Ardmore Distillery, Highland

The Ardmore distillery is settled on the east border of Speyside, between the River Bogie, the Clashindarroch forest, and at the edge of the Grampian mountains. This was William Teacher & Son’s first distillery, founded in 1898 and eventually taken over by Allied Breweries in 1976. Today, it is owned by Beam Suntory.

Ardmore has a longstanding belief in traditional distilling methods and insists that the aromatic smoke from natural Highland peat fires is used to dry their malted barley. Sadly, today, the high cost of this procedure has meant that it is now the only Highland distillery to routinely ‘peat’ its standard malt. In 2021, they initiated a project to restore 1,300 hectares of peatland near the distillery to safeguard the local supply.

Ardmore is double matured, first in the more usual oak barrels and then in much smaller ‘Quarter Casks’, delivering a unique smoothness to our whisky. These were commonly used in the 19th century but are too costly for most distillers today. In recent times, Ardmore has released exceptionally long-aged expressions, which show a beautiful balance between sweet flavours and savoury peat smoke.