🥃 Ardbeg

If you want the smokiest end of Scotch, Ardbeg is the name most whisky drinkers reach for. It is a distillery and single malt brand on the south coast of Islay, in the village of Ardbeg. 1815 is taken as the official founding date, and the present owner is the French group LVMH. The malt is dried over peat, and the core range starts with Ten at 46% ABV.

The story begins with the MacDougall family, who obtained legal status in 1815; according to sources, illicit distilling took place on the site before that. Ownership shifted in the second half of the 20th century: from 1959 Distillers Company and Hiram Walker held shares, and Hiram Walker took the distillery over entirely in the late 1970s (some sources say 1977, others 1979, so the year is disputed). Production stopped in 1981 and was limited from 1989 to 1996. In 1997 the distillery was bought by Glenmorangie plc, and at the end of 2004 Glenmorangie plc passed to LVMH.

The distillery's own kiln worked until 1974, and since then the malt has been brought from the Port Ellen Maltings. Sources give the peat level differently, from 50-65 ppm to about 55 ppm, so no exact figure is fixed here and the malt is simply called heavily peated. A purifier pipe sits on the second still, the water comes from Loch Uigeadail, and today the distillery has two pairs of stills.

The range: Ten (46% ABV, 92 proof, non-chill-filtered), Uigeadail (54.2%), Corryvreckan (57.1%), An Oa (46.6%, since 2017) and the five-year-old Wee Beastie (47.4%). For fans there is the Ardbeg Committee, founded in 2000.

Why this matters to you. Ardbeg is among the smokiest whiskies, so newcomers do better to start with a small measure and add water. The strength on the label runs from 46 to over 57% ABV, so servings are not equal. The age statement refers to the youngest whisky in the bottle. The WHO reminds us that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption.