Islay distillery Ardbeg will launch a new single malt aged in virgin Black Sea oak casks on Ardbeg Day, the final day of the annual Islay Festival of Music and Malt.
Named after the ‘kelpie’ – a legendary water demon said to live in the Atlantic Ocean, off the Islay coast – the new expression is the first Ardbeg whisky matured in Black Sea oak casks.
Sourced from the Adyghe Republic in Russia by Dr Bill Lumsden, Ardbeg’s director of distilling, whisky creation and whisky stocks, the casks are said to impart ‘incredibly deep flavours’ to the whisky, which is then married with traditional Ardbeg, aged in ex-Bourbon barrels.
