Ardbeg

Ardbeg was founded by John MacDougall on Islay’s southern coast in 1815, however he was producing whisky illegally since 1794 but by getting a licence John established Ardbeg as a legitimate commercial company. By 1838 John had sold the Ardbeg distillery for £1,800 to Thomas Buchanan who was a spirit merchant in Glasgow. Despite the change of ownership John's son Alexander MacDougall continued as Ardbeg’s manager until his death in 1853.

After his death Ardbeg was co-run by Colin Hay and Alexander’s sisters, Margaret and Flora, who were one of Scotland’s first female distillers. Following the death of Margaret in 1865, Colin Hay became the sole proprietor of Ardbeg. He increased Ardbeg’s production capacity by installing larger stills and building new warehouses and by 1887 it was reported that they were producing 1.1 million litres of whisky a year, making it the most productive distillery on Islay.

Colin E. Hay succeeded his father as manager in 1900, running Ardbeg until 1920. His first step in creating Ardbeg’s identity occurred in 1911 when the Ardbeg name and letter A logo was registered as trademarks to protect the brand. The MacDougall family would purchase Ardbeg in 1922 for £19,000 putting themselves back at the helm, however due to the economic depression of the 1930s Ardbeg would close in 1932 and re-open in 1935. The new shareholders included the Distillers Company Limited (DCL) and the Canadian based Hiram Walker & Sons. 

A rising demand for peated whisky saw Ardbeg’s production increase massively on the 1960’s and 70’s, this prompted DCL and Hiram Walker to form the Ardbeg Distillery Trust in 1973 and together they purchased Ardbeg for £300,000. By 1974 the demand for peated blends grew so much that Ardbeg started to use peated malt grain from Port Ellen, this marked the end of Ardbeg’s self-sufficiency.

Ardbeg began being supplied as a single malt across the UK and eventually it was exported to the US, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. The strong peaty characteristics was originally the result of Ardbeg’s unusual malting process. The kilns were not equipped with extractor fans so the peat smoke couldn’t escape, permeating the malted barley heavily.

When Hiram Walker bought out DCL for £300,000 in 1977, the sales of blended whisky was declining and so was the demand for peated malt. Hiram Walker compensated for this by producing an unpeated malt known as Kildalton in 1979. As a result, Ardbeg’s kilns were finally extinguished in 1980 ending all onsite grain maltings. Finally, a surplus of maturing spirit caused Ardbeg’s closure on the 25th of March 1981, becoming a victim of the 1980’s ‘whisky loch’.

Ardbeg reopened in 1989, owned by Allied Distillers following a takeover of Hiram Walker. Production was intermittent as Ardbeg only operated for two months each year until 1996, usually producing the unpeated Kildalton malt. Allied Distillers also owned another Islay distillery - Laphroaig and used it for their source of peated malt, which meant Ardbeg was surplus to requirements. 

Due to being left unused the Ardbeg distillery was allowed to fall into disrepair with much of the distilling equipment being removed for spare parts for Laphroaig. In 1996, Ardbeg was officially closed and placed up for sale.

Ardbeg made another comeback in 1997 when the distillery and whisky stock was purchased by Glenmorangie for £7 million. The distillery was refurbished ready to resume full production. Glenmorangie wanted to re-establish the Ardbeg brand from the existing maturing old whisky stock. The first release in 1997 was a 17 year old bottling which was joined in 2001 by the 25 year old Lord of the Isles expression. Both of which have become highly sought after since being discontinued. In 1998, a visitors’ centre was opened which included turning one of the two old kilns into a shop and cafe. Since their comeback, Ardbeg has continued to rely on external suppliers for its malted barley but there is still hope that one day they will produce their own as one kiln has yet to be demolished. By the time Ardbeg celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2015, it had become world renowned as an iconic and popular whisky despite the rough history.

Ardbeg’s greatest challenge these days is keeping up with demand for its beautiful peated whisky. In February 2018, Ardbeg revealed plans to double production capacity with the addition of another pair of stills and five new washbacks and by the end of 2019 they had succeeded along with a refurbishment which increased the storage capacity of malt grain. This has increased Ardbeg’s maximum production capacity to 2,400,000 litres of whisky a year.

Ardbeg have proved a distillery can successfully come back from the dead, with its highly peated malt now considered one of the best whiskies in the world. Despite being one of Islay’s smokest malts, Ardbeg is also considered one of the sweetest too, combining a rich earthy tar like character balanced by a citric sweet core. The growing popularity of peated malts has led Ardbeg to achieve an iconic cult status with both traditional expressions and modern limited releases highly sought by whisky enthusiasts and collectors alike.

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Written by Oliver Partington