Ardbeg Distillery, Isle Of Islay.

This photo was taken just after 19:00 before entering the Ardbeg Distillery for our annual Marhof Dinner. In fact a 3 coarse dinner in a distillery rather than a piss-up in a brewery. A great dinner was had by 50 members plus our table of 6 received 8 glasses of 54% proof Ardbeg whisky for having the cleanest plates. I gave the spar glasses to Martin and Cliff on another table.
The Ardbeg distillery has been producing whisky since 1798, and began commercial production in 1815. For most of its history, Ardbeg's whisky was produced for use in blends, rather than as a single malt. By 1886 the distillery produced 300,000 gallons of pure alcohol per year, and employed 60 workers. Production was halted in 1981, but resumed on a limited basis in 1989 and continued at a low level through late 1996, during the period when Ardbeg was owned by Hiram Walker. The distillery was bought and reopened in 1997 by Glenmorangie plc (owned by the French company LVMH) with production resuming on June 25, 1997 and full production resuming in 1998. The distillery was reopened by Ed Dodson in 1997 and handed over to Stuart Thomson, who managed it from 1997 to 2006. Michael "Mickey" Heads, an Islay native and former manager at Jura who had worked at Ardbeg years earlier, took over on March 12, 2007.
Ardbeg whisky is considered to be amongst the peatiest in the world, with the core expression, Ardbeg 10 Year Old, having a phenol content of 50ppm.

There are several official bottlings. Major ones include:
10 Year Old, 46% ABV, the main whisky in the range.
Airigh Nam Beist, 46% ABV, distilled in 1990, the name means "shelter of the beast".
Blasda, 40% ABV, a "lightly peated" expression of Ardbeg that only has 8ppm phenol count.
Corryvreckan, 57.1% ABV, previously a Committee-only bottling, it is intended as a replacement for Airigh Nam Beist in the core range.
Supernova, 58.9% ABV, pretty much the exact opposite of the Blasda in that it is "heavily peated" to over 100 ppm phenol count.
Uigeadail, 54.2% ABV, named after the loch that provides the distillery with water, pronounced oog-a-dal.
Rollercoaster, 57.3% ABV, a vatting of the first ten production years (1997-2006) of Ardbeg under Glenmorangie's ownership. The name comes from the shape of the bar chart plotting the amounts of whisky from each of those years, which resembles a rollercoaster. Rollercoaster commemorates the 10th anniversary of the Ardbeg Committee's formation.
Alligator, 51.2% ABV, non-chill-filtered single malt is aged in new, severely charred American white oak barrels