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.
The water from Loch Uigidale has always been used in the distilling process and its proximity to Ardbeg is probably the reason for the long tradition of whisky distilling in the area. The water of the loch is very soft and exceptionally peaty and contributed to the characteristic peatyness of Ardbeg, said to be the most peaty of all Scotland’s whiskies.
The distillery grew quickly and by the 1880′s it employed 60 local people compared to the 10 employed today. It was successfully managed by two McDougal sisters and by the end of the 19th century its annual production exceeded 1 million litres of whisky.
Ardbeg is known for its sea salt and iodine flavours. This comes from its position by the sea shore where many years of salt laden winds have impregnated the very buildings themselves. Today the two small piers that used to bring supplies into the distillery are still used by local fisherman and tourists. The nearby Distillery Farm was run in tandem with the distillery for many years with the distillery workers required to take a turn at cutting the peat used in the malting.
The distillery was owned by the McDougall family until 1959 when Ardbeg Distillery Ltd was formed, later passing to Allied Distilleries along with many others. In 1981 the distillery was closed down as it was believed that enough whisky was in store to last for the foreseeable future. Moreover the nearby distillery of Laphroaig was also owned by Allied Distillers and produced a similar whisky.
Another unique characteristic of Ardbeg was its malt, which for many years it produced itself. Its uniqueness was caused by the lack of fans in the roof of the pagodas. This meant that the peat smoke was allowed much more time to permeate the malt. The maltings at Port Ellen supply Ardbeg’s malt today but they have guarantee to be able to supply a malt to the required peatyness.
In 1996 Allied Distillers decided to sell Ardbeg. There was no shortage of interested parties and it was finally sold to Glenmorangie PLC for 7 million. Glenmorangie have invested heavily in the distillery and the result is the wonderful complex seen today, producing one of the worlds finest and most sought after whiskies.
550,000 litres of whisky were produced at Ardbeg in 1999. By 2003 this had almost doubled to 1 million litres. Currently Ardbeg produces 160 barrels a week. Each barrel contains 250 bottles. This means that every week the Ardbeg distillery produces an amazing 40,000 bottles.
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