loyal following, the 'Ardbeg Committee' (120,000 in more than 130 countries). It is said to contain the most highly peated Ardbeg, said to provide an "intensity reminiscent of the exploding star after which it is named".

Here's to the next 200 years. A never ending, rich and enticing combination of classic Ardbeggian notes and incredibly creamy flavours.

Times change . Ardbeg remains. The past, present and future in a glass….Classic
of Ardbeg's yesteryear on the nose as mellow, Rich and enticing Ardbeggian flavours
mingle with dark chocolate, Treacle and Nutty oak. Then like standing on Ardbeg's
pier this morning, water brings forth briny sea - spray with a Pine Resin lime top
note for a remarkably Fresh Bouquet. On the palate Robust Peat smoke and savoury
Smoky Bacon meet creamy Sweet Vanilla, milk chocolate with the hint of Sherry
Casks culminating in a taste of the future… an aftertaste that is never ending..

Celebrating 200 years of Ardbeg.
200 years is a long time. But not in whisky years. If one year equals 7 years in Shortie's
life, Ardbeg only ages every 10 years. Se we're still a young pup and there's plenty of life
in the old dog yet. Yet who could have known back in1815 that two hundred years later
Ardbeg would still be made in the same place, from the same ingredients, in the same way.

Today everyone at Ardbeg knows that Ardbeg - both the place and the whisky - will endure
for the next 200 years. So on this momentous occasion, our 200th Anniversary, we raise a glass
to the past, the present and the future safe in the knowledge that there will never be
a robot that could take the place of the people who made Ardbeg. We pledge Ardbeg will
never be automated or simulated. Only over celebrated…

no synthetic nose or tastebuds will ever come close to replicating the skills of our whisky
creators and no man - made machine will ever be capable of producing man - made
whisky because times change but Ardbeg remains which is why….

Ardbeg gets its name from the Gaelic Airde Beaga which is little height.

Serendipity
Blended malt born by mistake at Glenmorangie’s blending plant after some clever lateral thinking.
The Glenmorangie Company had no plans to produce this accidental blended malt; its creation arose from a mistake made in the blending hall at the company’s blending facility at Broxburn.
As a result of the error, Serendipity became a blend of Ardbeg and Glen Moray single malts, with Ardbeg making up most of the mix.
The result was a toned-down Ardbeg that Glenmorangie marketed as a ‘lighter taste of Islay’ bottled as a 12-year-old.

One production manager at The Glenmorangie Company described the creation of Serendipity as a disaster. Marketing manager Hamish Torrie had another view.
The mistake occurred in 2005 in the blending hall at Broxburn when a nameless operative dumped a large volume of 12-year-old Glen Moray into a much larger volume of older Ardbeg. However, Torrie decided to take advantage of the situation by releasing the accidental vatting as a limited edition expression he named Serendipity.
Some 16,000 bottles were produced – under the old Macdonald & Muir company name – which sold out very quickly at £39.99 per bottle. There are, however, a large number of bottles available at online auction sites, although their value has somewhat increased.
Serendipity was not the first large-scale blending error to have occurred at Broxburn. In 1999 a vat of Glenmorangie 21-year-old was accidently mixed with a smaller amount of another whisky. The mistake, which contained 80% Glenmorangie, was subsequently released as 80:20 by the company’s Douglas McNiven & Co. subsidiary.

1893
Macdonald & Muir is founded as an Edinburgh
wine and spirits merchant
1996
Macdonald & Muir changes its name to The
Glenmorangie Company and moves into new
premises at Broxburn
1997
Glenmorangie purchases Ardbeg distillery on
Islay for 7.000.000 pound
1999
The accidental 80:20 blended malt is created
following an error in the Broxburn blending hall
2005
A second mistake at Broxburn results in Serendipity,
an accidental blend of Ardbeg and Glen Moray whisky
2009
Glenmorangie sells Glen Moray distillery to French
group La Martiniquaise
2010
Glenmorangie moves its blending and bottling from
Broxburn to new premises in Livingstone

The Glenmorangie Company
2005 - present

Macdonald & Muir
2005 - present

COLIN HAY
In the history of Ardbeg and Islay whisky, the figure of Colin Hay looms large. Not only did he bring the distillery back from the brink of destruction, he is credited with ushering in the most prosperous period in its history.
Hay was a native Ileach, born in Kildalton Parish, who began work at the distillery in the 1840s. The business was managed by Alexander McDougall,the resident partner in Alexander McDougall & Co, but all was not well.
An Excise officer reported in 1846 that McDougall ‘is paralytic and constantly confined to his chair [and] consequently not able to look after his affairs’. The exciseman believed that distillery workers were taking advantage of his incapacity, stealing new make spirit from the worm and carrying it off for their own consumption.  
McDougall’s sisters Margaret and Flora had to take on much of the responsibility for running the business, appointing Hay as their manager, but they struggled to keep the business going after their brother’s death in 1853. When Ardbeg’sagents and major creditors, Buchanan, Wilson & Co., examined the books after Flora’s death in 1857, they were horrified by what they found.
Customers had been removing casks without any record of payments to their accounts. Lawyers’ fees had been paid in whisky from the warehouse rather than in cash, leaving a gaping hole in the company’s own stocks.
At the same time, lavish personal expenses had been put through the company’s books, including an intriguing bill for providing ‘outfits and a passage to India’ for Alexander’s late brother and distillery manager, Dugald. None of the debts appeared to be recoverable.
As they had done in 1838, when the Ardbeg distillery was last threatened with closure, Buchanan, Wilson & Co stepped in to provide a financial rescue package. And the man they chose to lead the recovery was Colin Hay.
The manager had become Margaret’s partner in the business in the 1850s, and sole partner after Margaret’s death in 1865. Hugely indebted to Buchanan, Wilson & Co to begin with, he tookAlexander Buchanan into partnership in Alexander McDougall & Co in 1872, swapping the debt for equity. Ardbeg’s future was secured – for now at least.
Ardbeg’s whisky was in great demand from blenders in the mid-19th century. It was also supplied to wine and spirits merchants across the UK for sale as a single malt, and exported to the US, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. It was ‘decidedly the best whisky made in Scotland’, proclaimed one merchant’s advert. A New Zealand hotelkeeper called it ‘The Ticket for Scotchmen’.   
Hay worked tirelessly to develop the business. He installed larger stills to increase production capacity and erected new warehouses to store growing stocks of maturing whisky.
He built a new deep-water quay to land coal, barley and other essential supplies on the distillery’s doorstep, and to ship whisky more quickly and cheaply to the mainland. In 1883 he installed a steam engine at the distillery, when the water wheel alone could no longer supply the power required for new machinery
Journalist Alfred Barnard noted that production had risen to 250,000 gallons of whisky per annum by 1886 – 25 times the amount distilled annually in the 1820s. There were 60 men employed at the distillery at that time, and the small village of Ardbeg had grown to about 200 people, with its own school for the children of the village and surrounding area.
By then, Hay had built a magnificent house on the seafront next to Warehouse No 3. He laid out a beautiful garden on the hillside to the west of the village, and built a large greenhouse to grow fruit and vegetables. A well-appointed billiards room was provided for the men to pass their leisure time, and wives and children could join them for special events in the evenings.
Hay was a pillar of Islay society. He was a farmer of nearly 2,300 acres, on which he raised cattle, as well as sheep. He was also a Justice of the Peace, a parish councillor and a driving force of the Glasgow Islay Association. A passionate supporter of Gaelic education, he championed the revival of Gaelic literary traditions.  
Ardbeg survived the depression in the market for Islay whiskies of the late 1880s and early 1890s. It survived, too, the huge fire of December 1887which destroyed the stillhouse, tun room, malt barns and kiln. When Hay retired in 1897, the distillery was reputedly the largest and most successful on the island.
Hay hoped, but failed, to establish a dynasty at Ardbeg. His eldest son Alexander was his chosen successor, but died in 1896. A second son, Robert, was described by Hay himself as a ‘a soft-headed young fellow’ who ran away to work on a sheep farm and hunt rabbits in New Zealand. He died soon after finally obeying his father’s demand to return home.
A third son, Colin Elliot Hay, returned from the mainland as manager after Alexander Hay’s death, and he became the resident partner and one of the leading shareholders in Alexander McDougall & Co.
The son tried hard to emulate his father, who had criticised him for exhibiting ‘no moral strength or courage to break off from evil companionship’ when he was a young man living on the mainland.
There were rumours in the village that he drank too much, and he became unpopular. He left Islay after the First World War, returning only rarely, and died with crippling debts in 1928.
Successive management teams had to deal with many new crises at the distillery after the departure of the Hays. It closed during the Depression of the early 1930s. It was closed again from 1981 until 1989, and then in 1996, before reopening in 1997 under current owner The Glenmorangie Company.
Much of Ardbeg’s resilience can be put down to the work of Colin Hay, who turned a troubled business around, built a solid reputation for the whisky and laid the foundations of a ‘brand’ that is one of the best-known in Scotland today.

ARDBEG AND SERENDIPITY
The next time you feel like moaning about ‘health and safety gone mad’, think about the old pot ale tank at Glen Elgin distillery. Made from 6ft by 3ft sections of cast-iron, it blew apart one night, sending one of the panels 30 metres across the yard. ‘It would have taken your head off,’ Ed Dodson says.
As anyone who’s read the recent feature outlining the 20-year-old story of the resurrection of Ardbeg will know, Dodson was the whisky veteran sent in to patch up the Islay distillery and get it up and running again following its acquisition byGlenmorangie in 1997.
The hard part about writing this type of article – and keeping it to a vaguely sensible length – is not so much knowing what to include, but what to leave out. And, even then, there’s that nagging feeling that some of the best stuff has ended up on the cutting-room floor.
Hence the Glen Elgin  morangie takeover) – not to mention the time in April 1997 when blue asbestos was discovered in Ardbeg’s roof, leading to a temporary shutdown.

How did Ardbeg’s spirit arrive at its combination of fruit and smoke?
Dodson was clearly fascinated by the Ardbeg spirit character – had been since the 1970s during his ‘Islay period’ of single malt drinking. ‘I’d never been there, but it didn’t make sense to me,’ he recalls. ‘I always thought Laphroaig and Lagavulinwere really heavy compared to Ardbeg. But it wasn’t until I began to nose the new make spirit [in June 1997] that I thought: “This is why.”’
But where does that quintessential Ardbeg character – the lush fruit keeping the smoke in check – come from? Dodson has a sacrilegious hypothesis: ‘My theory – which didn’t go down well with the marketing department – was that, when they were starting up Ardbeg, the whisky was probably crap, so they decided to put an angle on the lyne arm.
‘And it was probably still no good, so they put in the purifier, collecting any liquid and directing it back into the body of the still, allowing it to run back down, but not stopping the vapours from heading up the still.

‘It’s serendipity. A lot of the things that have happened in the Scotch whisky industry came about by accident.’
Serendipity, yes, but also the willingness to make mistakes and the good sense to learn from them, to improve, hone, tinker to get the best possible result out of the raw materials and equipment at your disposal.
Distilleries, it seems, have an almost human character, full of temperament and idiosyncratic traits that defy scientific analysis. Dodson had thought that he’d be able to get 1.3m litres of pure alcohol a year out of Ardbeg – until he faced the challenge of working with a spirit still that’s almost as big as the wash still. ‘I could only get to the 1.1m-litre mark because of the need to get a balanced distillation,’ he says.
On the night that the first spirit ran from the stills again at Ardbeg, the plan was to bring the wash still in slowly and gently. ‘That won’t work,’ said Duncan Logan, 35-year Ardbeg veteran and, despite no longer working there, an invaluable source of advice to Dodson at that time. ‘You have to let it come in, then slow it down afterwards. If you shut the steam off, you’ll lose it.’ Logan was ignored – but not for long.
At Ardbeg, the talk now is not of survival, but expansion. That brings its own challenges and potential pitfalls. Intervening in the serendipitous evolutionary process that has made Ardbeg Ardbeg over a period of more than two centuries is something that has to be done with care and sensitivity.
But Ardbeg is a distillery, not a museum. And if a distillery is like a person, then change is part of what makes you realise you’re still alive. What will the serendipitous discoveries of tomorrow be? It’ll be fun finding out.

MICKEY HEADS
Whisky passion: Over the past decade, Mickey Heads has become inextricably linked to Ardbeg
There’s a pleasing numerical symmetry to Mickey’stenure at Ardbeg: the 20th manager of the distillery, marking 10 years in 2017, having joined almost exactly 10 years after Glenmorangie bought the distillery.
That acquisition ended an uncertain period during which Ardbeg could have become another Port Ellen after a stop-start period of production (it was silent from 1981-9 and 1996-7, and scarcely running at full speed at other times).
Apt, then, that its management should pass to a true Ileach, one born just a few miles from Ardbegand whose father (a stillman) and grandfather (head maltman at Port Ellen) were also closely involved in the industry. Arguably all the more important to reinforce those local links when the distillery’s current owner (luxury goods corporation LVMH) has its offices in faraway Paris.
That said, Mickey’s career path – or ‘meander’ as he has modestly described it – appeared at first to be taking him further away from Ardbeg, rather than closer to it. From cutting peat for Laphroaigto becoming the distillery’s brewer (during which time he also helped out at Ardbeg, then owned by the same company), then hopping across to run Jura between 1999 and 2007.
But then came the call back to Islay, and Ardbeg. And now, 10 years on, Ardbeggians all over the world are being encouraged to raise a glass, and three cheers, to Mickey.
In a whisky world where hype and marketing cliché all too often overwhelm the truth of an essentially local product, it’s not hard to celebrate someone so down-to-earth, hard-working and humble, and someone whose connection to what he makes is so powerful.
Corryvreckan in my glass, to recall that first Indian summer visit. Sláinte, Mickey.

HAMISH SCOTT
The legendary Ardbeg bottlings of the 1960s and 1970s owe their existence to Hamish Scott, who transformed the way whisky was made at the Islay distillery during his tenure as manager. Scott also had an entrepreneurial streak – and introduced the world to the iconic Ardbeg ‘A’.

Bottlings of Ardbeg distilled in the 1960s and 1970s have achieved legendary status among collectors, and fetch huge sums at auction. They were distilled at a time when the Islay distillery was managed by the late Hamish Scott, one of the most colourful characters in its long and eventful history.
For many years, enthusiasts beat a path to his door, eager to discover what it was about his regime that led to the creation of such distinctive Islay single malts. Here’s what happened…
Scott had amassed a wealth of experience before arriving on Islay in September 1964: he had worked at Aberfeldy, Glen Ord and BenRiach, as well as two grain whisky distilleries on the mainland, and had also made rum as the manager of the Diamond distillery in Guyana. He quickly set to work on a much-needed modernisation project at Ardbeg which was to transform the way the distillery made whisky.    
The new manager was shocked to discover how long it took to germinate barley at Ardbeg’s maltings. His first improvement was to heat the water used in the process and reduce the time required by more than half, to about five days.  
Interviewed by whisky writer Bert Bruyneel many years later, Scott recalled that the distillery had used a mix of brewers’ and distillers’ yeast before his arrival. He decided to use only the latter, as ‘the quality was always fairly consistent and gave better results’.
In 1964, the worm tub serving Ardbeg’s spirit still was replaced with a condenser – the wash still’s had been replaced four years earlier. Another fundamental change in the distilling regime followed in 1966, when the stills were converted from direct coal firing to steam heating. This gave greater control over the heating of the wash and the low wines in the stills, reducing the risk of ‘scalding’ the liquid.   
This modernisation programme must have had a significant effect on the character of the new make distilled at Ardbeg from the mid-1960s, producing a more consistent and perhaps less ‘pungent’ spirit for maturation. Demand from blenders soared, and new warehouses were built to meet the requirements of increased production.
Scott was promoted to the post of general manager in 1971 by his employer, the Ardbeg Distillery Ltd, giving him greater responsibility for planning, purchasing and reporting. He was immediately tasked with increasing production to meet the growing demand for fillings.

Ardbeg cask 1974
Lighter style: Ardbeg’s 1974 whiskies tend to be less peaty – but it wasn’t a deliberate move
Ardbeg production was constrained by the availability of malt from the distillery’s maltings, but Scott reckoned he could buy in up to 15% of the extra malt required from the mainland, without affecting the character of the spirit. His chosen supplier was Moray Firth Malting of Inverness, which was found to be most capable of providing malt peated to the required levels.

Despite his best efforts, however, the vagaries of the Islay weather helped defeat his attempts to produce a spirit of consistent character. Scott had set up a company, Islay Peat Developments (IPD), to mechanise the peat cutting process on Islay, and IPD delivered large quantities of peat to Ardbeg – such that the directors in Glasgow raised concerns about the high level of peat used in the 1972-73 season, and the resulting expense.

Peating levels then fell dramatically in 1973-74, the result (according to Scott) of adverse weather conditions in which the IPD machinery could not operate.

These events help to explain why some of the famous 1974 Ardbeg are far less peaty than others from the mid-1970s – something very evident in Serge Valentin’s excellent reviews of vintage Ardbegs on whiskyfun.com.

Of course Scott was making Ardbeg primarily for the blending companies which dominated the whisky market at the time. While the distillery had bottled small quantities of single malt for select customers in the past, by the 1960s only a few cases were made available each year, for Islay hotels and for Christmas gifts to the directors.
Scott told whisky writer Gavin Smith that he filled just a single 50-gallon cask each year for bottling as a single malt, and the casks were old. However, the whisky was immensely popular among those lucky enough to sample it, and the manager recognised another excellent business opportunity.
In 1975, Scott sent a few casks of Ardbeg to Strathleven Bonded Warehouses Ltd on the mainland, to be bottled at 80 degrees proof (about 45% abv) as a single malt. He supplied the distillery’s own labels for the project, designed (with what has subsequently become the famous Ardbeg ‘A’) by an art college lecturer and professional football referee, Rollo Kyle, who was a frequent visitor to the island.

Ardbeg single malts distilled under Scott in the 1970s are highly prized

Scott took the single malt to a trade exhibition in Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall, where he sold 90 cases and generated a lot of interest in the product. Sales were steady if unspectacular thereafter, although the company received an order for 50 cases from Groothandel Van Wees of the Netherlands at the beginning of 1976. A large number of miniatures were bottled for local traders that year.
Venturing into single malt in this way was a bold and typically entrepreneurial initiative from the distillery manager, but Scott’s days at Ardbeg were numbered. One of the Ardbeg Distillery Ltd’s minority shareholders, the Scottish arm of the multinational distillery company Hiram Walker-Gooderham & Worts, acquired the business in early 1977. Scott later told me that he had been warned that he was unlikely to remain in his post under the new regime for longer than six months – and so it proved.
After 13 years in charge at Ardbeg, with minimal interference from the mainland, Scott found it troublesome to implement the corporate rules and regulations which Hiram Walker attempted to impose. Much more serious, however, were differences over how the whisky should be made.

Ardbeg A
A is for…: Scott commissioned the design of the Ardbeg ‘A’ from art college lecturer Rollo Kyle
Scott and his line manager disagreed about a dramatic fall in the quality of the spirit produced at Ardbeg in 1976/77, with Scott blaming new methods imposed from the mainland.
‘In my opinion, the deterioration in quality of the spirit is directly related to the recent changes which have been effected in the maltings,’ he reported. ‘Namely the shortening of the kilning cycle and the insufficient time allowed for the “smoking” of the malt with peat, combined with the requirement to force-dry the kiln, because of the higher moisture content of the green malt.’ He believed that quality was being sacrificed to cut costs.
Scott left Ardbeg in 1977, with a new manager put in place to make Ardbeg the Hiram Walker way. Scott set up as a shopkeeper in nearby Port Ellenand later ran a bed and breakfast business near the pier with his wife.
He died in 2016, and is remembered as one of the great characters in the long, rollercoaster history of the distillery: the man who made some of the greatest malt whiskies to come from the island, and who introduced the world to the iconic Ardbeg ‘A’.

ISLAY’S SINGLE MALT EXPANSION
February 2018
Today’s announcement that Ardbeg is to double distillation capacity crowns a period of unprecedented growth for Islay single malt whisky. New distilleries, revived distilleries, expanding distilleries… here’s a rundown of the latest moves on ‘Whisky Island’
Ardbeg distillery expansion
Big name: Ardbeg’s expansion plans are the latest vote of confidence for Islay whisky
Can the world ever have enough of Islay single malt whisky? Apparently not, if recent events are anything to go by.
With new distilleries at various stages of planning or construction – Ardnahoe, Gartbreck and more to come – plus the revival of Port Ellen and the expansion of existing plants, this is a period of unprecedented growth in whisky production on the Hebridean island.
It’s hard to believe that, just a few decades ago, business was tough for some of Islay’s distillers. Ardbeg ran only intermittently throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Port Ellen shut down in 1983,and Bruichladdich didn’t produce a drop of spirit in the second half of the 1990s.
That’s all changed now. Laphroaig and Bowmore,Lagavulin and Ardbeg… Islay has more than its fair share of single malt’s household names, with a dynamic supporting cast that includes Bruichladdich, Bunnahabhain, Caol Ila and Kilchoman.
Meanwhile, the volume of whisky made on the island has been steadily increasing for some time. For instance, production from Caol Ila’s six stills, following a revamp in 2011, has reached a formidable 6.5m litres of pure alcohol (lpa) a year.
As the Islay whisky boom continues, it can be hard to keep up with everything that’s happening on the island. So here’s a handy rundown of recent events…

Islay single malt whisky distillery Ardbeg is set to add two more stills, doubling its distillation capacity and moving production into a new still house.
Expansion has been on the cards at Ardbeg for some time, thanks to rising sales
The multi-million-pound project, funded by distillery owner The Glenmorangie Company, is due to start work this year, subject to planning permission, with completion scheduled for 2019.
Plans include the construction of a new still house on a site once occupied by warehouses, with the current still house converted to house new washbacks.
The expanded distillery’s four stills – its existing wash and spirit stills, plus a new pair of wash and spirit stills – will be housed in a ‘traditional-style’ building, Ardbeg said.
Planning permission has already been granted to move Ardbeg’s boiler house a little further away from the distillery, and work on this has begun.
Plans for the new still house have been submitted to Argyll & Bute Council, and the distillery is set to hold a meeting for local residents on Islay to discuss the project in the near future.
Ardbeg is planning to ‘continue its normal operations’ while construction work takes place.
‘We are delighted by Ardbeg’s success since 1997 – and by the growing passion for our whisky from fans around the world,’ said Marc Hoellinger, president and CEO of The Glenmorangie Company,a subsidiary of Moët Hennessy, itself a division of luxury goods giant LVMH.
‘Ardbeg has been distilled on Islay since 1815 and, with a new still house, we will pave the way for future generations of smoky malt whisky lovers to discover the ultimate Islay malt.’
Ardbeg’s current era of high demand and expansion is a world away from its near demise two decades ago, when it was acquired by Glenmorangie in a poor state of repair.
The distillery spent most of the 1980s and 1990seither silent, working intermittently and conducting experiments or being used for spare parts by nearby Laphroaig, then under the same ownership.
News of the planned expansion comes just weeks after Glenmorangie unveiled plans to build its own new still house to accommodate two new stills, in addition to the six currently used at the distillery in Tain.
It also comes at a time of expanding whisky production on Islay: Kilchoman said it would double production capacity in November last year, and Laphroaig is also planning to add more stills.

Meanwhile, the new Ardnahoe distillery is due to start production this spring, plans for a distillery atGartbreck Farm have been resurrected and the long-silent Port Ellen distillery is to be revived by 2020.

ARDBEG GROOVES
March 2018
Islay single malt Ardbeg is harking back to the 1960s‘Summer of Love’ with its latest Ardbeg Day limited release, Ardbeg Grooves.
Groovy whisky: This year’s Ardbeg Day whisky recalls the ‘Summer of Love’ 51 years ago
The annual release ties in with Ardbeg Day on Saturday, 2 June, an annual celebration centred on the distillery’s open day during Fèis Ìle, the Islay Festival of Music and Malt.
For this year’s bottling, director of distilling, whisky creation and whisky stocks Dr Bill Lumsden has matured part of the whisky in re-toasted red wine casks.
These casks were intensely charred to create heavy grooves in the surface of the wood, designed to produce more intense flavours of ‘smoked spices, distant bonfires and chilli-seasoned meats’.
As in previous years, two variants will be launched to mark Ardbeg Day: Ardbeg Grooves, bottled at 46% abv and on general release, priced at £98 for a 70cl bottle; and Ardbeg Peat & Love, bottled exclusively for members of the Ardbeg Committee at 51.6%, priced at £89 a bottle.

The latter will go on sale at 9am next Wednesday, 14 March, and Committee members will be sent a link to purchase their own bottle.

Ardbeg Day will include a live online tasting, broadcasting to all Ardbeg Embassies around the world, plus the launch of the single malt’s Summer ofPeat & Love campaign, with a 1960s-style VW van touring festivals, bars and Ardbeg Embassies across the UK.

‘The Ardbeg Village of the 1960s was a very different place – a groovy wee community, with its own post office, billiards hall, two choirs and even a football team,’ said Ardbeg distillery manager Mickey Heads.
‘These days the Ardbeg community is a worldwide one, and Ardbeg Day is the best way for us all to come together and raise a dram to the ultimate Islay single malt.

Capacity (Litres of Pure Alcohol-LPA) 1 150 000 litres                                                                                                                                                                                     
Among single malt aficionados, particularly those who have a preference for peaty tasting malts, Ardbegholds an almost cult status.
Ardbeg was officially established by the MacDougall family in 1815. Subsequently its ownership underwent many changes, particularly in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Since Allied Distillers sold the distillery to Glenmorangie plc in 1997, the latter has been busy building up their stock of quality consistent spirit.
Unlike other Islay malts like Laphroaig or Lagavulin,Ardbeg tries to avoid the more pungent phenols, thus a smoky after-taste is greatly reduced, while not detracting from the peaty taste.

The Ardbeg core portfolio
10 Year Old – a 46% strength ABV ‘Distillery Bottled’ Single Malt Whisky. (£25-40)
Colour Pale, straw-coloured
Aroma Peaty infused with zesty citrus notes, cinnamon and pears, all wrapped in ceraceous dark chocolate.
Taste After the initial burst of peat with hints of tangy lemon and lime juice, waves of warm creamy cappuccino mingle with barley notes, tobacco, strong black coffee, liquorice and cocoa.
Finish As the taste sensation deepens, waves of tarry smoke and liquorice root develop as the palate is continually coated with chewy peat oils. Smoky but slightly sweet with a lingering hint of malted barley.
For peat-lovers, or those willing to try a peaty Islay,Ardbeg 10 Year Old is probably the highest-quality ‘entry-level’ single malt available on the current market. It is possibly the distillery many Islayconnoisseurs would choose as their favourite. Indeed, it is arguably the benchmark against which all other Islay malts are judged.
The tall stills at Ardbeg together with a purifier on top of the spirit, neither of which are seen at other Islay distilleries, help to contribute to the finesse and delicacy of a spirit that retains some of the over arching peaty flavours without it being too smoky. It does not flaunt the peat, however, rather it yields to the natural sweetness of the malt to produce a perfectly balanced whisky.
Ardbeg 10 Year Old is an exuberant maelstrom of complex peat and malty tangs with a hint of fruity floral flavours; definitely an in-your-face whisky to be treasured.

Uigeadail – a 54.2% strength ABV ‘Distillery Bottled’ Single Malt Whisky. (£40-70)
Colour Relatively Pale, straw-coloured
Aroma Peaty with subtle hints of fino sherry and slightly damp leather. Intensely laden with heady and smoky aromatics.
Taste A burst of winter fruitcake spices trigger a smoky-spicy explosion of intense and multi-layered, oily peat smoke, counter-balanced by a sumptuous mid-palate of honey glazed, smoked food and sweet, chewy treacle toffee and a touch of dried fruit.
Finish Smoky dominance with hints of spice. The waves of deep, smoky tones and rich aromas build up pleasingly on the palate like a fine Montecristo cigar.
The hard to pronounce Uigeadail (pronounced ‘Oog-a-dal’) is the name of the loch from which all Ardbeg water is drawn at the distillery. Since the launch in 2003 of this special bottling, it’s been an enormous success. It is both full of peat smoke, earthiness and layers of oak. Full bodied and rich with a texture that unctuously coats the mouth. The taste of Uigeadail is a provocative balance between sweet, spicy top notes and deep, smoky flavours.
The marriage of Ardbeg’s traditional deep, smoky note spirits with luscious, raisiny tones of old ex-Sherry casks give a sweet and smoky finish to this malt. It’s ‘non chill-filtered’ at high strength, thereby retaining maximum flavour and lending more body and added depth.
For peaty malt aficionados Uigeadail is an absolutely stunning whisky, and following the demise of theArdbeg Airigh nam Beist (pronounced ‘Arry nam Baysht) a delicious vintage bottling from 1990, sadly discontinued as a result of exhausted stocks, (‘The Beist’ was an extremely popular Ardbeg, with an assertive edge and powerful peatiness balanced by a lovely honeyed flavour.) Uigeadail probably represents the best value in the core range.

Blasda – a 40% strength ABV ‘Distillery Bottled’ Single Malt Whisky. (£40-60)
Colour Relatively Pale, Fino sherry or white wine coloured
Aroma The aroma is reminiscent of baked creamy vanilla custard and roast chestnuts. A tingle of lemon and lime marmalade cuts through the vanilla with spiced pears Some tasters get a hint of cloves, pine cones and fresh mint or a breath of menthol and sea salt that rise from the glass. These elements are softened by ripe fruits that fuse with almond and vanilla.
Taste The initial sip is sweet with a mixture of sugared almonds, marzipan and hints of dried fruit. Refreshingly sweet while earthy, silky and creamy to the palate.  Gentle peat oils build on the palate, while remaining soft, clean and dry with a dusting of powdery sherbet. Tangy citrus notes freshen the palate with a gentle fizz. Later a gentle warmth  is provided by tingling spices and creamy cappuccino.
Finish A short finish of refreshing lemon vanilla and spiced apples

Launched in 2008, with a phenol level at only 8 parts per million, Blasda, chill-filtered and bottled at the distillery, has a lightly peaty taste. It is, however, still perfectly balanced, but light, sweet and delicious – a light expression of Ardbeg’s otherwise quite heavily peated whiskies.
In Gaelic Blasda means ‘sweet and delicious’. It caused quite a stir when it was released, with disapproving shouts of “It’s too sweet, where’s the peat?” The thing is, the point of this expression was to decrease the smoky peaty flavour in order to show the beautiful balance and complexity of Ardbeg’s fruity undertones, flavours which are otherwise difficult to distinguish.
Ardbeg’s Blasda is an ongoing product scheduled to have a three-year lifespan, as some 1800 bottles have been produced for the UK market.

Corryvreckan – a 57.1% strength ABV ‘Distillery Bottled’ Single Malt Whisky. (£60-80)
Colour Relatively Pale, straw-coloured or amber.
Aroma Heady, intense and powerful. Peaty with hints of fino sherry and slightly damp leather. You can smell the tarry ropes, creosote and linseed oil rising from deep within the vortex.
Taste A rich, luxuriant mouth feel. Intense and multi-layered oily peat smoke, sweet yet earthy, with a touch of dried citrus and forest fruits.
Finish Smoky dominance with hints of spices, grilled anchovies, charred lemons and seaweed.
If peaty whiskies are to your taste, you’ll be happy with this.
Ardbeg Corryvreckan has been a huge success since its launch in 2009, winning ‘World’s Best Single Malt Whisky’ at the ‘World Whisky Awards 2010’ and ‘Best No Age Statement Scotch ‘ scoring 96.5 points out of 100 from Jim Murray’s ‘Whisky Bible 2011’ and 2012.
Corryvreckan, according to the Ardbeg website, takes its name from a famous whirlpool that lies to the north of Islay, a place where only the bravest souls dare to venture.
Like the whirlpool itself, Corryvreckan is not for the faint-hearted!
Swirling aromas and torrents of deep, peaty, peppery taste lurk beneath the surface of this beautifully balanced dram. With the first sniff, be prepared to encounter the deep and turbulent force of Corryvreckan as it pulls you inwards.
As you succumb to its power, a heady mixture of waxy dark chocolate, warm blackcurrants and muscovado sugar grips you in its spell as a salvo of plump cherries and earthy pine needle arises torpedo-like towards you from its murky depths.

A decent balance of flavours is maintained throughout, ending with a lovely briny note right at the death.

Other Ardbeg whiskies worthy of mention:
Supernova, (58.9% ABV) (£125-200) launched in 2009 had a phenol level well in excess of 100 parts per million. Supernova 2010 (£80-100) also hit the 100 ppm mark but the strength of alcohol was slightly higher (60.1% ABV).

Ardbeg Supernova’s success was a true phenomenon, since the Advance Committee Release sold out in a matter of hours in January 2009. It also scooped ‘Scotch Whisky of the Year’ from Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible 2010, (scoring 97 points out of 100).

Several other Committee bottlings have been produced, among which notable ones include Rollercoaster (57.3% ABV) (2010)(c £200) and Ardbeg Alligator (51.2% ABV) (2011) (c £150), which can only be purchased by Committee members.

Some harder to acquire bottles:
Ardbeg 1990 / Airigh Nam Beist 46% ABV (c £100.00)

The following three are precursors to Ardbeg 10 Year Old;

Ardbeg 1997 / ‘Very Young’ Committee Approved
58.3% ABV (c £325.00 )
Ardbeg 1998 / – Still Young 56.2% ABV (c £65.00)
Ardbeg 1998 / Almost There 54.1% ABV (c £100.00)
Ardbeg 17 Year Old 40% ABV (c £250.00)
Ardbeg 10 Year Old / Bot.1990’s 40% ABV (c £555.00)
Ardbeg 10 Year Old / Bot. 1980’s  40% ABV (c £600.00)
Ardbeg 1973 / 15 Year Old / Bot.1988 / Cask Strength /
Sestante 53.5% ABV(c £700.00)
Ardbeg 1976 / 31 Year Old / Cask 2397 / Sherry Butt  
52.4% ABV  (c £999.00)
Ardbeg 1974 / Provenance / USA Bottling 55% ABV
(c £1,200.00)
Ardbeg 1976 / Cask 2392 / Committee / Sherry Cask 55% ABV (c £1,750.00)
Ardbeg 1976 / Cask 2391 / Manager’s Choice / Sherry Cask  56%ABV
(c £3,999.00)

SECOND ARDBEG TWENTY SOMETHING UNVEILED
September 2018
Ardbeg has announced the launch of a third Ardbeg Twenty Something, a 22-year-old single malt honouring the people that saved the Islay distillery from closure.
Ardbeg Twenty Something 22 Year Old
Dark days: Ardbeg Twenty Something 22 Year Old was distilled during an uncertain period for the distillery
Following on from the first two editions, a 23-year-old released in October 2017 and a 21-year-old released in September 2016, Ardbeg Twenty Something 22 Year Old will be available exclusively toCommittee Members from 4 October.
A 1996 vintage malt distilled in the retired still that now rests in the distillery courtyard, the expression has been matured in ex-Bourbon casks and bottled at 46.4% abv.
Its release marks a period of struggle for the Islay distillery, which closed for much of the 1980s and operated only sporadically in the 1990s.
The spirit used for the bottling was distilled duringArdbeg’s final year of operation before being acquired by the Glenmorangie Company in 1997.
‘This bottle is a magnificent reminder as to whyArdbeg should never be allowed to disappear,’ saidMickey Heads, Ardbeg distillery manager.
‘Ardbeg Twenty Something is for those who believed wholeheartedly in the Ardbeg distillery, which is why it’s fitting that this rare whisky – a 22 Year Old – will be enjoyed by our loyal Committee Members, who maintain that same belief.’
The whisky is described as having notes of ‘luscious tropical fruits’, as well as ‘peppermint tea and sweet vanilla toffee’ with ‘mouth-watering sweet smoke’.
Dr Bill Lumsden, Director of Distilling, Whisky Creation & Whisky Stocks at Ardbeg, added: ‘The ex-Bourbon casks I selected for Ardbeg Twenty Something have delivered a beautiful dram, bursting with deep tropical aromas.
‘It offers an incredibly flavourful, silky quality which is exceptional. I can think of no better way to celebrate those whisky lovers who helped keepArdbeg alive during its darkest days.’
Ardbeg Twenty Something 22 Year Old will be available exclusively via ardbeg.com for £440 a bottle.

ARDBEG TWENTY SOMETHING MARKS DARK DAYS
October 2017
Ardbeg is to release Ardbeg Twenty Something, a 23-year-old single malt filled into cask at a time when the Islay distillery was facing an uncertain future.
Ardbeg Twenty Something
Trying times: Ardbeg was operating only sporadically when this spirit was laid down
The new expression, non-chill-filtered and bottled at 46.3% abv, will be sold exclusively to members of the Ardbeg Committee at a price of £430 for a 70cl bottle.
Ardbeg Twenty Something is a vatting of ex-Bourbon and ex-oloroso Sherry casks, filled at a very difficult time for the cult Islay distillery.
Ardbeg had been closed for most of the 1980s, and operated only sporadically during the 1990s before closing again in 1996 – but the distillery was acquired by The Glenmorangie Company in 1997, which restarted production that year.
Ardbeg owner Moët Hennessy said the new expression was being released exclusively to theArdbeg Committee group of enthusiasts in recognition of their ‘enduring support’. The Committee pledges to ‘ensure the doors of Ardbeg never close again’.
Distillery manager and Committee chairman Mickey Heads, who spent some time at Ardbeg while working at nearby Laphroaig during the 1990s, said: ‘This magnificent whisky was created within the retired iconic still which stands proud outside our distillery today.
‘It’s a glimpse back into Ardbeg’s turbulent past and reaffirms just why the distillery couldn’t be allowed to disappear.’
Dr Bill Lumsden, director of distilling, whisky creation and whisky stocks at Ardbeg, described Ardbeg Twenty Something as ‘bursting with rich, deep flavours’, with ‘an incredibly smoky, silky quality’.
The release follows last year’s launch of anotherArdbeg Committee bottling of a similar age, Ardbeg Twenty One, priced at £310 a bottle.
Ardbeg Twenty Something will go on sale to Committee members from 2 November at www.ardbeg.com.

2017:
An Oa, Kelpie and Twenty are released
2018:
Grooves is released

1760  
Daniel Campbell established the town of Bowmore
1794  
The MacDougall family tenants at Ardbeg, Airigh nam
Beist and Lagavulin farms and are Illicit distillers,
Duncan MacDougall is the distiller
1797  
Daniel Campbell starts perhaps the first legal distillery
on the Kildalton coastline
1797  
Islay's first excise officer is appointed
1815  
John MacDougall of Ardbeg farm and backed by
Thomas Buchanan Jnr, a Glasgow whisky merchant
is a legal distiller
1816  
Walter Frederick Campbell buys the farms Ardbeg,
Airugh nam Beist and Lagavulin from the family
MacDougall
Walter Frederick Campbell starts a steamer service  
between Port Ellen via Loch Fyne and Glasgow
1816  
The Small Stills Act came into effect which removed
the fiscal differences between Highland and Lowland
distilleries
7 new distilleries are established or legalised  on Islay
as a result, Ardmore, Ballygrant, Bridgend, Octovullin,
Octomore, Newton, Scarabus, Lagavulin  
1822  
The Illicit Distillation Act came to effect and also in
Islay
1823  
The Exise Act and Glenavullen, Lochindaal, Lossit,
Mulindry, Port Ellen are build
1835  
Ardbeg has an output of 65.000 litres a year
1838  Alexander MacDougall & Co is the bussiness
name
1850  
Charles Hay son of Walter Frederick Campbell's
coachman is manager
1851  
Margaret and Flora MacDougall, sisters of Alexander
owns Ardbeg
1853  
The Forbes Mackenzie Act: Vatting of malt Whiskies
from the same distillery "Under Bond" are permitted
Alexander MacDougall , the son of John MacDougall,
dies and his sisters Flora and Margaret MacDougall
with the help of Colin Hay are running the distillery
1860  
William Gldstone's Spirit Act made it possible toblend
grain and malt whiskies "Under Bond" which made it
possible to produce a more consistent whisky
1854  
Due to Temperance Campaigns the number of
distillerieson Islay had fallen from 28 to 16, while
consumption in Scotland was fallen by 25 percent.      
1857  
Ardbeg makes heavy losses and Flora and
Margaret sells the distillery to Thomas  Gray Buchanan,
their financial backker
1872  
Colin Hay, the son of Charles Hay is manager and partner
with Thomas Gray Buchanan's son Alexander Wilson Buchanan
1881  
Bruichladdich and Bunahabhain are build
1886  
Alfred Barnard visit Islay and among other distilleries
Ardbeg.
1888  
Colin Hay and Alexander Wilson Buchanan signed a
new lease for Ardbeg farm
1899  
65 people are working at  the distillery and there are
about 40 homes at Ardbeg
1900  
Colin Hay wordt opgevolgd door zijn zoon
1902  
Alexander MacDougall & Co werd een Limited Company.
1904  
Colin Elliot Hay is manager of Ardbeg Margareth en Flora,
geholpen door Colin Hay de distilleerderij over en na de
dood van de twee zusters MacDougall gaat Colin Hay alleen
verder          
1959  
Ardbeg Distillery Ltd gesticht
1973  
Ardbeg Distillery Trust gevormd door The Distillers
Company
Ltd
(D.C.L.) en Hiram Walker & Sons Ltd
1977  
Hiram Walker wordt de alleen eigenaar
De mouterij wordt gesloten
1979  
Kildalton, een minder turfgerookte malt wordt
gedurende een aantal jaren geproduceerd
1981  
Ardbeg sluit in Maart
1987  
Allied Lyons neemt Hiram Walker over
1989  
Ardbeg wordt weer opgestart
Iain Henderson is de manager
1996  
Ardbeg sluit in Juli, en Ardbeg wordt te
koop aangeboden
1997  
Glenmorangie plc neemt Ardbeg over voor
£ 7 miljoen
Ardbeg wordt weer opgestart op 25 Juni
De voorraad whisky heeft een waarde van
£ 5,5 miljoen, rest voor het zwaar vervallen
gebouwencomplex £ 1,5 miljoen
Ardbeg 17 years old en de Provenance
worden uitgebracht
1998
Bezoekerscentrum geopend
2000
Ardbeg 10 years old uitgebracht
Ardbeg Committee opgericht
2001  
Lord of the Isles uitgebracht
Ardbeg 1977 uitgebracht
2002  
Ardbeg Committee Rserve uitgebracht
Ardbeg 1974 uitgebracht
2003  
Ardbeg Uigedail uitgebracht
2004  
Ardbeg Very Young uitgebracht
Ardbeg Kildalton Limited Edition
uitgebracht (not peated)
2005   
Ardbeg Serendipity (with Glen Moray)
uitgebracht
2006   
Ardbeg 1965 uitgebracht
Ardbeg Still Young uitgebracht
Ardbeg Almost There 9 years old
uitgebracht
Airigh Nam Beist uitgebracht
2007   
Ardbeg Mor a 10 yer old 4,5 Ltr is
released
2008   
Ardbeg Corryvreckan, Rennaissance,
Blasda, Mor 11 are relased
2009   
Supernova released the peatiest Ardbeg
ever
2010   
Rollercoaster, Supernova 2010 released
2011   
Alligator released
2012  
Ardbeg Day, Gallileo released
2013   
Ardbog released
2014   
Auriverdes, Kildalton are released
2015   
Perpetum, Supernova 2015 released
2016   
Dark Cove, twenty Something 21 year
old are released
2017   
An Oa, Kelpie, Twenty Something 23
year are released
2018   
Grooves, Twenty Something 22 year are
released
2019   
Drum, Traigh Bhan Batch 1 released
A new Stillhouse is build
2020
Capacity: 2.400.000 Ltrs
Output: 1.500.000 Ltrs
Blaaack, Wee Beastie, Traig Bhan Batch 2
are released
2021
An 8 years old, a 25 years old, Arrrrrrrbeg
Scorch and Traigh Bhan Batch 3 are released
2022
fermatation, Ardcore, Smoketrails, Traigh Bhan Batch 4 are lanched

Islay has a rich historical past spanning a thousand years. At one time the sear of the mediaeval kingdom of the 'Lords of the Isles' who ruled the whole of the Western Isles of Scotland and used the sea as the highway for their 'longships',
Over the centuries Islay has been occupied by Celts, Picts, Gaels and Vikings and indeed some of the old ruins standing on the island are reminders of a turbulent past.
In fact, some of the Celtic influences are still in evidence on Islay and, close to the Ardbeg Distillery lies the ancient Celtic Cross of Kildalton dating from the 8th century - one of the oldest and finest examples of Celtic art in Scotland. The charateristic 'A', long associated with Ardbeg, is another reminder of the Celtic heritage and is derived from the famous 'Book of Kells' dating from the same period.
Two centuries ago, Ardbeg, which in Gaelic means 'small headland' was the lonely haunt of smugglers. It is located on the south-eastern shore of Islay.
The Ardbeg distillery boasts its own private water source - Loch Uigeadail is soft and pure. The waters of the loch flow over rocks and peat masses making them beautifully adapted for distilling.

Douglas Laing & Co, Ltd
Douglas House 18, Lynedoch Crescent, Glasgow G 3 6 £ Q.
In 1949 Fred Douglas Laing established Douglas Laing & Co primarily as a blender and bottler for his Scotch Whisky blends The King of Scots and House of Peers, which are available today internationally.
Large stocks and reserves of aging Malts in particular, were laid down by Mr. Laing, many being guarded for 25 - 30 years specifically for the older blends such as the 25 and 30 Year Old KING OF SCOTS.
With more than 50 different Malts in stock, over the last 50 years from filling programme, it was obvious that the Malt Master would have certain favourites. These have variously been chalked off the times of regular quality control, as being of particular qualitative interest; both commercially, and for the pleasure of the Directors. It has been their particular perk, benefit and privelege to nose and taste some of the finest quality samples indicative of the Distillers's art.
It was judged by the two current owners/directors (sons of the founder, so nepotism is not dead!) that some of these stocks were 'too good to blend'. And so the OLD MALT CASK selection was developed in 1999 to extend those perks and benefits beyond the Director's tasting suite!
Initially it was felt that 50 different Malts commemorating the Company's 50th Anniversary would be approciate. That tally has now been exeeded but our preferred strenght of 50 X alc/vol is maintained. We believe this strenght creates a fine, round, full quality for various Malts when taken 'neat'. It also allows the regular consumer to know precisely how much or little water should be added to this artisan and craftman's distillate.
These selected Malt Whiskies have waited many years to reach their classic heights of qua-lity. Not only with your health in mind, but with a view to greater enjoyment, may we suggest that in the style of the founder, whose signature endorses your Malt, you enjoy its glass leisurely and slowly.
Douglas Laing.

Tasting Notes Cask No. 2397:
Colour: Deep golden
Aroma:
Ardbeg at its most paradoxial - powerful and pungent, yet displaying a degree of delicacy and
balsamic freshness. At full strength, dark chocolate is filled with cherry brandy and infused with tarry peat smoke. Marzipan, toffee and vanilla mingle with rum and raisin ice cream; then the sweetness is sliced through by pungent black peppercorns, fennel and the salty - balsamic complexity of menthol, pine resin and sea spray. Barbequed bananas, cinnamon -
spiced pears and caramalised walnuts bring sizzling warmth and deep maturity.
With water, waves of classic Ardbeg notes emerge, fused with juicy malt, luscious fruits
and oily nuts: tarry ropes, briny sea - salt and fresh zesty limes battle it out against blueberry
pie, spiced plum skins and weighty crushed sultanas. Creamy honey, treacle toffee and hazel-
nuts collide with pinesap, cedar and iodine. Espresso and cream simmers bin the background.
Taste:
Rich and oily with an intense burst of smoked berry fruits, treacle and juicy malt. The taste is
initially deep and powerful as an avalanche of mouthwatering baked blueberry pie, dried
apricots, dates and plums deepens and rolls over the tongue, drizzled with treacle and sprink-
ling of peaty - demerara sugar. A mouthful of Macchiato coffee and clotted cream rises to
a crescendo bringing a robust and earthy warmth, before a wave of briny - iodine, powdery
violets and walnut oil freshens then dries the palate with lingering tarry espresso.
Finish:
Long, spiced, oily and salty with spiced blueberry, treacle, sun - dried raisins and walnut oil.
Dr. W.B. Lumsden, Master Distiller  

In the headlong rush of science in the late autumn of 2011, a rocket ship blasted off this
earth at 25.000 mph. Deep within it, no ordinary cargo, for the rocket carried research
vials of precious Ardbeg  - crafted  molecules, the beginning of a fascinating first in re -
search experiment by Ardbeg in …… space!

This is the most audacious adventure ever undertaken by Ardbeg Distillery ( or any other
small part to  time spent in the gathering vat. Here we marry together whisky from
The Distillery is sheltered from the harsh excess of the mighty Atlantic by the
great and noble whisky.

The Ardbeg Distillery lies on the most southerly part of Islay on the rugged shores of the
Atlantic Ocean.

Ardbeg Distillery is subject to fierce winds, driving rain and eerie coverings of mist.
These weather conditions would be more extreme were it not fort he shelter of the Mull
of Oa. The Distillery is sheltered from the harsh excess of the mighty Atlantic by the
rounded Oa, the inspiration fort he outstanding Ardbeg An Oa.

Like the peninsula that shares its name, Ardbeg An Oa is particularly rounded, due in no
small part to  time spent in the gathering vat. Here we marry together whisky from
several different casks, including new charred oak, PX sherry and first fill bourbon. Here
they beca,e fully familar with each other.

The result is a dram with smoky power, mellowed by a delectable, smooth sweetness.
Hallmark Ardbeg peat, dark chocolate and aniseed are wrapped in smooth, silky
butterscotch, black pepper and clove, before rising to an intense crescendo of flavour.

Sinds 1798 was de familie MacDougall actief als boeren op grond te Ardbeg, Airigh nam Beist en de helft van Lagavulin. Er werd toen ook al gedistilleerd, maar hoofdzakelijk voor eigen gebruik.

Het commercieel distilleren nam een aanvang in 1815 toen John MacDougall, financieel gesteund door Thomas Buchanan Jr, koopman te Glasgow een distilleerderij begon.

In 1835 was de produktie ongeveer 2260 liter spirit per jaar.

In 1838 verleende Walter Frederick Campbell, de landeigenaar, een pachtovereenkomst voor de Ardbeg boerderij en distilleerderij, en 8000 vierkante meter grond voor zeven en vijftig jaar aan Thomas Buchanan Jr, het bedrag was £ 1800.

John's zoon Alexander, die de handelsnaam voerde Alexander MacDougall & Co. Alexander raakte later invalide en zijn zuster Margaret werd mede licentiehouder. Colin Hay, de zoon van de koetsier van Walter Frederick in 1853
werd met Flora, de zuster van Margaret partner.Tijdens het leiderschap van Colin Hay groeide Ardbeg uit tot een kleine gemeenschap van ongeveer 200 mensen.

Colin Hay werd de alleen eigenaar na de dood van de zusters Margareth en Flora. Colin Hay had twee zoons, waarvan Colin distillateur werd en Walter dokter, en ook aandeelhouder in de distilleerderij.
De Buchanan's waren nog steeds financieel betrokken bij Ardbeg.

Barnard, die Ardbeg bezocht in 1886, nam waar dat Ardbeg toen een wash still had van 18.160 liter, een spirit still van 1362 liter en men had 60 man personeel, 1135 miljoen liter per jaar produceerde !

In 1888 werd een nieuwe huurovereenkomst verleend aan Alexander Wilson Gray Buchanan en Colin Hay, met het recht gebruik te maken van de pier te Ardbeg. De huur van de pier was £ 100.

Colin Hay stierf op 10 Februari 1899.

In 1902 werd Alexander MacDougall & Co een limited company. In 1922 werd Ardbeg gekocht voor £ 19000, inclusief het land van Captain Iain Ramsay, de landeigenaar, die in financiële moeilijkheden was geraakt £ 9000 werd kontant betaald, de rest zou in gedeeltes worden betaald, maar door de heel moeilijke tijd toen, werd in 1927 het bedrag verminderd tot £ 5000 en in 1932 geheel afgeschreven.

In 1959 werd Ardbeg Distillery Ltd gevormd, gevolgd door Ardbeg Distillery Trust in 1973, met als deelnemers The Distillers Company Ltd (D.C.L) en Hiram Walker & Sons Ltd.

Distillery operating hours:6 days/week, 24 hours/day
Number of employees:  13 full-time; 2 part-time; 8 seasonal
Water source: Loch Uigeadail
Water reserve: est 55 million gallons
Water colour: brown
Peat content of water: trace
Malt source: Port Ellen
Own floor maltings: no
Malt type: Optic
Malt specification phenols: average 54 ppm
Finished spirit phenols: average 23-24 ppm
from May 1998; 16-17 ppm previously
Malt storage: 70 tonnes
Mill type:  Boby, installed 1881
Grist storage: 5 tonnes
Mash tun construction: stainless steel, semi-lauter
Mash size: 4,5 tonnes
First water: 17.500 litres at 64o C
Second water: 8.000 litres at 82o C
Third water: 17.500 litres at 90o C
Number of washbacks: 6
Wash construction: Oregon pine
Wasback charge: 23.500 litres
Yeast: Mauri cultered yeast
Amount of yeast: 75 kg per washback
Lengt of fermentation:
65-68 hours (shorts: week):
96 hours (longs: weekend)
Initial fermentation temperature:
20o C (16o C idfa Fridays)
Strenght of wash: 8 per cent abv
Number of wash stills: 1
Wash still built: 1974
Wash still capacity: 18.279 litres
Wash still charge: 11.700 litres
(64 per cent of capacity)
Heat source: steam coil with heating pans
Wash still height: 12 feet 3 inches (3.73 m)
Wash still shape: lamp-glass
Lyne arm: very gently rising
Lenght of low-wines run: around 5 hours
Low-wines collection range:
46 per cent abv - 1 per cent ab
Number of spirit stills: 1
Spirit still built:  2001
Spirit still capacity: 16.957 litres
Spirit still charge: 13.660 litres
(81 per cent of capacity)
Strenght of spirit still charge: 2
5 per cent abv
Heat source:
steam coil with heating pans
Spirit still height: 12 feet (3.66 m)
Spirit still shape: lamp-glass
Lyne arm: gently rising
Purifier:yes
Condensers:
two, externally sited, containing 238 tubes
Lenght of foreshot run: around 10 minutes
Lenght of spirit run:around 5 hours 15 minutes
Lenght of feints run: around 3 hours 30 minutes
Spirit cut: 73 per cent abv - 62.5 per cent abv
Distilling strenght:
69.5 per cent abv - 70.5 per cent abv
Storage strenght: 63.5 per cent abv
Average spirit yield:
402.1 litres of pure alcohol per
tonne of malt (2003)
Disposal of pot ale and spent lees  to
local contractors for spreading on farmland
Type of casks filled for branded malt:
50 per cent first-fill bourbon
(chiefly ex-Jack Daniels air-dried wood,
barrels rather than hogsheads);
50 per cent second-fill bourbon
(same origins); very little sherry;
futher finishes and experiments in hand
Current annual output:  
950.000 litres of pure alcohol
Number of warehouses:
5 (numbered 3, 9, 10, 10 X and 11)
Type of warehouses  dunnage:
(3, 9, 10 X); racked (10, 11)
Storage capacity on Islay: 24.000 casks
Percentage of branded malt entirely:
100 per cent at present. In future all
branded
malt aged on Islay will spend at least
10 years on Islay
Vatting and bottling location: Broxburn
Distillery expressions: 10 year old,
17- year old, Uigeadail, Lord of the Isles
(25- year old) Vintage-dated bottling,
Ardbeg committee bottlings,
Major blending roles:   Ballantyne's,
Teacher's, Black Bottle

In 1977
werd Hiram Walker de alleen eigenaar, voor
£ 300.000.
In 1982
werd Ardbeg gesloten met een verlies van
18 banen.
Tussen 1982 en 1989 werd Ardbeg verbouwd
en toen verdween ook de mouterij.
In 1989 werd
Ardbeg weer opgestart.
In 1996
werd Ardbeg weer gesloten.

In Maart 1997 verkoopt Allied Domecq Ardbeg aan Glenmorangie Plc voor £ 7.000.000, inclusief merknaam en voorraad.

Glenmorangie Plc heeft enorm geinvesteerd in Ardbeg. Naast het op de markt brengen van de verschillende bottelingen heeft men ook de distilleerderij zelf grondig onder handen genomen .
Men beschikt nu over een lunchroom, congresruimte en een bezoekers centrum met winkel. Dit alles is gevestigd in de oude mouterij No. 1 waar vroeger in twee kilns de gerst werd gedroogd.
In de toekomst wil men ook zelf weer gaan mouten.Ardbeg heeft twee met stoomverhitte ketels met een kapaciteit van ongeveer 600.000 liter spirit per jaar
.
De gebruikte vaten zijn sinds de overname door Glenmorangie Plc, Amerikaanse refill Bourbon vaten, afkomstig van Heaven Hill en Makers Mark. Het koel- en proceswater komt van de Loch Uisgeadale.en Loch Iaran. De mout komt van Port Ellen Maltings.

Ian Henderson was de manager van Ardbeg tot in 1997 toen Edwin Dobson afkomstig van Glen Moray, manager werd.

De Mash tun is 4 ton.
De zes Wash backs zijn groot 28.000 liter.
De Wash stills is groot 21.000 liter, de Spirit still 17.000 liter.

Edwin Dobson, de eerste manager na Henderson van Ardbeg, en een soort wegbereider werd opgevolgd door Stuart Thomson. De toekomst van Ardbeg werd onzeker in 1978 toen Hiram Walker en Allied samen gingen.Men bezat nu twee distilleerderijen op Islay: Ardbeg en Laphroaig. Ardbeg was gesloten van 1981 tot 1989.Gedurende 1989 - 1996 was Ardbeg jaarlijks twee maanden in bedrijf.

Toen in 1997 Ardbeg werd aangekocht doorGlenmorangie plc was de distilleerderij in een staat van verval. Glenmorangie ging toen ook de verplichting aan jaarlijks 150.000 liter Ardbeg te leveren voor de blends Ballantines en Teachers. Ardbeg produceerde maar een paar maanden in 1997.

De staat van de distilleerderij was zo siecht dat als gevolg van technische Problemen de produktie moest worden gestaakt van October 1997 tot April 1998. £ 3,5 miljoen investeerde Glenmorangie in reparaties
en herstel, alleen het bezoekerscen-trum vroeg al een bedrag van £ 750.000. 0p 28 Juni 1997 kwam er voor het eerst weer whisky uit de ketels van Ardbeg.

Ardbeg gebruikt voor het distillatie- en koelingproces ongeveer 700.000 liter water per week.

Brand owned by:Glenmorangie Plc
Manager:Stuart Thomson
Production: 18.000 litres pure alcohol per week
Share used for single malt: Half of total production;
the rest is sold for blending, though this may change
Degree of peating: 50 ppm compared to Laproaig's 35 ppm
Water source: Loch Uigedale, three miles from the distillery
Peculiarities of wash still:It has a purifier on the lyne arm
which captures the heavier more impure alcohols and brings
them back to the still for further distilling. This explains the
complex character of Ardbeg.
Wood: Ex-bourbon casks
Shorty: a Jack Russell terrier, is the dog at Ardbeg.

1975
Delicate nose but pungently peaty on the palate, big and robust with hints of oak

1978
Oak on the nose with traces of bourbon against a peaty background. Well-balanced on
the palate with floral traces and refined oak.

PROVENANCE
Peaty, bourbon nose, plenty of smoke; palate big with smoke tar, chocolate and cocoa,
long memorable finish.

17 YEARS OLD
Peaty and sweet on the nose with hints of bourbon. Smoky peat with good balance and a
hint of orange choclate.

1794  
Er wordt melding gemaakt dat op de
plek waar in 1815 de Ardbeg
distilleerderij zou worden gebouwd
1815  
Ardbeg wordt gesticht door John MacDougall
1853  
Na de dood van Alexander MacDougall,
de zoon van John, nemen zijn zusters,
Margareth en Flora, geholpen door
Colin Hay de distilleerderij over en
na de dood van de
twee zusters MacDougall gaat                  
Colin Hay alleen verder
1888  
Collin Hay en Alexander Wilson
zijn de licentienemers
1900  
Colin Hay wordt opgevolgd door zijn zoon
1902  
Alexander MacDougall & Co werd een
Limited Company.
1959  
Ardbeg Distillery Ltd gesticht
1973  
Ardbeg Distillery Trust gevormd door
The Distillers Company Ltd
(D.C.L.) en Hiram Walker & Sons Ltd
1977  
Hiram Walker wordt de alleen eigenaar
De mouterij wordt gesloten
1979  
Kildalton, een minder turfgerookte malt
wordt gedurende een aantal jaren geproduceerd
1981  
Ardbeg sluit
1987  
Allied Lyons neemt Hiram Walker over
1989  
Ardbeg wordt weer opgestart
Iain Henderson is de manager
1996  
Ardbeg sluit in Juli, en Ardbeg wordt te
koop aangeboden
1997  
Glenmorangie plc neemt Ardbeg over
voor £ 7 miljoen
Ardbeg wordt weer opgestart op 25 Juni
De voorraad whisky heeft een waarde van
£ 5,5 miljoen,
rest voor het zwaar vervallen gebouwencomplex
£ 1,5 miljoen
Ardbeg 17 years old en de Provenance
worden uitgebracht
1998  
Bezoekerscentrum geopend
2000  
Ardbeg 10 years old uitgebracht      
Ardbeg Committee opgericht
2001  
Lord of the Isles uitgebracht       
Ardbeg 1977 uitgebracht
2002  
Ardbeg Committee Rserve uitgebracht
Ardbeg 1974 uitgebracht
2003  
Ardbeg Uigedail uitgebracht
2004  
Ardbeg Very Young uitgebracht      
Ardbeg Kildalton Limited Edition uitgebracht
(not peated)
2005  
Ardbeg Serendipity (with Glen Moray)
uitgebracht
2006  
Ardbeg 1965 uitgebracht
Ardbeg Still Young uitgebracht
2007  
Managers echtpaar is Stuart én Jacky Thomson

At one time the
sear of the mediaeval kingdom of the 'Lords of the Isles' who
ruled the whole of the Western Isles of Scotland and used
the sea as the highway for their 'longships',

Over the centuries Islay has been occupied by Celts, Picts, Gaels and Vikings and indeed some of the old ruins standing on the island are reminders of a turbulent past.
In fact, some of the Celtic influences are still in evidence on Islay and, close to the Ardbeg Distillery lies the ancient Celtic Cross of Kildalton dating from the 8th century - one of the oldest and finest examples of Celtic art in Scotland. The charateristic 'A', long associated with Ardbeg, is another reminder of the Celtic heritage and is derived from the famous 'Book of Kells' dating from the same period.
Two centuries ago, Ardbeg, which in Gaelic means 'small headland' was the lonely haunt of smugglers. It is located on the south-eastern shore of Islay.
The Ardbeg distillery boasts its own private water source - Loch Uigeadail is soft and pure. The waters of the loch flow over rocks and peat masses making them beautifully adapted for distilling.

Tasting Notes Cask No. 2397:
Colour: Deep golden
Aroma:
Ardbeg at its most paradoxial - powerful and pungent, yet displaying a degree of delicacy and
balsamic freshness. At full strength, dark chocolate is filled with cherry brandy and infused with tarry peat smoke. Marzipan, toffee and vanilla mingle with rum and raisin ice cream; then the sweetness is sliced through by pungent black peppercorns, fennel and the salty - balsamic complexity of menthol, pine resin and sea spray. Barbequed bananas, cinnamon -
spiced pears and caramalised walnuts bring sizzling warmth and deep maturity.
With water, waves of classic Ardbeg notes emerge, fused with juicy malt, luscious fruits
and oily nuts: tarry ropes, briny sea - salt and fresh zesty limes battle it out against blueberry
pie, spiced plum skins and weighty crushed sultanas. Creamy honey, treacle toffee and hazel-
nuts collide with pinesap, cedar and iodine. Espresso and cream simmers bin the background.
Taste:
Rich and oily with an intense burst of smoked berry fruits, treacle and juicy malt. The taste is
initially deep and powerful as an avalanche of mouthwatering baked blueberry pie, dried
apricots, dates and plums deepens and rolls over the tongue, drizzled with treacle and sprink-
ling of peaty - demerara sugar. A mouthful of Macchiato coffee and clotted cream rises to
a crescendo bringing a robust and earthy warmth, before a wave of briny - iodine, powdery
violets and walnut oil freshens then dries the palate with lingering tarry espresso.
Finish:
Long, spiced, oily and salty with spiced blueberry, treacle, sun - dried raisins and walnut oil.
Dr. W.B. Lumsden, Master Distiller

In the headlong rush of science in the late autumn of 2011, a rocket ship blasted off this
earth at 25.000 mph. Deep within it, no ordinary cargo, for the rocket carried research
vials of precious Ardbeg  - crafted  molecules, the beginning of a fascinating first in re -
search experiment by Ardbeg in …… space!

This is the most audacious adventure ever undertaken by Ardbeg Distillery ( or any other
distillery for that matter). Ardbeg have been invited by U S based space research company
NanoRacks L L C  to take part in an experiment to test this micro organic compounds in a
maturation experiment  ( the interaction of these compounds with charred oak) between
normal gravity on Earth  and micro - gravity," far up in space on the International Space
Station. The vials contain a class of compounds known as "terpenes" a set of chemicals
which are very widespread in nature and often very aromatic and flavor active. The expe -
riment could explain the workings of these large, complex molecules as they will remain
on the International Space Station for at least tow years and help us uncover new truths
about the change that these molecules undergo  in this near ' zero gravity'  environment.
The experiment will have applications for a varity of commercial and research products
including perhaps, one day, future generations ofARDBEG. Working is close collaboration
with the ARDBEG Distillery team in Scotland, the team will closely monitor the experiment
against control samples here on earth, both in Houston, Texas at the NanoRack's facility
and more familliary, in Warehouse 3 at ARDBEGdistillery on Islay!This historic step will
allow us to reach out to other scientic bodies across Scotland ( and the world) led by ARD-
BEGS's own renowed distilling and chemistry expert, Dr. Bill Lumsden, with regular updates
on progress at Ardbeg.com However, what goes up must go down, and ARDBEG is destined
to go down well whatever the atmosphere. So when the experiment successfully lands back
on our own planet, join us and your fellow peaty - earthlings in saluting this momentous
ARDBEG GALILEO - let's celebrate! To celebrate this research initiative, please welcome a
very unusual and very limited ARDBEG, aptly namedARDBEG GALILEO. At its heart ARDBEG
GALILEO is hallmark 1999 ARDBEG which has been matured in classic  ex - bourbon barrels
and some ex - Marsala casks from Sicily. The result is a deep golden, rich and smoky ARDBEG
Bottled at a strength of 49 % it is non chill - filtered for extra texture and mouthfeel

ARDBEG  SPACE  GALILEO
Celebrate Ardbeg's Ultimate Journey into Space !
September 2012
Ardbeg Islay Malt Whisky lanceert vandaag haar nieuwste Limited Edition ter ere van de
deelname aan een uniek experiment in de ruimte. Deze expressie is een eerbetoon aan
Galileo Galilei, een van de grondleggers van moderne atstronomie.
Ardbeg Galileo is een speciale vatting van verschillende stijlen Ardbeg whisky die te rijpen
zijn gelegd in 1999. Het hart van de Galileo is spirit gerijpt in ex - Marsala wijnvaten uit
Sicilie.

Dit is gecombineerd met Ardbeg 'klassieke stijl',  gerijpt in 1st fill en 2nd fill ex - bourbon
vaten. Het resultaat is een 12 jaar oude van 49 % A B V, non - chill filtered, met een zoetig
en rokerig karakter. De Marsala - vaten zorgen voor fruitige aroma's en texturen in Ardbeg's
befaamde geturfde en rokerige huisstijl.
De whisky genoemd naar een sleutelfiguur in de moderne astromie, viert Ardbeg's deelname
aan een baan brekend experiment. Eind 2011 is de distilleerderij gevraagd door nano Racks L L C.
een ruintevaartonderzoeksbureau in Houston, texas om deel te nemen aan een uniek ex periment.
Geen enkele andere distilleerderij heeft dit eerder gedaan. Op 11 Oktober 2011
is de Soyuz raket vertrokken naar het Internationaal Space Station I S S met aan boord 4 test
tubes. In houston en in warehouse 3 van de Ardbegdistillerderij op Islay liggen de controle
tubes, zodat de rijping bij normale zwaartekracht op aarde en rijping bij micro - zwaarte-
kracht op het I S S vergeleken kunnen worden. Dit wordt gedaan door micro - organische deeltjes
uit de Ardbeg new make spirit in de test tubes te laten reageren met deeltjes van
de eikenhouyten vaten die Ardbeg gebruikt voor de rijping.
De tubes bevatten deeltjes die bekend staan als 'terpenen' een chemisch element dat veel
voorkomt in de natuur en dat vaak zeer aromatisch en ' flavour active 'is. Het experiment
zal minimaal duren en hopelijk meer inzicht bieden in de werking van deze grote, complexe
moleculen. Daarnaast kan het Ardbeg helpen bij het vinden van nieuwe chemische bouw-
stenen in het eigen smakenspectrum. De resultaten van het experiment kunnen toegepast worden
in een scala aan commerciële en onderzoeksproducten waaronder dus wellicht ooit
toekomstige whiskies van Ardbeg.

ARDBEG  SPACE  GALILEO
Dr Bill Lumsden Director of Distilling. Whisky Creation and Whisky Stocks reageert: "So
far, so good - het experiment in live gegaan in Januari 2012 toen de wetenschappers
de barriere tussen de twee componenten doorbraken. Het zal nog zeker een jaar duren
voor de eerste resultaten zichtbaar zijn, maar in de tussentijd willen wij het experiment
vieren met de introduktie van Ardbeg Galileo. Onze eigen aardse bijdrage in de ruimte'.
De whisky uit 1999 is apart gelegd kort na de overname van de distillerderij door Glenmorangie
Company en de voorraad beslaat ook maar uit enkele duizenden vaten.

The Ardbeg distillery lies on the most southerly part of islay and on the rugged shores
of the Arlantic Ocean.

Release the peat in the spirit…
Islay is an antique land, where Celtic monks found refuge from raiding Norseman and
early distillers smuggled their illicit 'agua vitae' at ARDBEG'S rocky cove. Where the
Lords of the Isles ruled from Loch Finlaggan between 1130 and 1493 - the clan kings
whose bloodline continued through the MacDougalls ofARDBEG, the founders of our                                                                                                                                                                                             
great and noble whisky.
Malted barley is harvested and dried in smoke from burning peat turfs carved from this
ancient land, locking the peating levels into the whisky. The peat of Islay entombs the
deep and primeval spirit of this place. So to fully understand the story of ARDBEG you
have to dig a little deeper.
Stand on Islay peat bogs and under your feet lie thousands of years history. The peat
that is the essence of ARDBEG embodies a heady mix of life and death and everything
in between.
For to dig into the peat is a travel back in time. Down and down. To when clans fought
and ruled. And Viking treasures were lost and trodden into the yielding ground+ until
you reach the remains of vegetation, last walked upon before the first century.

Release the spirit in the peat…
Our forefathers and their forefathers toiled to ´win´ the peat to dry the barley, to make
our whisky. ARDBEG is born on peat and the deep, marshy bogs which give such com/
pelling flavours to all things Islay. ARDBEG´S classic smoky, but sweet, whisky has been
intriguingly interwoven with salty, savoury whiskies, rare drams which have slumbered
undisturbed for at least ten long years in rare Manzanilla sherry casks. The end result is                                                                       
a whisky of great depth and maturity, but one which also displays ARDBEG´S captivating
complexity.   

ARDBOG
Islay's peaty earth has yielded much: Mesolithic flints, arrowheads from 4000 - 2500 BC,
bronze axes, gold brooches and the greatest prize, a leaf - shaped bronze sword, the same
deep ochre colour of ARDBEG itself. The weapon was said to have been thrust into its
earthly resting place 3000 years befor, in honour of the man who yielded it.
Surely hidden still, are hordes of historical treasures. But it is the spirits we release from
the peat that will gift us the essence of true and ancient Islay - in every sip of ARDBEG.
And that is the greatest treasure of all.

ARDBEG THE UNTAMED SPIRIT OF ISLAY.
Cut 3 foot into the bog ansd you'll have dug 1000 years in the past. Dig deeper and you'll
discover peat formed from prehistoric vegetation - the essence of Ardbeg.
Bronze sword unearthed near Oa - the cutting edge in clan warfare fashion 3000 years ago.
Eons have passed, continents have collided, oceans have drifted on fiery mantles. From ship
wrecks to uck. Silver coin board dating
from 1635 found buried at Ardnave.
Make mine a double…Silver, bronze and gold were found in a ' His & Hers' Viking grave on Islay.
Where woolly mammoths once roamed, Woolly hill sheep and Committee Members now flock here.
Underboot you may well find the skull and crossbones of smugglers and pirates who perished whilst plying their illicit trade.
A fessilised monster footprint, found near Airgh Nam Beist.
Ancient crustacean - believed to be a very early member of the Clan MacDougall, forefathers ofArdbeg's founders.

ARDBEG is renowed as the peatiest, smokiest and most complex of all of Islay's whiskies.
In ARDBEG we celebrate our peaty roots in the marshy wetlands of Islay. ARDBEG's smoky
sweetness has been intriguingly interwoven with salty, savoury whiskies which have slumbered undisturbed in rare
ex - Manzanilla sherry casks, all for at least ten long years

Water: Loch Iarran, Loch Uigeadail
Mash tun: 1 x 4 tonnes
Washbacks: 6 x 28000 litres
1 wash still x 21000 litres
1 x spirit still x 17000 litres
Output: 600.000 litres

Ardbeg Supernova flavoured from space
September, 2015
The Glenmorangie Company has released a new expression of Ardbeg, its Islay single malt scotch whisky, following an experiment to investigate how micro or zero gravity would affect the flavour of whisky.
The company says the experiment began in October 2011 when vials of new make Ardbeg distillate and shards of Ardbeg casks were sent to the US National Lab on the international space station by the distillery's partner, US space research company, NanoRacks.
The vials orbited Earth at 17,227 miles an hour for nearly three years.
Glenmorangie/Ardbeg's director of distilling and whisky creation Dr Bill Lumsden then analysed them alongside control samples. He said: "When I nosed and tasted the space samples, it became clear that much more of Ardberg's smoky, phenolic character shone through - to reveal a different set of smoky flavours which I have not encountered here on Earth before."
Further analysis, looking at ratios of types of wood extractive compounds showed differences between the two sets of samples, which the company says shows that gravity has an effect of maturation.
So, the distillery has released what it describes as its final bottling of Ardbeg Supernova (non-chill filtered, bottled at 54.3% abv, £124.99) exclusively to its loyal following, the 'Ardbeg Committee' (120,000 in more than 130 countries). It is said to contain the most highly peated Ardbeg, said to provide an "intensity reminiscent of the exploding star after which it is named".

Here's to the next 200 years. A never ending, rich and enticing combination of classic Ardbeggian notes and incredibly creamy flavours.

Times change . Ardbeg remains. The past, present and future in a glass….Classic
of Ardbeg's yesteryear on the nose as mellow, Rich and enticing Ardbeggian flavours
mingle with dark chocolate, Treacle and Nutty oak. Then like standing on Ardbeg's
pier this morning, water brings forth briny sea - spray with a Pine Resin lime top
note for a remarkably Fresh Bouquet. On the palate Robust Peat smoke and savoury
Smoky Bacon meet creamy Sweet Vanilla, milk chocolate with the hint of Sherry
Casks culminating in a taste of the future… an aftertaste that is never ending..

Celebrating 200 years of Ardbeg.
200 years is a long time. But not in whisky years. If one year equals 7 years in Shortie's
life, Ardbeg only ages every 10 years. Se we're still a young pup and there's plenty of life
in the old dog yet. Yet who could have known back in1815 that two hundred years later
Ardbeg would still be made in the same place, from the same ingredients, in the same way.

Today everyone at Ardbeg knows that Ardbeg - both the place and the whisky - will endure
for the next 200 years. So on this momentous occasion, our 200th Anniversary, we raise a glass
to the past, the present and the future safe in the knowledge that there will never be
a robot that could take the place of the people who made Ardbeg. We pledge Ardbeg will
never be automated or simulated. Only over celebrated…

no synthetic nose or tastebuds will ever come close to replicating the skills of our whisky
creators and no man - made machine will ever be capable of producing man - made
whisky because times change but Ardbeg remains which is why….

Ardbeg gets its name from the Gaelic Airde Beaga which is little height.

Serendipity
Blended malt born by mistake at Glenmorangie’s blending plant after some clever lateral thinking.
The Glenmorangie Company had no plans to produce this accidental blended malt; its creation arose from a mistake made in the blending hall at the company’s blending facility at Broxburn.
As a result of the error, Serendipity became a blend of Ardbeg and Glen Moray single malts, with Ardbeg making up most of the mix.
The result was a toned-down Ardbeg that Glenmorangie marketed as a ‘lighter taste of Islay’ bottled as a 12-year-old.

One production manager at The GlenmorangieCompany described the creation of Serendipity as a disaster. Marketing manager Hamish Torrie had another view.
The mistake occurred in 2005 in the blending hall at Broxburn when a nameless operative dumped a large volume of 12-year-old Glen Moray into a much larger volume of older Ardbeg. However, Torrie decided to take advantage of the situation by releasing the accidental vatting as a limited edition expression he named Serendipity.
Some 16,000 bottles were produced – under the old Macdonald & Muir company name – which sold out very quickly at £39.99 per bottle. There are, however, a large number of bottles available at online auction sites, although their value has somewhat increased.
Serendipity was not the first large-scale blending error to have occurred at Broxburn. In 1999 a vat of Glenmorangie 21-year-old was accidently mixed with a smaller amount of another whisky. The mistake, which contained 80% Glenmorangie, was subsequently released as 80:20 by the company’s Douglas McNiven & Co. subsidiary.

1893
Macdonald & Muir is founded as an
Edinburgh wine and spirits merchant
1996
Macdonald & Muir changes its name
to The Glenmorangie Company and
moves into new premises at Broxburn
1997
Glenmorangie purchases Ardbeg
distillery on Islay
1999
The accidental 80:20 blended malt
is created following an error in the
Broxburn blending hall
2005
A second mistake at Broxburn results
in Serendipity, an accidental blend of
Ardbeg and Glen Moray whisky
2009
Glenmorangie sells Glen Moray distillery
to French group La Martiniquaise
2010
Glenmorangie moves its blending and
bottling from Broxburn to new premises
in Livingstone

The Glenmorangie Company
2005 - present
Macdonald & Muir
2005 - present

COLIN HAY
In the history of Ardbeg and Islay whisky, the figure of Colin Hay looms large. Not only did he bring the distillery back from the brink of destruction, he is credited with ushering in the most prosperous period in its history.
Hay was a native Ileach, born in Kildalton Parish, who began work at the distillery in the 1840s. The business was managed by Alexander McDougall,the resident partner in Alexander McDougall & Co, but all was not well.
An Excise officer reported in 1846 that McDougall ‘is paralytic and constantly confined to his chair [and] consequently not able to look after his affairs’. The exciseman believed that distillery workers were taking advantage of his incapacity, stealing new make spirit from the worm and carrying it off for their own consumption.  
McDougall’s sisters Margaret and Flora had to take on much of the responsibility for running the business, appointing Hay as their manager, but they struggled to keep the business going after their brother’s death in 1853. When Ardbeg’sagents and major creditors, Buchanan, Wilson & Co., examined the books after Flora’s death in 1857, they were horrified by what they found.
Customers had been removing casks without any record of payments to their accounts. Lawyers’ fees had been paid in whisky from the warehouse rather than in cash, leaving a gaping hole in the company’s own stocks.
At the same time, lavish personal expenses had been put through the company’s books, including an intriguing bill for providing ‘outfits and a passage to India’ for Alexander’s late brother and distillery manager, Dugald. None of the debts appeared to be recoverable.
As they had done in 1838, when the Ardbeg distillery was last threatened with closure, Buchanan, Wilson & Co stepped in to provide a financial rescue package. And the man they chose to lead the recovery was Colin Hay.
The manager had become Margaret’s partner in the business in the 1850s, and sole partner after Margaret’s death in 1865. Hugely indebted to Buchanan, Wilson & Co to begin with, he tookAlexander Buchanan into partnership in Alexander McDougall & Co in 1872, swapping the debt for equity. Ardbeg’s future was secured – for now at least.
Ardbeg’s whisky was in great demand from blenders in the mid-19th century. It was also supplied to wine and spirits merchants across the UK for sale as a single malt, and exported to the US, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. It was ‘decidedly the best whisky made in Scotland’, proclaimed one merchant’s advert. A New Zealand hotelkeeper called it ‘The Ticket for Scotchmen’.   
Hay worked tirelessly to develop the business. He installed larger stills to increase production capacity and erected new warehouses to store growing stocks of maturing whisky.
He built a new deep-water quay to land coal, barley and other essential supplies on the distillery’s doorstep, and to ship whisky more quickly and cheaply to the mainland. In 1883 he installed a steam engine at the distillery, when the water wheel alone could no longer supply the power required for new machinery
Journalist Alfred Barnard noted that production had risen to 250,000 gallons of whisky per annum by 1886 – 25 times the amount distilled annually in the 1820s. There were 60 men employed at the distillery at that time, and the small village of Ardbeg had grown to about 200 people, with its own school for the children of the village and surrounding area.
By then, Hay had built a magnificent house on the seafront next to Warehouse No 3. He laid out a beautiful garden on the hillside to the west of the village, and built a large greenhouse to grow fruit and vegetables. A well-appointed billiards room was provided for the men to pass their leisure time, and wives and children could join them for special events in the evenings.
Hay was a pillar of Islay society. He was a farmer of nearly 2,300 acres, on which he raised cattle, as well as sheep. He was also a Justice of the Peace, a parish councillor and a driving force of the Glasgow Islay Association. A passionate supporter of Gaelic education, he championed the revival of Gaelic literary traditions.  
Ardbeg survived the depression in the market for Islay whiskies of the late 1880s and early 1890s. It survived, too, the huge fire of December 1887which destroyed the stillhouse, tun room, malt barns and kiln. When Hay retired in 1897, the distillery was reputedly the largest and most successful on the island.
Hay hoped, but failed, to establish a dynasty at Ardbeg. His eldest son Alexander was his chosen successor, but died in 1896. A second son, Robert, was described by Hay himself as a ‘a soft-headed young fellow’ who ran away to work on a sheep farm and hunt rabbits in New Zealand. He died soon after finally obeying his father’s demand to return home.
A third son, Colin Elliot Hay, returned from the mainland as manager after Alexander Hay’s death, and he became the resident partner and one of the leading shareholders in Alexander McDougall & Co.
The son tried hard to emulate his father, who had criticised him for exhibiting ‘no moral strength or courage to break off from evil companionship’ when he was a young man living on the mainland.
There were rumours in the village that he drank too much, and he became unpopular. He left Islay after the First World War, returning only rarely, and died with crippling debts in 1928.
Successive management teams had to deal with many new crises at the distillery after the departure of the Hays. It closed during the Depression of the early 1930s. It was closed again from 1981 until 1989, and then in 1996, before reopening in 1997 under current owner The Glenmorangie Company.
Much of Ardbeg’s resilience can be put down to the work of Colin Hay, who turned a troubled business around, built a solid reputation for the whisky and laid the foundations of a ‘brand’ that is one of the best-known in Scotland today.

ARDBEG AND SERENDIPITY
The next time you feel like moaning about ‘health and safety gone mad’, think about the old pot ale tank at Glen Elgin distillery. Made from 6ft by 3ft sections of cast-iron, it blew apart one night, sending one of the panels 30 metres across the yard. ‘It would have taken your head off,’ Ed Dodson says.
As anyone who’s read the recent feature outlining the 20-year-old story of the resurrection of Ardbegwill know, Dodson was the whisky veteran sent in to patch up the Islay distillery and get it up and running again following its acquisition byGlenmorangie in 1997.
The hard part about writing this type of article – and keeping it to a vaguely sensible length – is not so much knowing what to include, but what to leave out. And, even then, there’s that nagging feeling that some of the best stuff has ended up on the cutting-room floor.
Hence the Glen Elgin story morangie takeover) – not to mention the time in April 1997 when blue asbestos was discovered in Ardbeg’s roof, leading to a temporary shutdown.

How did Ardbeg’s spirit arrive at its combination of fruit and smoke?
Dodson was clearly fascinated by the Ardbeg spirit character – had been since the 1970s during his ‘Islay period’ of single malt drinking. ‘I’d never been there, but it didn’t make sense to me,’ he recalls. ‘I always thought Laphroaig and Lagavulinwere really heavy compared to Ardbeg. But it wasn’t until I began to nose the new make spirit [in June 1997] that I thought: “This is why.”’
But where does that quintessential Ardbegcharacter – the lush fruit keeping the smoke in check – come from? Dodson has a sacrilegious hypothesis: ‘My theory – which didn’t go down well with the marketing department – was that, when they were starting up Ardbeg, the whisky was probably crap, so they decided to put an angle on the lyne arm.
‘And it was probably still no good, so they put in the purifier, collecting any liquid and directing it back into the body of the still, allowing it to run back down, but not stopping the vapours from heading up the still.

‘It’s serendipity. A lot of the things that have happened in the Scotch whisky industry came about by accident.’
Serendipity, yes, but also the willingness to make mistakes and the good sense to learn from them, to improve, hone, tinker to get the best possible result out of the raw materials and equipment at your disposal.
Distilleries, it seems, have an almost human character, full of temperament and idiosyncratic traits that defy scientific analysis. Dodson had thought that he’d be able to get 1.3m litres of pure alcohol a year out of Ardbeg – until he faced the challenge of working with a spirit still that’s almost as big as the wash still. ‘I could only get to the 1.1m-litre mark because of the need to get a balanced distillation,’ he says.
On the night that the first spirit ran from the stills again at Ardbeg, the plan was to bring the wash still in slowly and gently. ‘That won’t work,’ said Duncan Logan, 35-year Ardbeg veteran and, despite no longer working there, an invaluable source of advice to Dodson at that time. ‘You have to let it come in, then slow it down afterwards. If you shut the steam off, you’ll lose it.’ Logan was ignored – but not for long.
At Ardbeg, the talk now is not of survival, but expansion. That brings its own challenges and potential pitfalls. Intervening in the serendipitous evolutionary process that has made Ardbeg Ardbeg over a period of more than two centuries is something that has to be done with care and sensitivity.
But Ardbeg is a distillery, not a museum. And if a distillery is like a person, then change is part of what makes you realise you’re still alive. What will the serendipitous discoveries of tomorrow be? It’ll be fun finding out.

MICKEY HEADS
Whisky passion: Over the past decade, Mickey Heads has become inextricably linked to Ardbeg
There’s a pleasing numerical symmetry to Mickey’stenure at Ardbeg: the 20th manager of the distillery, marking 10 years in 2017, having joined almost exactly 10 years after Glenmorangie bought the distillery.
That acquisition ended an uncertain period during which Ardbeg could have become another Port Ellen after a stop-start period of production (it was silent from 1981-9 and 1996-7, and scarcely running at full speed at other times).
Apt, then, that its management should pass to a true Ileach, one born just a few miles from Ardbegand whose father (a stillman) and grandfather (head maltman at Port Ellen) were also closely involved in the industry. Arguably all the more important to reinforce those local links when the distillery’s current owner (luxury goods corporation LVMH) has its offices in faraway Paris.
That said, Mickey’s career path – or ‘meander’ as he has modestly described it – appeared at first to be taking him further away from Ardbeg, rather than closer to it. From cutting peat for Laphroaigto becoming the distillery’s brewer (during which time he also helped out at Ardbeg, then owned by the same company), then hopping across to run Jura between 1999 and 2007.
But then came the call back to Islay, and Ardbeg. And now, 10 years on, Ardbeggians all over the world are being encouraged to raise a glass, and three cheers, to Mickey.
In a whisky world where hype and marketing cliché all too often overwhelm the truth of an essentially local product, it’s not hard to celebrate someone so down-to-earth, hard-working and humble, and someone whose connection to what he makes is so powerful.
Corryvreckan in my glass, to recall that first Indian summer visit. Sláinte, Mickey.

HAMISH SCOTT
The legendary Ardbeg bottlings of the 1960s and 1970s owe their existence to Hamish Scott, who transformed the way whisky was made at the Islay distillery during his tenure as manager. Scott also had an entrepreneurial streak – and introduced the world to the iconic Ardbeg ‘A’.

Bottlings of Ardbeg distilled in the 1960s and 1970s have achieved legendary status among collectors, and fetch huge sums at auction. They were distilled at a time when the Islay distillery was managed by the late Hamish Scott, one of the most colourful characters in its long and eventful history.
For many years, enthusiasts beat a path to his door, eager to discover what it was about his regime that led to the creation of such distinctive Islay single malts. Here’s what happened…
Scott had amassed a wealth of experience before arriving on Islay in September 1964: he had worked at Aberfeldy, Glen Ord and BenRiach, as well as two grain whisky distilleries on the mainland, and had also made rum as the manager of the Diamond distillery in Guyana. He quickly set to work on a much-needed modernisation project at Ardbeg which was to transform the way the distillery made whisky.    
The new manager was shocked to discover how long it took to germinate barley at Ardbeg’s maltings. His first improvement was to heat the water used in the process and reduce the time required by more than half, to about five days.  
Interviewed by whisky writer Bert Bruyneel many years later, Scott recalled that the distillery had used a mix of brewers’ and distillers’ yeast before his arrival. He decided to use only the latter, as ‘the quality was always fairly consistent and gave better results’.
In 1964, the worm tub serving Ardbeg’s spirit still was replaced with a condenser – the wash still’s had been replaced four years earlier. Another fundamental change in the distilling regime followed in 1966, when the stills were converted from direct coal firing to steam heating. This gave greater control over the heating of the wash and the low wines in the stills, reducing the risk of ‘scalding’ the liquid.   
This modernisation programme must have had a significant effect on the character of the new make distilled at Ardbeg from the mid-1960s, producing a more consistent and perhaps less ‘pungent’ spirit for maturation. Demand from blenders soared, and new warehouses were built to meet the requirements of increased production.
Scott was promoted to the post of general manager in 1971 by his employer, the Ardbeg Distillery Ltd, giving him greater responsibility for planning, purchasing and reporting. He was immediately tasked with increasing production to meet the growing demand for fillings.

Ardbeg cask 1974
Lighter style: Ardbeg’s 1974 whiskies tend to be less peaty – but it wasn’t a deliberate move
Ardbeg production was constrained by the availability of malt from the distillery’s maltings, but Scott reckoned he could buy in up to 15% of the extra malt required from the mainland, without affecting the character of the spirit. His chosen supplier was Moray Firth Malting of Inverness, which was found to be most capable of providing malt peated to the required levels.

Despite his best efforts, however, the vagaries of the Islay weather helped defeat his attempts to produce a spirit of consistent character. Scott had set up a company, Islay Peat Developments (IPD), to mechanise the peat cutting process on Islay, and IPD delivered large quantities of peat toArdbeg – such that the directors in Glasgow raised concerns about the high level of peat used in the 1972-73 season, and the resulting expense.

Peating levels then fell dramatically in 1973-74, the result (according to Scott) of adverse weather conditions in which the IPD machinery could not operate.

These events help to explain why some of the famous 1974 Ardbeg are far less peaty than others from the mid-1970s – something very evident inSerge Valentin’s excellent reviews of vintage Ardbegs on whiskyfun.com.

Of course Scott was making Ardbeg primarily for the blending companies which dominated the whisky market at the time. While the distillery had bottled small quantities of single malt for select customers in the past, by the 1960s only a few cases were made available each year, for Islay hotels and for Christmas gifts to the directors.
Scott told whisky writer Gavin Smith that he filled just a single 50-gallon cask each year for bottling as a single malt, and the casks were old. However, the whisky was immensely popular among those lucky enough to sample it, and the manager recognised another excellent business opportunity.
In 1975, Scott sent a few casks of Ardbeg to Strathleven Bonded Warehouses Ltd on the mainland, to be bottled at 80 degrees proof (about 45% abv) as a single malt. He supplied the distillery’s own labels for the project, designed (with what has subsequently become the famousArdbeg ‘A’) by an art college lecturer and professional football referee, Rollo Kyle, who was a frequent visitor to the island.

Ardbeg single malts distilled under Scott in the 1970s are highly prized

Scott took the single malt to a trade exhibition in Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall, where he sold 90 cases and generated a lot of interest in the product. Sales were steady if unspectacular thereafter, although the company received an order for 50 cases from Groothandel Van Wees of the Netherlands at the beginning of 1976. A large number of miniatures were bottled for local traders that year.
Venturing into single malt in this way was a bold and typically entrepreneurial initiative from the distillery manager, but Scott’s days at Ardbeg were numbered. One of the Ardbeg Distillery Ltd’s minority shareholders, the Scottish arm of the multinational distillery company Hiram Walker-Gooderham & Worts, acquired the business in early 1977. Scott later told me that he had been warned that he was unlikely to remain in his post under the new regime for longer than six months – and so it proved.
After 13 years in charge at Ardbeg, with minimal interference from the mainland, Scott found it troublesome to implement the corporate rules and regulations which Hiram Walker attempted to impose. Much more serious, however, were differences over how the whisky should be made.

Ardbeg A
A is for…: Scott commissioned the design of the Ardbeg ‘A’ from art college lecturer Rollo Kyle
Scott and his line manager disagreed about a dramatic fall in the quality of the spirit produced at Ardbeg in 1976/77, with Scott blaming new methods imposed from the mainland.
‘In my opinion, the deterioration in quality of the spirit is directly related to the recent changes which have been effected in the maltings,’ he reported. ‘Namely the shortening of the kilning cycle and the insufficient time allowed for the “smoking” of the malt with peat, combined with the requirement to force-dry the kiln, because of the higher moisture content of the green malt.’ He believed that quality was being sacrificed to cut costs.
Scott left Ardbeg in 1977, with a new manager put in place to make Ardbeg the Hiram Walker way. Scott set up as a shopkeeper in nearby Port Ellenand later ran a bed and breakfast business near the pier with his wife.
He died in 2016, and is remembered as one of the great characters in the long, rollercoaster history of the distillery: the man who made some of the greatest malt whiskies to come from the island, and who introduced the world to the iconic Ardbeg ‘A’.

ISLAY’S SINGLE MALT EXPANSION
February 2018
Today’s announcement that Ardbeg is to double distillation capacity crowns a period of unprecedented growth for Islay single malt whisky. New distilleries, revived distilleries, expanding distilleries… here’s a rundown of the latest moves on ‘Whisky Island’
Ardbeg distillery expansion
Big name: Ardbeg’s expansion plans are the latest vote of confidence for Islay whisky
Can the world ever have enough of Islay single malt whisky? Apparently not, if recent events are anything to go by.
With new distilleries at various stages of planning or construction – Ardnahoe, Gartbreck and more to come – plus the revival of Port Ellen and the expansion of existing plants, this is a period of unprecedented growth in whisky production on the Hebridean island.
It’s hard to believe that, just a few decades ago, business was tough for some of Islay’s distillers. Ardbeg ran only intermittently throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Port Ellen shut down in 1983,and Bruichladdich didn’t produce a drop of spirit in the second half of the 1990s.
That’s all changed now. Laphroaig and Bowmore,Lagavulin and Ardbeg… Islay has more than its fair share of single malt’s household names, with a dynamic supporting cast that includes Bruichladdich, Bunnahabhain, Caol Ila and Kilchoman.
Meanwhile, the volume of whisky made on the island has been steadily increasing for some time. For instance, production from Caol Ila’s six stills, following a revamp in 2011, has reached a formidable 6.5m litres of pure alcohol (lpa) a year.
As the Islay whisky boom continues, it can be hard to keep up with everything that’s happening on the island. So here’s a handy rundown of recent events…

Islay single malt whisky distillery Ardbeg is set to add two more stills, doubling its distillation capacity and moving production into a new still house.
Expansion has been on the cards at Ardbeg for some time, thanks to rising sales
The multi-million-pound project, funded by distillery owner The Glenmorangie Company, is due to start work this year, subject to planning permission, with completion scheduled for 2019.
Plans include the construction of a new still house on a site once occupied by warehouses, with the current still house converted to house new washbacks.
The expanded distillery’s four stills – its existing wash and spirit stills, plus a new pair of wash and spirit stills – will be housed in a ‘traditional-style’ building, Ardbeg said.

Planning permission has already been granted to move Ardbeg’s boiler house a little further away from the distillery, and work on this has begun.
Plans for the new still house have been submitted to Argyll & Bute Council, and the distillery is set to hold a meeting for local residents on Islay to discuss the project in the near future.
Ardbeg is planning to ‘continue its normal operations’ while construction work takes place.
‘We are delighted by Ardbeg’s success since 1997 – and by the growing passion for our whisky from fans around the world,’ said Marc Hoellinger, president and CEO of The Glenmorangie Company,a subsidiary of Moët Hennessy, itself a division of luxury goods giant LVMH.
‘Ardbeg has been distilled on Islay since 1815 and, with a new still house, we will pave the way for future generations of smoky malt whisky lovers to discover the ultimate Islay malt.’
Ardbeg’s current era of high demand and expansion is a world away from its near demise two decades ago, when it was acquired by Glenmorangie in a poor state of repair.
The distillery spent most of the 1980s and 1990seither silent, working intermittently and conducting experiments or being used for spare parts by nearby Laphroaig, then under the same ownership.
News of the planned expansion comes just weeks after Glenmorangie unveiled plans to build its own new still house to accommodate two new stills, in addition to the six currently used at the distillery in Tain.
It also comes at a time of expanding whisky production on Islay: Kilchoman said it would double production capacity in November last year, and Laphroaig is also planning to add more stills.

Meanwhile, the new Ardnahoe distillery is due to start production this spring, plans for a distillery atGartbreck Farm have been resurrected and the long-silent Port Ellen distillery is to be revived by 2020.

ARDBEG GROOVES
March 2018
Islay single malt Ardbeg is harking back to the 1960s‘Summer of Love’ with its latest Ardbeg Day limited release, Ardbeg Grooves.
Groovy whisky: This year’s Ardbeg Day whisky recalls the ‘Summer of Love’ 51 years ago
The annual release ties in with Ardbeg Day on Saturday, 2 June, an annual celebration centred on the distillery’s open day during Fèis Ìle, the Islay Festival of Music and Malt.
For this year’s bottling, director of distilling, whisky creation and whisky stocks Dr Bill Lumsden has matured part of the whisky in re-toasted red wine casks.
These casks were intensely charred to create heavy grooves in the surface of the wood, designed to produce more intense flavours of ‘smoked spices, distant bonfires and chilli-seasoned meats’.
As in previous years, two variants will be launched to mark Ardbeg Day: Ardbeg Grooves, bottled at 46% abv and on general release, priced at £98 for a 70cl bottle; and Ardbeg Peat & Love, bottled exclusively for members of the Ardbeg Committee at 51.6%, priced at £89 a bottle.

The latter will go on sale at 9am next Wednesday, 14 March, and Committee members will be sent a link to purchase their own bottle.

Ardbeg Day will include a live online tasting, broadcasting to all Ardbeg Embassies around the world, plus the launch of the single malt’s Summer ofPeat & Love campaign, with a 1960s-style VW van touring festivals, bars and Ardbeg Embassies across the UK.

‘The Ardbeg Village of the 1960s was a very different place – a groovy wee community, with its own post office, billiards hall, two choirs and even a football team,’ said Ardbeg distillery manager Mickey Heads.
‘These days the Ardbeg community is a worldwide one, and Ardbeg Day is the best way for us all to come together and raise a dram to the ultimate Islay single malt.

Owned by The Glenmorangie Company (LVMH SA) Address Port Ellen, Islay, Argyll,
Capacity (Litres of Pure Alcohol-LPA) 1 150 000 litres                                                                                                                                                                                      Vis
Among single malt aficionados, particularly those who have a preference for peaty tasting malts, Ardbegholds an almost cult status.
Ardbeg was officially established by the MacDougall family in 1815. Subsequently its ownership underwent many changes, particularly in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Since Allied Distillers sold the distillery to Glenmorangie plc in 1997, the latter has been busy building up their stock of quality consistent spirit.
Unlike other Islay malts like Laphroaig or Lagavulin,Ardbeg tries to avoid the more pungent phenols, thus a smoky after-taste is greatly reduced, while not detracting from the peaty taste.

The Ardbeg core portfolio
10 Year Old – a 46% strength ABV ‘Distillery Bottled’ Single Malt Whisky. (£25-40)
Colour Pale, straw-coloured
Aroma Peaty infused with zesty citrus notes, cinnamon and pears, all wrapped in ceraceous dark chocolate.
Taste After the initial burst of peat with hints of tangy lemon and lime juice, waves of warm creamy cappuccino mingle with barley notes, tobacco, strong black coffee, liquorice and cocoa.
Finish As the taste sensation deepens, waves of tarry smoke and liquorice root develop as the palate is continually coated with chewy peat oils. Smoky but slightly sweet with a lingering hint of malted barley.
For peat-lovers, or those willing to try a peaty Islay,Ardbeg 10 Year Old is probably the highest-quality ‘entry-level’ single malt available on the current market. It is possibly the distillery many Islayconnoisseurs would choose as their favourite. Indeed, it is arguably the benchmark against which all other Islay malts are judged.
The tall stills at Ardbeg together with a purifier on top of the spirit, neither of which are seen at other Islay distilleries, help to contribute to the finesse and delicacy of a spirit that retains some of the over arching peaty flavours without it being too smoky. It does not flaunt the peat, however, rather it yields to the natural sweetness of the malt to produce a perfectly balanced whisky.
Ardbeg 10 Year Old is an exuberant maelstrom of complex peat and malty tangs with a hint of fruity floral flavours; definitely an in-your-face whisky to be treasured.

Uigeadail – a 54.2% strength ABV ‘Distillery Bottled’ Single Malt Whisky. (£40-70)
Colour Relatively Pale, straw-coloured
Aroma Peaty with subtle hints of fino sherry and slightly damp leather. Intensely laden with heady and smoky aromatics.
Taste A burst of winter fruitcake spices trigger a smoky-spicy explosion of intense and multi-layered, oily peat smoke, counter-balanced by a sumptuous mid-palate of honey glazed, smoked food and sweet, chewy treacle toffee and a touch of dried fruit.
Finish Smoky dominance with hints of spice. The waves of deep, smoky tones and rich aromas build up pleasingly on the palate like a fine Montecristo cigar.
The hard to pronounce Uigeadail (pronounced ‘Oog-a-dal’) is the name of the loch from which all Ardbeg water is drawn at the distillery. Since the launch in 2003 of this special bottling, it’s been an enormous success. It is both full of peat smoke, earthiness and layers of oak. Full bodied and rich with a texture that unctuously coats the mouth. The taste of Uigeadail is a provocative balance between sweet, spicy top notes and deep, smoky flavours.
The marriage of Ardbeg’s traditional deep, smoky note spirits with luscious, raisiny tones of old ex-Sherry casks give a sweet and smoky finish to this malt. It’s ‘non chill-filtered’ at high strength, thereby retaining maximum flavour and lending more body and added depth.
For peaty malt aficionados Uigeadail is an absolutely stunning whisky, and following the demise of theArdbeg Airigh nam Beist (pronounced ‘Arry nam Baysht) a delicious vintage bottling from 1990, sadly discontinued as a result of exhausted stocks, (‘The Beist’ was an extremely popular Ardbeg, with an assertive edge and powerful peatiness balanced by a lovely honeyed flavour.) Uigeadail probably represents the best value in the core range.

Blasda – a 40% strength ABV ‘Distillery Bottled’ Single Malt Whisky. (£40-60)
Colour Relatively Pale, Fino sherry or white wine coloured
Aroma The aroma is reminiscent of baked creamy vanilla custard and roast chestnuts. A tingle of lemon and lime marmalade cuts through the vanilla with spiced pears Some tasters get a hint of cloves, pine cones and fresh mint or a breath of menthol and sea salt that rise from the glass. These elements are softened by ripe fruits that fuse with almond and vanilla.
Taste The initial sip is sweet with a mixture of sugared almonds, marzipan and hints of dried fruit. Refreshingly sweet while earthy, silky and creamy to the palate.  Gentle peat oils build on the palate, while remaining soft, clean and dry with a dusting of powdery sherbet. Tangy citrus notes freshen the palate with a gentle fizz. Later a gentle warmth  is provided by tingling spices and creamy cappuccino.
Finish A short finish of refreshing lemon vanilla and spiced apples

Launched in 2008, with a phenol level at only 8 parts per million, Blasda, chill-filtered and bottled at the distillery, has a lightly peaty taste. It is, however, still perfectly balanced, but light, sweet and delicious – a light expression of Ardbeg’s otherwise quite heavily peated whiskies.
In Gaelic Blasda means ‘sweet and delicious’. It caused quite a stir when it was released, with disapproving shouts of “It’s too sweet, where’s the peat?” The thing is, the point of this expression was to decrease the smoky peaty flavour in order to show the beautiful balance and complexity of Ardbeg’s fruity undertones, flavours which are otherwise difficult to distinguish.
Ardbeg’s Blasda is an ongoing product scheduled to have a three-year lifespan, as some 1800 bottles have been produced for the UK market.

Corryvreckan – a 57.1% strength ABV ‘Distillery Bottled’ Single Malt Whisky. (£60-80)
Colour Relatively Pale, straw-coloured or amber.
Aroma Heady, intense and powerful. Peaty with hints of fino sherry and slightly damp leather. You can smell the tarry ropes, creosote and linseed oil rising from deep within the vortex.
Taste A rich, luxuriant mouth feel. Intense and multi-layered oily peat smoke, sweet yet earthy, with a touch of dried citrus and forest fruits.
Finish Smoky dominance with hints of spices, grilled anchovies, charred lemons and seaweed.
If peaty whiskies are to your taste, you’ll be happy with this.
Ardbeg Corryvreckan has been a huge success since its launch in 2009, winning ‘World’s Best Single Malt Whisky’ at the ‘World Whisky Awards 2010’ and ‘Best No Age Statement Scotch ‘ scoring 96.5 points out of 100 from Jim Murray’s ‘Whisky Bible 2011’ and 2012.
Corryvreckan, according to the Ardbeg website, takes its name from a famous whirlpool that lies to the north of Islay, a place where only the bravest souls dare to venture.
Like the whirlpool itself, Corryvreckan is not for the faint-hearted!
Swirling aromas and torrents of deep, peaty, peppery taste lurk beneath the surface of this beautifully balanced dram. With the first sniff, be prepared to encounter the deep and turbulent force of Corryvreckan as it pulls you inwards.
As you succumb to its power, a heady mixture of waxy dark chocolate, warm blackcurrants and muscovado sugar grips you in its spell as a salvo of plump cherries and earthy pine needle arises torpedo-like towards you from its murky depths.

A decent balance of flavours is maintained throughout, ending with a lovely briny note right at the death.

Other Ardbeg whiskies worthy of mention:
Supernova, (58.9% ABV) (£125-200) launched in 2009 had a phenol level well in excess of 100 parts per million. Supernova 2010 (£80-100) also hit the 100 ppm mark but the strength of alcohol was slightly higher (60.1% ABV).

Ardbeg Supernova’s success was a true phenomenon, since the Advance Committee Release sold out in a matter of hours in January 2009. It also scooped ‘Scotch Whisky of the Year’ from Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible 2010, (scoring 97 points out of 100).

Several other Committee bottlings have been produced, among which notable ones include Rollercoaster (57.3% ABV) (2010)(c £200) and Ardbeg Alligator (51.2% ABV) (2011) (c £150), which can only be purchased by Committee members.

Some harder to acquire bottles:
Ardbeg 1990 / Airigh Nam Beist 46%
ABV (c £100.00)

The following three are precursors to
Ardbeg 10 Year Old;

Ardbeg 1997
Very Young’ Committee Approved
58.3% ABV (c £325.00 )
Ardbeg 1998
– Still Young 56.2% ABV (c £65.00)
Ardbeg 1998
Almost There 54.1% ABV (c £100.00)
Ardbeg 17 Year Old 40% ABV
(c £250.00)
Ardbeg 10 Year Old / Bot.1990’s 40% ABV
(c £555.00)
Ardbeg 10 Year Old / Bot. 1980’s 40% ABV
(c £600.00)
Ardbeg 1973 / 15 Year Old / Bot.1988 /
Cask Strength / Sestante 53.5% ABV
(c £700.00)
Ardbeg 1976 / 31 Year Old / Cask 2397 /
Sherry Butt  52.4% ABV  (c £999.00)
Ardbeg 1974 / Provenance / USA Bottling
55% ABV (c £1,200.00)
Ardbeg 1976 / Cask 2392 / Committee /
Sherry Cask 55% ABV (c £1,750.00)
Ardbeg 1976 / Cask 2391 / Manager’s Choice /
Sherry Cask  56%ABV
(c £3,999.00)

SECOND ARDBEG TWENTY SOMETHING UNVEILED
September 2018
Ardbeg has announced the launch of a third Ardbeg Twenty Something, a 22-year-old single malt honouring the people that saved the Islay distillery from closure.

Ardbeg Twenty Something 22 Year Old
Dark days: Ardbeg Twenty Something 22 Year Old was distilled during an uncertain period for the distillery
Following on from the first two editions, a 23-year-old released in October 2017 and a 21-year-old released in September 2016, Ardbeg Twenty Something 22 Year Old will be available exclusively toCommittee Members from 4 October.
A 1996 vintage malt distilled in the retired still that now rests in the distillery courtyard, the expression has been matured in ex-Bourbon casks and bottled at 46.4% abv.
Its release marks a period of struggle for the Islay distillery, which closed for much of the 1980s and operated only sporadically in the 1990s.
The spirit used for the bottling was distilled duringArdbeg’s final year of operation before being acquired by the Glenmorangie Company in 1997.
‘This bottle is a magnificent reminder as to whyArdbeg should never be allowed to disappear,’ saidMickey Heads, Ardbeg distillery manager.
‘Ardbeg Twenty Something is for those who believed wholeheartedly in the Ardbeg distillery, which is why it’s fitting that this rare whisky – a 22 Year Old – will be enjoyed by our loyal Committee Members, who maintain that same belief.’
The whisky is described as having notes of ‘luscious tropical fruits’, as well as ‘peppermint tea and sweet vanilla toffee’ with ‘mouth-watering sweet smoke’.
Dr Bill Lumsden, Director of Distilling, Whisky Creation & Whisky Stocks at Ardbeg, added: ‘The ex-Bourbon casks I selected for Ardbeg Twenty Something have delivered a beautiful dram, bursting with deep tropical aromas.
‘It offers an incredibly flavourful, silky quality which is exceptional. I can think of no better way to celebrate those whisky lovers who helped keepArdbeg alive during its darkest days.’
Ardbeg Twenty Something 22 Year Old will be available exclusively via ardbeg.com for £440 a bottle.

ARDBEG TWENTY SOMETHING MARKS DARK DAYS
October 2017
Ardbeg is to release Ardbeg Twenty Something, a 23-year-old single malt filled into cask at a time when the Islay distillery was facing an uncertain future.
Ardbeg Twenty Something
Trying times: Ardbeg was operating only sporadically when this spirit was laid down
The new expression, non-chill-filtered and bottled at 46.3% abv, will be sold exclusively to members of the Ardbeg Committee at a price of £430 for a 70cl bottle.
Ardbeg Twenty Something is a vatting of ex-Bourbon and ex-oloroso Sherry casks, filled at a very difficult time for the cult Islay distillery.
Ardbeg had been closed for most of the 1980s, and operated only sporadically during the 1990s before closing again in 1996 – but the distillery was acquired by The Glenmorangie Company in 1997, which restarted production that year.
Ardbeg owner Moët Hennessy said the new expression was being released exclusively to theArdbeg Committee group of enthusiasts in recognition of their ‘enduring support’. The Committee pledges to ‘ensure the doors of Ardbeg never close again’.
Distillery manager and Committee chairman Mickey Heads, who spent some time at Ardbeg while working at nearby Laphroaig during the 1990s, said: ‘This magnificent whisky was created within the retired iconic still which stands proud outside our distillery today.
‘It’s a glimpse back into Ardbeg’s turbulent past and reaffirms just why the distillery couldn’t be allowed to disappear.’
Dr Bill Lumsden, director of distilling, whisky creation and whisky stocks at Ardbeg, described Ardbeg Twenty Something as ‘bursting with rich, deep flavours’, with ‘an incredibly smoky, silky quality’.
The release follows last year’s launch of anotherArdbeg Committee bottling of a similar age, Ardbeg Twenty One, priced at £310 a bottle.
Ardbeg Twenty Something will go on sale to Committee members from 2 November at www.ardbeg.com.

2017:
An Oa, Kelpie and Twenty are released
2018:
Grooves is released

1760  
Daniel Campbell established the
town of Bowmore
1794  
The MacDougall family tenants at
Ardbeg,
Airigh nam Beist and Lagavulin farms
and are Illicit distillers
1797  
Daniel Campbell starts perhaps the first
legal distillery on the Kildalton coastline
1797  
Islay's first excise officer is appointed
1815  
John MacDougall of Ardbeg farm and backed
by Thomas Buchanan Jnr, a Glasgow whisky
merchant is a legal distiller
1816  
Walter Frederick Campbell buys the farms Ardbeg,
Airugh nam Beist and Lagavulin from the family
MacDougall
Walter Frederick Campbell starts a steamer service  
between Port Ellen via Loch Fyne and Glasgow
1816  
The Small Stills Act came into effect which removed
the fiscal differences between Highland and Lowland
distilleries
7 new distilleries are established or legalised  on Islay
as a result, Ardmore, Ballygrant, Bridgend, Octovullin,
Octomore, Newton, Scarabus, Lagavulin
1822  
The Illicit Distillation Act came to effect and also in
1823  
The Exise Act and Glenavullen, Lochindaal, Lossit,
Mulindry, Port Ellen are build
1835  
Ardbeg has an output of 65.000 litres a year
1838  
Alexander MacDougall & Co is the bussiness name
1850  
Charles Hay son of Walter Frederick Campbell's
coachman is manager
1851  
Margaret and Flora MacDougall, sisters of Alexander
owns Ardbeg
1853  
The Forbes Mackenzie Act: Vatting of malt Whiskies
from the same distillery "Under Bond" are permitted
1860  
William Gladstone's Spirit Act made it possible
toblend grain and malt whiskies "Under Bond" which
made it possible to produce a more consistent whisky
1854  
Due to Temperance Campaigns the number of distillerieson
Islay had fallen from 28 to 16, while consumption in
Scotland was fallen by 25 percent.
1857  
Ardbeg makes heavy losses and Flora and Margaret sells
the distillery to Thomas  Gray Buchanan, their financial backker
1872  
Colin Hay, the son of Charles Hay is manager and partner with
Thomas Gray Buchanan's son Alexander Wilson Buchanan
1881  
Bruichladdich and Bunahabhain are build
1886  
Alfred Barnard visit Islay and among other distilleries Ardbeg.
1888  
Colin Hay and Alexander Wilson Buchanan signed a new l
ease for Ardbeg farm
1999  
65 people are working at  the distillery and there are about
40 homes at Ardbeg
2004  
Colin Elliot Hay is manager of Ardbeg

ARDBEG DRUM CELEBRATES CARNIVAL SPIRIT
February 2019
Ardbeg is giving its annual Ardbeg Day celebrations a Caribbean twist with the release of its first rum-finished whisky.

Ardbeg Drum Committee Release
Carnival spirit: Ardbeg Drum’s Committee Release will be available from 5 March
Ardbeg Drum is a no-age-statement single malt matured in ex-Bourbon casks and then finished in ex-rum casks from the Americas.

Described as having notes of fragrant pine resin, wood smoke, ripe banana and pineapple, the expression is bottled at 46% abv.

The expression will be released globally to coincide with Ardbeg Day on the final day of the 2019 Islay Festival (24 May-1 June).

A separate, limited edition Committee Release bottled at 52% abv, will be available exclusively to members of the distillery’s fan group – which is free to join – when it goes on sale on 5 March.

In keeping with its Caribbean theme, the Islay distillery will be hosting a tropical carnival in celebration of Ardbeg Day, encouraging guests to don colourful headdresses and partake in a number of celebratory activities and tastings.

The celebrations are said to pay homage to the island’s past tradition of decorating colourful floats for a parade between the village of Port Ellen to Ardbeg on the final day of the festival.

Mickey Heads, distillery manager, said: ‘The Ardbeg Day Carnival is about embracing all things tropical. From music and dance to food and fashion, we’re all set to revel in both the culture and character.

‘Preparations are well underway, but orchestrating a bash this breathtaking is no mean feat. The finer details are yet to be revealed, but rest assured, the Ardbeg Day Carnival 2019 will be a spectacle you won’t forget.’

Last year’s Ardbeg Day release was Ardbeg Grooves, a whisky matured in re-toasted red wine casks which were intensely charred to create heavy grooves in the surface of the wood.

The release of the Ardbeg Grooves Committee Release was so popular that unexpectedly high demand caused Ardbeg’s website to crash upon its release.

Ardbeg Drum will be available to buy globally from 1 June for around £98 a bottle.

Ardbeg Grooves is latest Ardbeg Day release
This year’s limited edition Islay single malt recalls the ‘Summer of Love’ of the 1960s.

March 2018

ARDBEG DRUM
SCORE
86
Scoring explained >
Ardbeg Drum
ABV
46%
PRODUCTION TYPE
Single malt whisky
REGION
Islay
FLAVOUR CAMP
Smoky & Peaty
NOSE
This is the standard bottling rather than the Committee release, which was reviewed in Batch 190. It shares its stronger brother’s piney opening – Christmas trees and juniper. The hint of vetiver is also retained. If anything, the rum accents are increased, with riper banana, apricot and coconut coming through. The smoke is integrated and (relatively) subtle.

PALATE
A gentle and soft start lulls you into a false sense of security, even at the mid-palate, although there is a more noticeable tickle of smoke. The flavours are all soft fruits (fruit salad now), touches of creamy vanilla and some lime. Then it starts to do that Ardbeg thing where the smoke asserts itself and the energy starts to build, the phenols increasing in power as they spread out. Never however does it dominate; there’s just a shift in focus.

FINISH
Now, along with the sooty smoke, there’s an unusual hint of damp (peated) barley.

CONCLUSION
Relaxing and summery. A Piña Colada by a beach bonfire. Job done, I’d say.

RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME
Along the beach, through the palm trees, She Comes In Colours.

2018 - 2019
The malt storage storage is increased from 60 to 120 tonnes, another boiler is added in August 2018, also a new drainage under the mash tun is installed,
a new still house build and Ardbeg will now be equipment with a 5 ton stainless steel semi lauter mash tun, 5  new washbacks made of Oregon pine,
5 in the old tun room, four in the old still house and 2 in the old fuel store and four stills. The old 2 stills are replaced in the summer of 2019, 2 new stills
came in also in summer 2019.

The fermentation time is 60 hours, the the 2 spirit stills have purifiers as
before to help create the fruity character of Ardbeg.

The old stills will be used untill the expansion has been completed.

Output in 2019 is about 1.400.000 Ltrs in 2019, Capacity = 2.400.000 Ltrs

mickey heads ardbeg retires
Heads steps down as Ardbeg distillery manager
March, 2020

In October 2020, Mickey Heads will retire as Ardbeg Distillery Manager after 13 years in the role.

Heads has played a part in the growth of the Ardbeg brand during his time at the distillery and he has also acted as chairman of the Ardbeg Committee, the brand’s following of fans across the world, a position he will retain for the next three years.

“Being at the helm of Ardbeg for 13 years has been a great privilege,” said Heads. “The whisky we make here is of wonderful quality, and being part of the team that creates it is fantastic.

“Ardbeg has such a long history, I’ve always seen myself as a custodian carrying it forward for the next generation. So, you just do it as well as you can, and with as much passion as you can.”

Thomas Moradpour, CEO of The Glenmorangie Company, said: “Mickey Heads is a hugely respected figure in the world of single malt whisky and will be sorely missed by Ardbeggians everywhere.

“There cannot be many distillery managers who combine such a wealth of knowledge, depth of passion and warmth of welcome. On behalf of everybody who has had the pleasure of meeting or working with Mickey, I want to express gratitude for all his hard work in maintaining the quality and reputation of the Ardbeg brand

2020
Output: 2.400.000 ltrs
5 ton Stainless steel semi lauter mash tun: 1
washbacks: 11 oregon pine, 5 in the old tun room,
4 in the old still house, 2 in the old fuel store.
2 stills were replaced in summer 2019, and
2 added also in 2019, the spirit still have purifiers
Fermentation time is:60 hours
There are 17 mashes in a week and  the output is
1.4 00.000 ltrs

2019
Drum and TraghBhan released
2020
Blanaack, Wee Beastie, Traigh Bhan Batch 2 released

Ardbeg releases bottling to commemorate the retirement of distillery manager Mickey Heads
25 January, 2021
Ardbeg has released a limited-edition bottling, Arrrrrrrdbeg, to celebrate distillery manager, Mickey Heads’ 13 years at the head of the distillery.

Heads became manager of the Ardbeg in 2007 and in his time at the distillery, oversaw the distillation of dozens of Ardbeg expressions.

Under his management, Ardbeg was named the IWC Distillery of the Year three times in a row between 2018 and 2020 and Heads was named Distillery Manager of the Year in 2014.

Heads retired from the company in late 2020.

“Working with Mickey has been an absolute joy. He’s somebody with a genuine passion for Ardbeg and we hope that this bottling will take pride of place in his collection,” said Dr Bill Lumsden, director of whisky creation at Ardbeg.

“He’s presided over many momentous Ardbegs over the years, but this ‘end of an era’ edition is a special one. The spirit inside is pretty special too: Arrrrrrrdbeg! is the Distillery’s first-ever ex-rye cask whisky. With notes of smoked banana and pear, sweet toffee and that distinctive Ardbeg smoke, it’s the perfectly peaty parting gift.”

Ardbeg will be made available exclusively to the Ardbeg Committee, the distillery’s supporters’ group that boasts a worldwide membership over 120,000 fans, from 1st February.

The bottle’s illustrated label, created by Brazilian artist and graphic designer Butcher Billy, features Heads as the captain of a pirate ship.

“It was an absolute pleasure to spend the last 13 years heading the crew at the greatest Distillery on earth. I had the best team of people anyone could wish for and I’m proud that we’ve been responsible for producing so many wonderful Ardbegs along the way,” said Heads.

“As for this bottling, well I’m honoured that a place that has already given me so much would celebrate my retirement in such a thoughtful way. And to have my image on a bottle, that’s a dream come true!”

Ardbeg will be available to purchase at rrp £145 for 70cl from ardbeg.com and Ardbeg stockists from February 2021.


EXKLUSIVER SINGLE MALT
:
16 Millionen Pfund für ein Whisky-Fass
VON PETER BADENHOP-AKTUALISIERT AM 10.07.2022-16:40
Reife Leistung: Ardbeg Cask 3
Bildbeschreibung einblenden

Die schottische Ardbeg-Destille ist bekannt für ihre extrem torfigen Whiskys. Jetzt hat eine Sammlerin aus Asien für ein fast 50 Jahre altes Fass besonders tief in die Tasche gegriffen.

Das ist ein Wort: 16 Millionen Pfund für ein Fass Whisky. Das sind gut 18,6 Millionen Euro. Die machen den Ardbeg Cask 3 vielleicht nicht zum teuersten Whisky der Geschichte. Mit diesem Etikett kann sich seit gut drei Jahren der Macallan 1926 Fine & Rare schmücken, für den 2019 bei einer Auktion bei Sotheby’s 1.452.000 Pfund, also etwa 1.680.000 Euro, gezahlt wurden – für eine Flasche.

In die Spirituosen­geschichte wird der Deal der Ardbeg-Brennerei aber trotzdem eingehen. Denn dass ein privater Sammler ein ganzes Fass mit knapp 50 Jahre altem Single Malt kauft und dafür so viel Geld ausgibt, das hat es in der an Verrücktheiten nicht gerade armen Welt des Whiskys noch nicht gegeben.

Für die Ardbeg-Destillerie auf der schottischen Insel Islay, die für ihre besonders rauchig-torfigen Whiskys bekannt und un­ter Sammlern seit Jahren beliebt ist, hat der Verkauf von Fass Nummer 3 spezielle Be­deutung. Nicht nur, weil die Brennerei da­mit Schlagzeilen macht und ihren Namen als eine der großen Scotch-Marken stärkt. Sondern auch, weil der Deal zeigt, dass auch Whiskys mit einem extremen Ge­schmacksprofil, das nicht dem Mainstream angepasst ist, in der obersten Liga der Sammlerszene mitspielen können.

Gebrannt im November 1975
Der Single Malt in Cask 3 ist der älteste, den die mehr als 200 Jahre alte Brennerei, die zweimal in ihrer Geschichte, zuletzt 1996, geschlossen wurde und vor dem En­de stand, jemals in Umlauf gebracht hat – und natürlich der wertvollste. Gebrannt wurde er am 25. November 1975 und dann in zwei unterschiedliche Fässer gefüllt, ein ehemaliges Bourbon-Fass und ein Fass, in dem zuvor Oloroso-Sherry gereift war. Gut 38 Jahre lang, bis zum März 2014, blieben diese beiden Abfüllungen unangetastet – bis Bill Lumsden, der als Master Blender für alle Whiskys bei Ardbeg und der ebenfalls zum Moët-Hennessy-Konzern gehörenden Glenmorangie-Brennerei verantwortlich ist, sich entschied, sie in einem anderen Sherry-Fass zu „verheiraten“. Unter diesem Begriff verstehen die Brennmeister das Zusammenführen von unterschiedlich gereiften Whiskys – in diesem Fall im nun verkauften Cask 3, einem besonders großen Oloroso-Sherry-Fass.

Dass sie aus Asien stammt, gehört zu den wenigen Informationen, die Ardbeg über die Identität ihrer zahlungskräftigen Kundin preisgibt. Und dass es sich nicht um einen Mann, sondern um eine offensichtlich extrem whiskybegeisterte Frau handelt. Noch dazu eine Liebhaberin des speziellen Ardbeg-Stils, der als besonders rau und kantig gilt. Typisch für die Whiskys der Destillerie, die direkt am Meer liegt, sind erdige und mineralische Noten, Anklänge von Grillkohle und Asche, aber auch herbe Zitrusnoten und eine unverkennbare Salzigkeit. All diese Aromen dürften sich im Cask 3 über die fast fünf Jahrzehnte der Reifung deutlich abgeschliffen und harmonisiert haben. Ein typischer Ardbeg ist dieser historische Whisky aber dennoch.

Jedes Jahr sollen 88 Flaschen ausgeliefert werden
Das sagen zumindest jene, die ihn schon einmal probiert haben und dem bronze­farbenen Single Malt große Eleganz und Finesse attestieren. Thomas Moradpour, Generaldirektor von Ardbeg, formuliert es so: „Ein Ardbeg ist immer auch ein Biest – und der Cask 3 ist es natürlich ebenfalls.“ Brennmeister Bill Lumsden spricht bei der Beschreibung von nussigen, kräuterigen und eben rauchigen Noten und erkennt im Geschmack zudem Anklänge an Minze, Limette, Kaffee, Teer und salzigen Karamell. Und der bekannte Whisky-Autor Charles MacLean beschreibt ihn als anregende und komplexe „flüssige Geschichte“.


Wann bekommt die Sammlerin, die anonym bleiben will, nun ihre erste Flasche? Im Laufe des Jahres. Geplant ist, das Fass innerhalb von fünf Jahren in fünf Abfüllungen an sie herauszugeben. Jedes Jahr sollen 88 Flaschen ausgeliefert werden, sodass die Käuferin im Jahr 2026 dann eine einmalige Sammlung von Ardbeg-Whiskys aus dem Jahr 1975 im Keller hat, die 46, 47, 48, 49 und 50 Jahre lang im Fass gereift sind – und das zu einem Preis, der mit 36.000 Pfund je Flasche fast schon günstig erscheint im Vergleich zu dem, was sonst in Versteigerungen für so alte und rare Whiskys aufgerufen wird.

Ardbeg cask
1975 Ardbeg whisky sold for £16 million
11 July, 2022

A 1975 cask of Ardbeg Islay malt scotch whisky, Cask No.3, is the brand's oldest whisky ever released and was sold to a private collector in Asia for £16 million.

The whisky, which survived the near closures of the distillery, was aged in two separate casks, a bourbon and an Oloroso sherry, which were married together to create a single malt, then transferred into a single refill Oloroso butt where it has remained to this day.

CEO Thomas Moradpour said: “This sale is a source of pride for everyone in the Ardbeg community who has made our journey possible. Just 25 years ago, Ardbeg was on the brink of extinction, but today it is one of the most sought-after whiskies in the world. That is a reflection of generations of hard work.

“While such a rare whisky is out of reach for all but one of our fans, we put the same passion and care into every bottle of Ardbeg as went into this exclusive single malt in 1975,” Moradpour added.

Over the next five years, Ardbeg will continue to mature Cask No. 3 in a secure location on Islay for its owner and every year they will receive 88 bottles from the cask, by 2026 they will possess a unique vertical series of Ardbegs from 1975, aged 46 to 50 years old.

Dr Bill Lumsden, who will oversee the cask’s ongoing maturation, said: “Cask No. 3 is a taste of Ardbeg’s past. So little stock survives from this era, its complex flavours are testament to the skill of the Ardbeg team who have cared for it over the decades.”

To celebrate the half-century of work behind this whisky, Ardbeg will donate £1million to causes on Islay

Ardbeg release graphic novel that explores 'out of this world' whisky tales
Ardbeg fans can now enjoy whisky tales as the distillery has released a graphic novel.

September 1, 2022

This month, Islay single malt distillery Ardbeg will take its first foray into the world of graphic novels with the launch of Planet Ardbeg, a 40-page sci-fi anthology created by three cutting-edge artists.

This limited edition publication is inspired by the unique flavours and ‘origin stories’ of three Ardbeg expressions – Ardbeg Ten Years Old, Ardbeg An Oa, and Ardbeg Wee Beastie – and features cameos from some of the Islay distillery’s best-known characters.

Planet Ardbeg was conceived by award-winning New York cartoonist Ronald Wimberly in collaboration with fellow artists Emma Ríos and Sanford Greene, each bringing their own distinctive voice and style to the project.

Using Ardbeg’s core range as their creative launchpad, together they have produced a triptych of fantastical tales as bold and unique as Ardbeg itself.

“Guardians of Oa” by Sanford Greene, which draws its influence from the rounded balance and smoky power of Ardbeg An Oa, is an action-packed epic about a copper city coming under attack from a monstrous creature.

Meanwhile, Ronald Wimberley’s “The Best Laid Schemes”, which channels the feisty and formidable flavours of Ardbeg Wee Beastie, is a fast-paced neo-western featuring giant botanicals and even bigger beasts.

Finally, “Take it with a Grain of Sand” by Emma Ríos, captures the complex peaty essence of Ardbeg Ten Years Old, and tells of a mystical quest through a land lost to time.

Ronald Wimberly, creative director on Planet Ardbeg, said: “When we first started thinking about making this graphic novel, I thought about Planet Ardbeg as a time machine.

"Time is important with whisky, and with Ardbeg An Oa, Ardbeg Wee Beastie and Ardbeg Ten Years Old what you’re talking about is three different time experiences.”

Colin Gordon, Ardbeg’s Distillery Manager, added: “It’s amazing to see the different smoky characteristics of these whiskies brought to life in graphic novel form.

"Each story in Planet Ardbeg is brimming with imagination and creativity. It’s a must-read for Ardbeg fans everywhere.”

Planet Ardbeg will be available to buy at the Ardbeg Distillery Visitor Centre, in selected comic book shops, as well as via the Ardbeg website in certain markets.

Winners announced for the 2022 Scottish Bar & Pub Awards
A digital version will also be available exclusively for members of the Ardbeg Committee to read for free.

The Ardbeg Committee comprises more than 160,000 Ardbeg followers worldwide. Committee Members receive exclusive benefits, including invitations to special gatherings, tastings and events.

Anyone can join the Committee by signing up for free online.


ARDBEG: THE RESURRECTION
rd
Twenty years ago today, late on a beautiful Islay night, a clear spirit trickled fitfully from the stills of a ramshackle, uncared-for distillery on the island’s Kildalton coast. Ardbeg was battered and bruised, but back in business – and it hasn’t looked back since. Richard Woodard reports.

Ardbeg 1997
Sorry state: Ardbeg produced little whisky between 1981 and 1997
‘It was late at night – it was a beautiful, beautiful Islay night – and we didn’t get the spirit off until about 10pm… What I had was two nosing glasses and that was basically it… The thing that amazed me about it was the fact that it didn’t nose as phenolic as I’d expected. It’s the secret to the success of Ardbeg. It’s got this very big fruitiness that helps to mask the phenolics – but they’re still there.’

The words of Ed Dodson recall a seminal moment in the recent history of Scotch whisky – the instant when, after years of neglect, production began again at Ardbeg on 20 June, 1997. But there was no fanfare, and no photographers or film crews to preserve the event for posterity. Just a handful of workers were present, along with Jim Murray, Whisky Bible author and champion of the distillery.

What was Ardbeg at the time? A single malt with a cult status among those in the know, but lacking the wider fame that it enjoys today. A distillery with a chequered history, that had once employed dozens of staff, built its own school and bowling green, but which had spent most of the 1980s and 1990s silent, conducting experiments and being pillaged for spare parts by neighbouring Laphroaig (both distilleries were owned by Allied Distillers post-1989).

‘Allied were going to flatten it,’ recalls Dodson. ‘But that would have been bad press for them. The Mactaggarts own the estate next to it, and they had thought about buying it, but they didn’t know how to operate it.’

Dr Bill Lumsden, distillery manager at Glenmorangie at the time, remembered Ardbeg from his days working at United Distillers, when he would visit Port Ellen maltings, managed at the time by Kenny Gray. Lumsden says: ‘I remember Kenny said: “I think Ardbeg kind of makes some spirit every so often, but I don’t think it’s got too much time left on this Earth.” And I thought, well, it’s always sad when a distillery closes, but c’est la vie.’

Of the six washbacks, one was missing and two leaked badly

Then The Glenmorangie Company bought it. For £7.7m, which seems an absurdly featherweight sum today, but probably felt about right for a clapped-out old distillery needing years of remedial work. ‘It was in a very, very sad state when we purchased it,’ says Lumsden.

Lumsden was needed at Glenmorangie, so the six-month task of resurrecting Ardbeg fell to Dodson, distillery manager at Glen Moray (then also owned by Glenmorangie) and involved in whisky since 1963. ‘I was the only guy in the company who had been in a place like it,’ he says. ‘It was so antiquated – the equipment and everything.’

After Glenmorangie closed the deal at the end of February 1997, Dodson was dispatched to Islay to restart operations. ‘I set myself a target of 1 July, but we managed to get going a couple of weeks earlier,’ he recalls.

At first, that schedule looked highly ambitious. ‘There were supposed to be six washbacks, but there were only five, and two of them were leaking pretty badly,’ says Dodson. ‘The heating tank [for boiling up the water for mashing] was cast-iron. When I saw that, I thought that’s going to have to go. The mash tun was also cast-iron, and it was 18 inches off the ground. If something happened under the mash tun, you had to crawl under it.’

Lumsden takes up the story. ‘Pauls Malt had bought the Glenesk maltings [home to the former Hillside distillery] from Diageo, and there were some very good-condition wooden washbacks there, and some big bundles of wooden staves.’ The washbacks were acquired, reduced in size to fit and then shipped to Ardbeg.

But it wasn’t just the equipment that was below par. ‘There was no discipline, no programme for a balanced distillation,’ says Lumsden. ‘The cut points were all over the place.

‘We were essentially looking to recreate the classic, old-style spirit of Ardbeg. Allied Distillers had a small number of samples of new make spirit and 10-year-old, so we used that as a template. I didn’t muck around too much with the cut points, although I have recently pulled them back a bit more into the feints to capture more of the smoky phenolic compounds. We did use the expertise of Jim Murray. He knew that spirit arguably as well as anyone.’

Ardbeg 1997

Stuttering start: Ardbeg was to suffer more shutdowns as essential repairs took place

There was also Duncan Logan, Ardbeg’s brewer for 35 years and still living in one of the distillery cottages. ‘He was always walking around, seeing what was happening,’ says Dodson. ‘If I wanted to know anything, I would always go to him.’

There were other ex-Ardbeg staffers too: Ruari Macintyre and ‘Wardie’, the only workers kept on after the distillery shut down in 1996; by early June, they had been joined once again by Hamish Gillespie (The Gow) and Alex Livingstone (Aza).

New faces arrived as well. Former fisherman Neil Johnston (Philco – everyone, it seems, has a nickname at Ardbeg) started work on 19 May, and was immediately sent by Dodson to Laphroaig to learn ‘the rudiments of the business’. By early June, Malcolm Rennie had also been taken on.

‘The place was terrible,’ recalls Johnston. ‘After going down to Laphroaig, you were, like: “Holy smoke!” It was bad. But Ruari and Wardie had been there since 1989 [when distillation restarted after an eight-year hiatus], and they said then it was just horrendous.’

Production since 1989 had been spasmodic and often experimental (including the distillation of unpeated Kildalton spirit). The equipment was in such a poor state that Dodson had to work 14-hour days, six days a week, alongside mainland contractors to get things up and running. He explains: ‘We got it working, but you lay in bed at night – I was staying up at the Machrie Hotel – and thought: “I wonder how long it will be before they’re calling me out.”’

As June wore on, they were getting somewhere. ‘On the Friday/Saturday [13/14 June] before we started, we tested everything three days on the trot,’ says Dodson. ‘Then on the Monday [16 June] we did the milling, and that went through no bother. For the mash, I pressed the pump to start it, and it went bang. Ten hours later, we got our mash.’

Then came that beautiful Islay night of Friday, 20 June. ‘I remember it was my first night in the stillhouse,’ says Johnston. ‘Talk about being thrown in at the deep end! I hadn’t actually worked in the stillhouse at Ardbeg at all.’

Meanwhile, Dodson still had concerns. ‘We were nosing the spirit as it came in,’ he remembers. ‘The washbacks had been steeped in water – peaty, Islay water – and I didn’t like the smell of it after all that time. The first spirit was almost vegetal, but after two or three fermentations everything was good.’

It was a start, but only that. Ardbeg was to endure more shutdowns in the months and years ahead as essential work was carried out: replacing that cast-iron mash tun, installing a new spirit still, renewing copper and electrical wiring.

‘We ran it for a few months and literally that was as long as we could do it for,’ says Lumsden. Johnston adds: ‘We mashed at the beginning of the week and then we would fill casks in the middle of the week. The last two days we would run the stills. Whatever we made was a huge bonus.’

Jackie Thomson, manager of the Ardbeg visitor centre and Old Kiln Café, first visited in August 1997 (her husband Stuart took over as distillery manager when Dodson finished his six-month stint), before a permanent move in October.

‘It was a great team from the start, but things were pretty grim at first,’ she says. ‘We did think: “What have we done? My goodness, we’re embarking on something that’s just extraordinary…” People come now and they see how it is, and they don’t piece it together.’

‘At the time, nobody [on the island] knew much about Glenmorangie because they weren’t linked to Islay in any way,’ adds Johnston. ‘But the fact that they invested so much money so quickly – in 1998, the visitor centre opened – they were obviously there for the long haul.

‘Glenmorangie has always had a good name, but now the good name is Ardbeg – it’s got a good enough name to stand up on its own.’

And what of the next 20 years? Expansion is firmly on the agenda. ‘We’ve tweaked and worked absolutely flat-out, to the point where we couldn’t squeeze any more out,’ says Lumsden. ‘The current production level is enough to allow us to double sales from where we are now, but that’s not enough.

‘We are now looking at what we would need to do in order to really expand… The first thing we can do is we can tweak the fermentation and put some more vessels in there, more washbacks and another wash receiver. We can get more out of it without necessarily going from two to four stills.’

The grim spectres of the 1980s and 1990s have departed from Ardbeg; those grimy walls are freshly whitewashed, the place is buzzing with visitors and the stillhouse is rarely silent. Out of the darkness of the past has emerged a brighter, sunnier Ardbeg, one with a spirit of fun forged, perhaps, by those difficult days. ‘It’s been great,’ says Thomson. ‘Ardbeg isn’t crusty, it has a sense of humour, and that keeps things very fresh for the people working here.’

‘There was such a feelgood factor when we reopened the distillery and there was employment for people on the island,’ adds Lumsden. ‘It was great fun from that perspective

Ardbeg announces its smokiest whisky to date
17 October, 2022

This month, Ardbeg is set to release its smokiest whisky yet, the Ardbeg Hypernova, an evolution of the popular Supernova series.

The Islay Distillery’s newest expression takes Ardbeg’s signature smoke to a new level with phenol levels in excess of 170 ppm.

Colin Gordon, Ardbeg’s distillery manager, said: “Hypernova turns on the afterburners and hauls our spirit into smoky new depths. Highly experimental, this whisky is peaty and intense, with a taste that’s totally surreal. This spirit is not just a slice of Ardbeg history, it’s a once in a lifetime event.”

Ardbeg’s director of distilling and whisky creation, Dr Bill Lumsden, said: “We wanted to really push the boundaries this time and boldly go where Ardbeg has never ventured before. A hypernova is a collapsing star explosion so powerful it threatens the fabric of the galaxy, while I don’t think this whisky will tear a hole in space and time, it’s certainly bursting with peaty flavour.”

Available exclusively to members of the Ardbeg Committee, Ardbeg Hypernova will be available online and in Embassies from October 2022, at 51% abv and with an rrp of £190. There will also be a small number of bottles to buy in person at the distillery.

Ardbeg announces its smokiest whisky to date
17 October, 2022

This month, Ardbeg is set to release its smokiest whisky yet, the Ardbeg Hypernova, an evolution of the popular Supernova series.

The Islay Distillery’s newest expression takes Ardbeg’s signature smoke to a new level with phenol levels in excess of 170 ppm.

Colin Gordon, Ardbeg’s distillery manager, said: “Hypernova turns on the afterburners and hauls our spirit into smoky new depths. Highly experimental, this whisky is peaty and intense, with a taste that’s totally surreal. This spirit is not just a slice of Ardbeg history, it’s a once in a lifetime event.”

Ardbeg’s director of distilling and whisky creation, Dr Bill Lumsden, said: “We wanted to really push the boundaries this time and boldly go where Ardbeg has never ventured before. A hypernova is a collapsing star explosion so powerful it threatens the fabric of the galaxy, while I don’t think this whisky will tear a hole in space and time, it’s certainly bursting with peaty flavour.”

Available exclusively to members of the Ardbeg Committee, Ardbeg Hypernova will be available online and in Embassies from October 2022, at 51% abv and with an rrp of £190. There will also be a small number of bottles to buy in person at the distillery


Ardbeg release graphic novel that explores 'out of this world' whisky tales
Ardbeg fans can now enjoy whisky tales as the distillery has released a graphic novel.

2022, August
This month, Islay single malt distillery Ardbeg will take its first foray into the world of graphic novels with the launch of Planet Ardbeg, a 40-page sci-fi anthology created by three cutting-edge artists.

This limited edition publication is inspired by the unique flavours and ‘origin stories’ of three Ardbeg expressions – Ardbeg Ten Years Old, Ardbeg An Oa, and Ardbeg Wee Beastie – and features cameos from some of the Islay distillery’s best-known characters.

Planet Ardbeg was conceived by award-winning New York cartoonist Ronald Wimberly in collaboration with fellow artists Emma Ríos and Sanford Greene, each bringing their own distinctive voice and style to the project.

Using Ardbeg’s core range as their creative launchpad, together they have produced a triptych of fantastical tales as bold and unique as Ardbeg itself.

“Guardians of Oa” by Sanford Greene, which draws its influence from the rounded balance and smoky power of Ardbeg An Oa, is an action-packed epic about a copper city coming under attack from a monstrous creature.

Meanwhile, Ronald Wimberley’s “The Best Laid Schemes”, which channels the feisty and formidable flavours of Ardbeg Wee Beastie, is a fast-paced neo-western featuring giant botanicals and even bigger beasts.

Finally, “Take it with a Grain of Sand” by Emma Ríos, captures the complex peaty essence of Ardbeg Ten Years Old, and tells of a mystical quest through a land lost to time.

Ronald Wimberly, creative director on Planet Ardbeg, said: “When we first started thinking about making this graphic novel, I thought about Planet Ardbeg as a time machine.

Day in the Life: Caitlin Heard, team leader and distiller at The Borders Distillery, Hawick
"Time is important with whisky, and with Ardbeg An Oa, Ardbeg Wee Beastie and Ardbeg Ten Years Old what you’re talking about is three different time experiences.”

Colin Gordon, Ardbeg’s Distillery Manager, added: “It’s amazing to see the different smoky characteristics of these whiskies brought to life in graphic novel form.

"Each story in Planet Ardbeg is brimming with imagination and creativity. It’s a must-read for Ardbeg fans everywhere.”

Planet Ardbeg will be available to buy at the Ardbeg Distillery Visitor Centre, in selected comic book shops, as well as via the Ardbeg website in certain markets.

A digital version will also be available exclusively for members of the Ardbeg Committee to read for free.

The Ardbeg Committee comprises more than 160,000 Ardbeg followers worldwide. Committee Members receive exclusive benefits, including invitations to special gatherings, tastings and events.

Ardbeg to release limited edition Ardbeg BizarreBQ - a whisky inspired by BBQ
A new Ardbeg will be released next month, and it's ideal for summer.

March 21, 2023

Ardbeg is launching Ardbeg BizarreBQ – the Distillery’s first ever Limited-Edition barbecue-inspired whisky.

Cooked up by the experimental and eccentric mind of Ardbeg’s Director of Whisky Creation, Dr Bill Lumsden, the whisky, as the name suggests, captures and complements the flavours of smoky barbeque.

The flavour concept for the expression has been aided by the expertise of Christian Stevenson (AKA DJ BBQ), resulting in an Ardbeg that packs a meaty, peaty punch.

Like grilling, distilling shares a key element when it comes to the creation of flavour – fire.

Casks used in Ardbeg BizarreBBQ
Using an experimental cask toasting process, the recipe for Ardbeg BizarreBQ is made up of double-charred oak casks, Pedro Ximénez sherry casks and the distillery’s unique BBQ casks that have been extra-charred on an old-fashioned brazier.

This cask combination comes together to imbue a sweet, tangy and smoky flavour that’s perfectly suited to barbecuing.

Bottled at 50.9% ABV, this Limited-Edition whisky has been inspired by the Islay Distillery’s ongoing collaboration with DJ BBQ, which began in 2020.

Fuelled by a shared obsession for smoke and its rich flavour possibilities, Dr Bill and DJ BBQ have been on a mission to create a new Single Malt that complements both whisky-making and barbequing.

Ardbeg is renowned for its smoky taste, and so the new expression also marks the next phase of the distillery’s journey to uncover new ways of experiencing and enjoying smoky flavours.

Dr Bill Lumsden, Ardbeg’s director of Whisky Creation, said of the new launch: “Ardbeg BizarreBQ is certainly a hare-brained idea, but with DJ BBQ’s help I was able to cook up something truly incredible.

"Puffs of charcoal and soot mingle with smoky wood and aromatic herbs and spices. The undeniable smell of bonfire and BBQ embers linger in the background.

"Deep, warming smoke follows in flame-grilled steak, chilli oil, cured leather and clove. If there’s one Ardbeg you want with you grill-side, it’s this one.”

Ardbeg BizarreBQ
Christian Stevenson (DJ BBQ) added: “Barbeque lovers and Ardbeg lovers are one and the same – it’s all about the smoke – which is something Ardbeg BizarreBQ has in spades.

"I’ve been on a mission to create and perfect a variety of BBQ dishes and accompanying Ardbeg serves that honour the fundamental laws of smoke, wood and heat for some time.

"This new Limited-Edition Ardbeg takes this match made in heaven to the next level, and I can’t wait for BBQ and whisky fans to try it.”

Where to buy Ardbeg BizarreBQ
Fans can also head over to the Ardbeg website to watch the hijinks as they happened when DJ BBQ joined Dr Bill at Ardbeg Distillery on Islay to lend a hand in creating the new malt.

Ardbeg BizarreBQ Limited Edition will be available initially from the Ardbeg Distillery Visitor Centre on Islay and in Germany from 3 April 2023 onwards, priced at £75.

It will launch in global markets later this year and in the UK in June, and will be available from Ardbeg Embassies, whisky specialists, online retailers and from the Distillery Visitor Centre..


Ardbeg Anthology
Ardbeg launches new experimental series 'Anthology Collection'
24 August, 2023

Islay single malt Ardbeg has released Ardbeg Anthology: The Harpy’s Tale, the first of a new experimental series from the LVMH brand.

Aged for 13 years in a combination of ex-bourbon and Sauternes wine casks, this is the inaugural whisky in the distillery’s new Anthology Collection - a series of single malts matured in cask types that are completely new to the distillery.

"We have embarked on a bold maturation experiment to fuse Ardbeg’s signature smokiness with more nuanced, sweeter notes for our new release The Harpy’s Tale – resulting in a very unusual and complex breed of Ardbeg,” said Dr Bill Lumsden, director of distilling and whisky creation.

“This is a dram that represents a battle between sweet and smoke – one I believe fans are yet to experience in an Ardbeg dram, and one that I’m sure they will be excited to taste for themselves.

“Collectively, the whiskies in the Anthology Collection will form a legendary, perfectly balanced and delicious series of rare and unusual Ardbegs, rich in both lore and taste.”

Priced at £141 with an ABV of 46%, Ardbeg Anthology: The Harpy's Tale will be available for purchase on Ardbeg.com, at the distillery visitor centre on Islay and in selected whisky specialists

Ardbeg launch The Harpy's Tale - the first in new Anthology Collection
The Islay distillery has launched The Harpy’s Tale, a smoky-sweet ‘hybrid’, as the first release in its new Anthology Collection of unusual maturation styles.


August 22, 2023

Ardbeg has unveiled the first experimental and rare release in its new Anthology Collection – Ardbeg Anthology: The Harpy’s Tale.

Aged for 13 years in a combination of classic ex-bourbon and sweet Sauternes wine casks, this whisky is characterised by a blend powerful smoke and rich sweetness.

In homage to this unusual ‘hybrid’ style, its packaging takes inspiration from the fabled half-human and half-bird Harpy – an elusive, winged beast from ancient mythology.

Ardbeg The Harpy’s Tale is the inaugural whisky in the distillery’s new Anthology Collection - a range of experimental single malts that will present rare and exceptional Ardbeg whiskies, each matured in cask types that are completely new to the distillery.

Ardbeg The Harpy's Tale
Dr. Bill Lumsden, director of distilling and whisky creation, said, "We have embarked on a bold maturation experiment to fuse Ardbeg’s signature smokiness with more nuanced, sweeter notes for our new release The Harpy’s Tale – resulting in a very unusual and complex breed of Ardbeg.

"This is a dram that represents a battle between sweet and smoke – one I believe fans are yet to experience in an Ardbeg dram, and one that I’m sure they will be excited to taste for themselves.

“Collectively, the whiskies in the Anthology Collection will form a legendary, perfectly balanced and delicious series of rare and unusual Ardbegs, rich in both lore and taste.

"We look forward to revealing more in the Collection in the near future.”

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Priced at £141 with an ABV of 46%, Ardbeg Anthology: The Harpy's Tale will be available for purchase on the Ardbeg website, in Ardbeg Embassies, at the Distillery Visitor Centre on Islay and in selected whisky specialists.


From November 2023, Ardbeg will launch their latest Committee exclusive whisky, Ardbeg Anamorphic.

Made using an experimental and highly extreme cask treatment process, Anamorphic comes from the mind of Dr Bill Lumsden, Ardbeg’s director of distilling and whisky creation.

For this limited edition release, the distillery embarked on a bold experiment to push the flavour boundaries of cask charring.

How Ardbeg Anamorphic was made
After removing the heads from classic Ardbeg bourbon casks, they scored them deeply to expose more wood during the toasting process.

The barrels were then charred intensely to a specification called ‘high mocha’, before being filled with Ardbeg spirit.

The result is a multidimensional dram that 'morphs and shifts' between four key elements – sweet, smoked, herbal and spicy.

Ardbeg Anamorphic
Of this latest release: Dr Bill Lumsden said “Our high mocha toasting is what’s responsible for unlocking Ardbeg’s hidden 4D flavour.

"Aromas of earthy peatiness lead into an Ardbeg from an alternate universe. Bittersweet mocha slowly emerges, while fiery chilli chocolate interlocks with floral chrysanthemum and jasmine.

"As soon as I tasted Anamorphic, I knew the Ardbeg Committee would find it as intriguing as I did. As enigmas wrapped up in conundrums go, this whisky takes Ardbeg to a whole new level.”

Anamorphic’s eye-catching packaging showcase illustrations that mirror the whisky's tasting notes, and also features some characters from the distillery community woven throughout the design

Ardbeg reveal Spectacular Feis Ile whisky and Ardbeg Day theme for 2024

Ardbeg reveal Spectacular Feis Ile whisky and Ardbeg Day theme for 2024
The Ardbeg Feis Ile 2024 bottling is the first Ardbeg aged in port casks and sets the stage for Ardbeg Day.

16th Apr 2024

Held annually on the final Saturday of Islay’s Festival of Music and Malt (Fèis Ìle), Ardbeg Day is a global celebration of all things Ardbeg.

This year, festivities will take place on Saturday 1 June - under a circus theme - as Ardbeg marks the occasion with one of its most eclectic experiments to date – Ardbeg Spectacular.


The distillery’s first whisky aged in port casks, this limited edition whisky showcases a spectacle of flavours never before tasted at Ardbeg.

The whisky has been wholly matured in port barrels which brings a richness and an acrobatic twist of colour to the Islay malt.

Other tasting notes include dark chocolate, mint, aromas of candied fruit, incense candles and smoked pecans swing.

Taking inspiration from the whisky’s deep, dark cavalcade of flavours — as sensational as any carnival act — the Islay single malt is inviting fans to join its very own “Dark Circus” on Ardbeg Day.


Ardbeg Spectacular Feis Ile 2024
Gillian Macdonald, Ardbeg Master Blender, said: “Ardbeg Spectacular is a high-flying spirit, very befitting of Ardbeg Day. Its years in bourbon and port casks create a spectacle of flavours, the like of which Ardbeggians will never have tasted before.

“We invite fans to roll up and feast their palates on its peculiar notes of mint chocolate, incense, lavender and smoked nuts, set off by a daring double act of salted caramel and tar. Like the finest performances in the circus ring, this is a whisky not to be missed.”

Jackie Thomson, Distillery Visitor Centre Manager added: “This Ardbeg Day we will celebrate our whisky in the most spectacular style – from this new limited edition, to our core range favourites like Ardbeg Ten Years Old.

“I’m looking forward to entering into the spirit of the circus with fans at the Distillery, online and across the globe on 1st June, as we come together to juggle big, bold smoky flavours and marvel at the phenolic phenomenon that is Ardbeg.”

Ardbeg Spectacular will be available in the UK and on Ardbeg.com from 23rd April, RRP: £110. It will then be available in other markets from late April onwards.

There will only be 400 bottles of Ardbeg's 'The Abyss' whisky and the artwork has a Hollywood super twist
Whisky
There will only be 400 bottles of Ardbeg's 'The Abyss' whisky and the artwork has a Hollywood super twist
An extremely rare 34 year old Ardbeg is hitting the market, and it’ll delight fans of the Corryvreckan whisky.

Updated 6 th Jun 2024
Whisky and art have had an enduring relationship for decades, with many artists showcasing their talents on bottle design, labels and even using the liquid and production processes as inspiration on artists in residence programmes.

But Ardbeg, the smoky Islay whisky from the Glenmorangie Company, has never been one to follow in the footsteps of others.

Its playful marketing, whisky names and dog mascot Shortie, have set this brand apart from other seemingly more high end whiskies. And while others are trying to appeal to a younger audience, Ardbeg has already been positioned as a more approachable Islay dram.

So the Ardbeg way into celebrating art and artists was always going to be fun. Enter Planet Ardbeg, a 40 page sci-fi anthology created by three artists - award-winning New York cartoonist Ronald Wimberly in collaboration with fellow artists Emma Ríos and Sanford Greene - and released in 2022.

This limited edition publication was inspired by the unique flavours and ‘origin stories’ of three Ardbeg expressions – Ardbeg Ten Years Old, Ardbeg An Oa, and Ardbeg Wee Beastie – and featured cameos from some of the Distillery’s best-known characters.

Now, DC and Marvel comic book artist Tradd Moore has added to this universe and created a bespoke comic, which ties into the release of a very rare whisky, Ardbeg The Abyss.

This rich whisky has been created from the original, limited-edition Ardbeg Corryvreckan released in 2008. To bring The Abyss’s mysterious depths to life, the acclaimed American comic-book artist has reimagined the legend of the Corryvreckan whirlpool in a fantastical graphic novel.

Ardbeg Abyss
Tradd's comic
Set on ‘Planet Ardbeg’, it is available in print exclusively with The Abyss’s 400 numbered bottles. These bottles are encased in a handmade sleek, silver capsule, which looks a bit like a futuristic old driver’s helmet, set for travel to other realms.

The Corryvreckan whisky is named after the famous whirlpool that lies to the north of Ardbeg’s island home.

Folklore tells us that it was there, the Viking prince Breacan is said to have anchored his ship for three days and nights to win the hand of the Lord of the Isles’ daughter – yet was lost to its watery depths. Emulating the whisky’s journey into new flavour dimensions, Tradd gives new life to Breacan in the pages of his graphic novel. The prince travels through space and time to emerge reborn on Planet Ardbeg.

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Tradd’s comic reimagines the tale of Breacan being swept into the whirlpool - the namesake of the original whisky, a version of which made it into the core range.

It shows Breacan travelling through space, into a whirling Abyss – being engulfed by the sea witch who is said to control the whirlpool – and emerging transformed on Planet Ardbeg, which is in fact, Islay. In this way, the story reflects the whisky’s transformation over time, emerging reborn as Ardbeg The Abyss.

Tradd said: “When I visited Islay, everything felt holistic: the island itself, the people, the stories. From visiting the whirlpool to trying to swirl whisky in the glass, it all felt interconnected.

"I’m a big fan of mythology and as soon as I heard the legend of Corryvreckan, I just knew I wanted to reflect The Abyss’s mysterious depths through the story of Prince Breacan. On his own journey into mystery, he sees the abyss, enters the unknown and is swept up and surprised by what he finds…”

Ardbeg Abyss
This trip to Islay was a rare one for Moore, but he’s been inspired by the many comic book artists from Scotland.

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Of this he said: “Some of my favourite artists and comics writers happen to be from Scotland.I remember the first time I came out here was in 2017, and I went to the Kelvingrove in Glasgow, and Frank Quitely, who is one of my favourite artists in the field, had a big exhibition there.

"And I remember that it was very special and moving for me to see all these pieces that I had loved the printed versions of. To be able to bring original artwork here to Scotland myself, makes me in a weird way feel connected to the artists and writers that I love from Scotland, and I feel very fortunate to do that.”

Moore hopes his creation for Ardbeg will cause people to stop and spend some time with the images, and connect with how they feel about them - much like people do with whisky.

He said: “I always hope that people spend time with images. I think that we in modernity can be pulled in lots of different directions and we won't just sit and stare for a little bit at a singular image. I think that you don't get as much from art as you can if you don't take time with it.

"My hope is that people will really stare at these images and see how they feel about them, love or hate, and hopefully it’ll make them interested in Islay, in Scotland, in whisky, in figurative artwork. I just hope they see them and feel.”

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While the comic is an engaging work of art, what is the whisky like and how was it created? Its roots are from the ‘ultra-active’ French oak casks that were used to finish the 1989 spirit, which was the original Ardbeg Corryvreckan.

These unusual casks, which were heavily toasted to an exact specification, gave that legendary limited-edition its depth of flavour.

While most of these unrepeatable casks were consumed in the 2008 limited bottling, a small handful were stowed away and have now been bottled as Ardbeg The Abyss. It is a rich and unusually dark Ardbeg that has notes of toasted marshmallows and tea leaves, dark chocolate, pecan, leather and creosote.

Ardbeg Abyss
Dr Bill Lumsden, Ardbeg’s Director of Whisky Creation, said: “Ardbeg The Abyss is the stuff of Ardbeggian legend.

"Formed from the rare heart of that original, sought-after 2008 limited release of Corryvreckan, this 34-year-old whisky has been transported by time into a new world of flavour.

"Held in a tiny handful of those rare, heavily toasted French oak casks, its 400 bottles contain mysterious depths of toasted marshmallows, dark chocolate, pecan nuts and leather – a rare taste of an Ardbeg icon revived, and reimagined.

In celebration of the Ardbeg Corryvreckan’s role in the distillery’s liquid history, 1000 limited edition bottles of core range Ardbeg Corryvreckan are also to be released, featuring a label design by Tradd Moore.

Four individual designs will be available, each taken from a frame featured in The Abyss’ graphic novel. These unique bottles will be available exclusively from the Distillery Visitor Centre on Islay from June.

Ardbeg The Abyss will be available to buy via Ardbeg.com, at the Distillery Visitor Centre on Islay, and through the Moët Hennessy Private Client channel, across the world.

03 September, 2024

Ardbeg Distillery is reviving its 17 Years Old in a limited edition shared exclusively with the Ardbeg Committee.

Released a quarter of a century ago in 1997, Ardbeg 17 Years Old was one of the first whiskies to leave the distillery when it reopened after being saved from extinction by The Glenmorangie Company.

Ardbeg, which usually has an abv of 46% or higher and is always non chill-filtered, chose to honour Ardbeg 17 Years Old’s classic character with the combination of peated and unpeated stock and an abv of 40% with chill-filter.

Master blender Gillian Macdonald said: “When we meet die-hard Ardbeg Committee members, the conversation often turns to Ardbeg 17 Years Old. After pondering for some time how we could bring this favourite back to life, we landed on a delicious recipe that honours the character of the original 17 Years Old both in aroma, flavour and texture.”

Available exclusively to members of the Ardbeg Committee, Ardbeg 17 Years Old will be available online, at the Distillery Visitor Centre on Islay, and in Ardbeg Embassies from 24 September for an rrp of £160.

Ardbeg Distillery is reviving its 17 Years Old in a limited edition shared exclusively with the Ardbeg Committee.

Released a quarter of a century ago in 1997, Ardbeg 17 Years Old was one of the first whiskies to leave the distillery when it reopened after being saved from extinction by The Glenmorangie Company.

Ardbeg, which usually has an abv of 46% or higher and is always non chill-filtered, chose to honour Ardbeg 17 Years Old’s classic character with the combination of peated and unpeated stock and an abv of 40% with chill-filter.

Master blender Gillian Macdonald said: “When we meet die-hard Ardbeg Committee members, the conversation often turns to Ardbeg 17 Years Old. After pondering for some time how we could bring this favourite back to life, we landed on a delicious recipe that honours the character of the original 17 Years Old both in aroma, flavour and texture.”

Available exclusively to members of the Ardbeg Committee, Ardbeg 17 Years Old will be available online, at the Distillery Visitor Centre on Islay, and in Ardbeg Embassies from 24 September for an rrp of £160.

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