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.

The 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.