Few distilleries have a story like that of Islay’s Ardbeg. Over the past few decades the Ardbeg distillery has transformed from a forgotten Kildalton relic, whose uncompromisingly smoky, peated single malt whisky went largely unknown, into one of the biggest whisky cults in the world.
In that time Ardbeg has also occasionally been a source of controversy and frustration in the whisky world. However, there can be no denying that behind all the fuss and blether lies a relatively small distillery that has been responsible for some of the most glorious whiskies ever bottled.
Ardbeg Distillery
Founded: 1815
Water Source: Loch Uigeadail
Stills: 2 Wash Stills, 2 Spirit Stills
Capacity: 2.4 million litres
Owners: Glenmorangie (LVMH)
Ardbeg vintages from the 1950s and 1960s have been bottled in the past but are now exceptionally rare. Ardbeg whiskies from this era are almost all from independent bottlers, but there are a few notable official exceptions whose rarity and prices mean that nowadays their provenance must be immaculate, as sadly there are many fakes around.
1960s-1976: Oily, phenolic, tarry, green fruits.
This is the classic era of Ardbeg that exploded into the consciousness of whisky fans the world over in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The whisky was produced using methods essentially unchanged in the post-war period to produce a very old school Islay single malt.
The turn-of-the-millennium official bottlings of 1970s Ardbeg whisky that appeared in the first years after Glenmorangie's takeover in 1997 caused a sensation in the whisky world - it's not hyperbole to suggest that the impact of Ardbeg's relaunch in the late 1990s and its influence on the subsequent fascination for smoky whisky in general and Islay single malt whisky in particular cannot be overstated, with world whisky distilleries as diverse as Cooley in Ireland, Sweden's Mackmyra and Amrut in India reaping collateral benefits from the craze.
Floor maltings play a crucial part in Ardbeg's character from this era, as very deep local peat was used in Ardbeg's kilns. Peat from this depth gives off much heavier, oilier phenolic compounds which contribute intense simmering espresso tarry qualities to the spirit. Ardbeg's kilns had no extraction fans, so the malt took much longer to dry and therefore absorbed more phenols in the process, intensifying this deep smoky character even further.
Another crucial factor during this period - and not only at Ardbeg, but at most of Scotland's distilleries at the time - was the widespread usage of much longer, gentler fermentations, which give a fruitier, more estery character to the spirit. The use of direct-fired stills and worm tub condensers instead of the modern shell condensers encouraged a type of copper contact that also helped create an oilier spirit style.
There are many bottlings of Ardbeg from these years, though they are now very expensive due to their exceptionally high quality and reputation. There are also some younger official distillery bottlings from this period that show the spirit's character at earlier ages, and these are often stunning whiskies as well.
1977-1983: Phenolic and oily but lighter and less fruity. Kildalton experiments produced.
This was a transitional era at Ardbeg, and consequently the distillery's whiskies from this period can vary in style and quality, often lighter in character with less distinctive peat. These variations can be attributed, in the main, to the modernisation that was happening throughout the whisky industry at this time.
The slow deactivation of Ardbeg’s own floor maltings was a particularly crucial element. The distillery had begun topping up their own supplies with malted barley from Port Ellen maltings as early as 1975, and this Port Ellen malt was of course different, having been dried with much younger peat that left a drier, less intense peat character with more emphasis on smokiness. The quality was good, and the malt was far more consistent than Ardbeg's own, but many old-school Ardbeg lovers feel it lacked the magic of Ardbeg's own floor-malted barley.
Ardbeg's maltings were closed for the last time in 1980, but many superb whiskies were distilled during this era, with the official Ardbeg 17-year-old bottlings and the Ardbeg 1977 and 1978 vintage editions released around the turn of the millennium after the Glenmorangie takeover being good examples. The almost unpeated ‘Kildalton’ Ardbegs produced at the turn of the 1980s are interesting curiosities with a cult following nowadays.
1989-1996: Oily, resinous, fruity and coastal.
This was the period when Ardbeg was run by Allied Distillers, who also owned Laphroaig and took over Ardbeg in 1987. Due to Allied's notorious carelessness this period was regarded as a negative chapter in Ardbeg's history, but as the spirits from these years matured they revealed an excellent and fascinating era of production.
Ardbeg had been closed by former owners Hiram Walker in 1981, six years before the Allied takeover, and although the latter restarted production in 1989 they ran the distillery only sporadically - often only in Laphroaig's silent seasons - with little or no thought to its quality or consistency.
The whisky made at this time was intended only for blends in order to free up supplies of Laphroaig for release as a single malt. With Ardbeg's floor maltings now gone, the new spirit distilled by Allied was made entirely from Port Ellen's malt and was an interesting variant on the Ardbeg style: not as heavy as the 1970s distillates, but with a new oily, fruity angle to its character.
One explanation may be in the distillation process. Ardbeg famously has a purifier fitted to its spirit still to increase reflux and hence copper contact. However, due to a lack of maintenance by Allied this purifier was often not working properly and frequent leaks were reported. This would certainly have affected the character of the distillate.
Another crucial factor affecting Ardbeg's whisky during this era was the casks filled by Allied. This was a time when distillers were beginning to understand the rapid ageing potential of fresh bourbon casks and their use at Laphroaig increased markedly. As a result, Ardbeg was sent many old refill casks, often up to fourth and fifth fill barrels. These were seen as disastrous at the time, but had a great potential for creating beautiful, dry, aromatic and expressive whiskies at older ages. The official 1990 vintage bottlings, the early Noughties editions of Ardbeg 10-year-old and many independent bottlings display this wonderful refill character very beautifully.
1997-present: Sweeter, honeyed, intense peat, spicy, richly phenolic. Modern Ardbeg.
In modern times under Glenmorangie's stewardship Ardbeg has garnered worldwide praise and, it must be said, occasional scorn. Glenmorangie have shortened the fermentation time at the distillery, implemented the use of much more powerful distillers' yeast strains, dramatically increased the use of fresh bourbon casks and raised the peating levels slightly. This has led to the most consistent era of production at Ardbeg for decades.
However, these measures have also made Ardbeg's single malt a much more modern, sweeter style Islay whisky. The bottlings since around 2009, most of which are now 100% Glenmorangie-era distillate, are starting to display this shift in character.
There is less oiliness in Ardbeg's spirit these days, and more grassy, smoky and coastal characteristics. The use of fresh bourbon wood has made many bottlings more easy and approachable, although the intensity of the peat remains very high.
Ardbeg made some experimental lightly-peated whisky this century at around 10ppm, resulting in the critically-panned Ardbeg Blasda in 2008 and the damp squib Ardbeg Kildalton reboot in 2013/14. Some massively heavily-peated whiskies (100-170ppm) were also made in the same timeframe, resulting in the wildly successful Ardbeg Supernova and Hypernova releases.
In early 2018, Ardbeg announced a major expansion to the distillery - the biggest change to production since the 1970s. The completed expansion was unveiled in May 2021, and included a new still house with two new stills matching the existing pair, while the former still house and tun room were converted to accommodate five extra new washbacks. These upgrades have boosted the distillery's production capacity to around 2.4 million litres per annum.
Ardbeg's whisky remains very high quality, but the distillery no longer makes spirit of the same type that forged its reputation a few decades ago. This fact, in conjunction with the marketing department's increasingly tedious hype for the flood of gimmicky no-age-statement bottlings released in the last two decades, has turned many former aficionados away from the distillery. Yet whatever the future may hold, Ardbeg now has an army of fans around the globe, and the important fact is that the distillery is now more secure than at any time in recent memory.