Ardnamurchan Distillery with Connal MackenzieSales Director
Ardnamurchan. Headland of the great seas.
Nestled in the ruggedly beautiful coastline of Scotland’s west highlands, This distillery stands as a testament to innovation and tradition.
Established in 2014, Ardnamurchan Distillery embodies the spirit of its namesake peninsula, renowned for its wild landscapes and untamed character.
Can you tell us about the history and unique features of Ardnamurchan Distillery, and how it distinguishes itself from other distilleries?
One major factor influencing our distinguishing characteristics is the link to the other brand in our company, Adelphi Selection. Adelphi has been a highly selective independent bottler for over thirty years, focusing primarily on cask-strength, single-cask expressions. The entire brand is predicated on the quality and character of the liquid, and this ethos paved the way for Ardnamurchan Distillery. Our first distillate flowed into casks in July of 2014, so we turn ten years old as a distillery this month. From day one, our entire team has been driven to make the best Western Highland single malt possible. Being an independent company affords our entire team the flexibility to constantly focus on that mission to create great malt whisky, all the way through from growing barley to mashing to blending to bottling.
Ardnamurchan Distillery is also inextricably linked to its location on the rugged, remote Ardnamurchan peninsula. We have always sought to make a whisky that we feel suits the wild environment in which we’re based while maintaining balance and nuance. We produce both unpeated and peated distillate and fill into a wide range of cask types, though we focus on the traditional combination of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. For us, using both peated and unpeated distillate and bourbon and sherry maturation for our flagship expression encapsulates what we feel whisky from Ardnamurchan should be: an engaging, textured dram with a balance light smoke, salinity, and fruit traits.
How does Ardnamurchan Distillery approach sustainable and eco-friendly practices in whisky production, and do you have long-term plans in this regard?
While we always lead our conversations with the whisky, sustainability is a core pillar of our distillery and affects our business decisions every day. We grow 70% of the barley we use on land adjacent to Adelphi’s headquarters in Fife (unfortunately, barley doesn’t grow well on the volcanic rock of Ardnamurchan). Due to our remote location, we have created a circular economy on the peninsula to minimise environmental impact. The entire distillery site, including staff accommodation and Visitor’s Centre, is entirely fuelled by a biomass boiler. That boiler is fuelled by wood chip coming from a renewable forestry site 2 miles down the road on the peninsula. For each non-native Pine tree (planted across Scotland for timber in the 20th century) harvested, the site plants two trees of species native to the peninsula. We source all of our electricity through solar and hydro-electric generators, the latter installed on the stream running off the hills behind the distillery which also provides cooling water for distillation. Our solid and liquid effluent are combined to create a nutrient-rich animal feed which is distributed to livestock on the peninsula as well.
Could you share insights into the cask selection process at Ardnamurchan Distillery and its influence on the whisky's flavours, aligning with your classic and innovative expressions?
We aim to make a traditional style of West Coast single malt and therefore use mostly a traditional combination of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. We source these casks directly from producers in Kentucky and Jerez, Spain. However, we do like to experiment and frequently release expressions with less common maturation profiles, including Sauternes and Madeira casks. We also have an annual collaborative release of an unpeated Ardnamurchan matured in ex-wine barriques from our friends at Champagne Paul Launois, a Grand Cru Champagne house in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. This release has proven one of our most popular and sought-after whiskies. These limited releases provide us with a great counterpoint to the more traditional maturation profile of our core expressions, AD/ Single Malt and AD/ Cask Strength.
What are the current trends impacting the whisky industry, and how is Ardnamurchan Distillery positioned to leverage these trends?
The world of Scotch whisky continues to grow to meet ever-increasing demand, with new distilleries cropping up and existing distilleries expanding. We as a category are fortunate maintain our distinction in the world of alcohol simply due to the stringent geographic and production requirements of Scotch. Several other categories, including agave spirits and other world whiskies including bourbon, are gaining popularity swiftly; Scotch whisky needs to continue investing in its image as a premium alcohol product to differentiate from these other segments of the market. Certainly global competition, increased cost of goods, and political change all will continue to exist as barriers, but Scotch whisky maintains good positioning to succeed. Ardnamurchan Distillery’s unwavering commitment to our whisky being both unique and distinguishable from other Scotch brands and premium in quality places us in good stead to succeed in the current climate.
Our company also aligns well with two critical consumer trends: sustainability and transparency. While we discussed sustainability above, whisky buyers are also increasingly concerned with whether brands disclose any and every piece of information about the product. To that end, every Ardnamurchan whisky is non-chill-filtered and does not have colour added, demonstrating openness and lack of deceit in terms of the presentation of the liquid in the bottle. We also have a QR code on each and every bottle that provides every possible detail about production, including mash temperatures, yeast strain, a list of details about every cask used in the batch, and many other specifics.
Finally, last year our company released a premium blended Scotch called Maclean’s Nose to provide a high-quality option at the lower end of Scotch whisky’s price spectrum. Maclean’s Nose comprises 70% malt whisky, the highest proportion of any blend on the market, is lightly peated and West Coast in style, and is bottled at 46% ABV, non-chill-filtered, and natural colour. All of these are quite rare qualitative commitments in the blended Scotch subcategory. As a result, we have seen marked success with this new brand; it has quickly proven to be a whisky our team is extremely proud of that also proves affordable for many despite the difficult global economy over the past several years.
Can you give us a glimpse of any exciting projects or upcoming whisky releases that you have in the pipeline?
In addition to our core range, Ardnamurchan Distillery constantly puts out new and exciting limited releases. We will be releasing a Sauternes Cask Release in the next few months and a 2nd batch of our very successful Sherry Cask Release which debuted last autumn. We will also release a small amount of a 10-Year-Old age statement to commemorate our 10th year of distilling in the Western Highlands. Ardnamurchan also regularly bottles special single cask bottlings for partners throughout the supply chain that continuously support our brand, including importers, distributors, bars, restaurants, and hotels.
If you would like to find out more about Ardnamurchan Distillery or would be interested in purchasing one of their bottles you can visit their website here