Ardmore distillery is a favourite with many whisky fans, and its old-school, medium-peated, Speyside-style profile has won the distillery a loyal following of aficionados. Ardmore has long been the backbone of Teacher's blended Scotch whisky and the distillery’s truly distinctive personality and quality have become more widely renowned since its launch as an official single malt whisky in 2007.
In common with certain other distilleries such as Knockdhu and Glendronach, Ardmore was generally regarded by most whisky fans as a Speyside distillery until the Scotch Whisky Regulations of 2009, when it was officially designated as a Highland distillery due to the lazy, unfortunate decision to define Scotch whisky's borders using regional geopolitical boroughs.
Ardmore Distillery
Founded: 1898
Stills: 4 Wash Stills, 4 Spirit Stills
Water Source: Knockandy Hill
Capacity: 5 Million Litres
Owners: Suntory Global
1950s-1974: Big And Oily
Ardmore distillery was built by Adam Teacher 1898 to supply Teacher’s blended Scotch whisky and has been associated with the brand ever since. Ardmore is the base malt around which the Teacher’s blend hangs and was one of the first distilleries to receive a major upgrade after the Second World War, with a 1955 expansion taking the distillery from two to four stills and the new stills being fitted with condensers rather than worm tubs.
Ardmore was still using its own floor maltings and direct-firing its stills during this era, magnifying the peaty characteristics of the distillate. Ardmore has always been a noticeably peated whisky, and even today there is a big, smoky oiliness about it. Back in the fifties, though, it was an aromatic powerhouse of a dram, and the first known bottlings of Ardmore single malt whisky appeared in this period.
There is a famous but very rare official dumpy bottling of Ardmore that was produced for the directors of Teachers in the 1950s or 1960s. This was a very heavily sherried Ardmore and is an utterly stunning old-style Highland malt whisky, though sadly it is now understandably extremely expensive and hard to find.
A handful of Ardmores distilled in the 1960s were released by independent bottlers Cadenhead and Dun Eideann / Signatory in the 1980s and are also absolutely superb. These old era Ardmores were waxy, thick, oily, packed with aromatic intensity, filled with minerals, taut fruitiness and big dusty phenolic notes. They are great whiskies to try if you can find them but are now very rarely seen on the secondary market.
Ardmore was expanded again in 1974, this time on a grand scale: the stills were doubled to a total of eight and all of them were given shell condensers. The distillery floor maltings were also phased out during this time as they were no longer large enough to handle the new production capacity.
These changes meant that Ardmore was suddenly one of the bigger malt whisky distilleries in Scotland and inevitably the intense richness of the spirit was tamed to some extent. The stills were all still direct-fired with coal, however, so Ardmore remained a distinctively older style of malt, unlike many of its neighbours in Speyside which were being rapidly toned down and modernised at that time.
1975-2002: Smoky, Fruity and Classic
The Ardmore whiskies distilled between the mid-1970s and 2002 are regarded as the ideal archetype by many Ardmore fans: a rich and robust malt whisky with a great oiliness and distinctly peaty undertones alongside old-style elements of wax, minerality and fruit. As well as the famous Ardmore Centenary official bottlings - a pair of superb small batch releases from the 1977 and 1986 vintages that perfectly captured the distillery’s old school character - there are many independent bottlings by all the major names that exemplify this style, especially the ones released in the 1990s and early 2000s at cask strength.
2002-Present: Inevitable Changes
In 2002 the stills at Ardmore were finally converted from direct firing to internal steam heating, and the robust, oily character of the distillate has clearly diminished since then as the new owners pursued a broader consumer appeal.
The reality is that Ardmore is not as old school as it used to be, but it is still one of the most distinctive malts produced in the Highlands. Relaunched as a single malt by new owners Jim Beam in 2007, Ardmore's profile and the quality of the distillery's official bottlings have increased dramatically since Suntory took over Jim Beam in 2014, with the Malt Whisky Yearbook reporting sales growth of 275% for the brand between 2014-2020 and the distillery's official bottlings now widely available from major retailers.
As ever, though, there are still many great independent examples of Ardmore out there, and for the real aficionados there’s a little secret: Ardmore also make an unpeated single malt whisky called Ardlair. This Ardlair spirit is produced for blending purposes but the occasional cask does slip through to the indie bottlers and is always well worth investigating.