The Story of Ardbeg Whisky
The small Scottish island of Islay is home to many whisky distilleries. One of the most famous, throughout the world, is Ardbeg. The first official, commercial distillery on the Ardbeg Farm site was established by the McDougal brothers in 1815. However local folk law tells of illicit and smuggled whisky being distilled at Ardbeg much earlier than this. They still tell of the huge cache of illicit whisky found by the government’s excise men at the end of the 18th century. It certainly does seem that local farmer have long secretly distilled whisky as a way of using up their excess grain crop.
