Ardmore Distillery

Ardmore’s story

Ardmore is a Highland distillery near Aberdeen. It is currently owned by Suntory Global Spirits and is a relatively large distillery. 95% of the near-five million litres of whisky produced there each year going to the flagship blend, Teacher’s Highland Cream. Teacher’s is one of the biggest selling blended whiskies in the UK. Ardmore currently release only a small core range of single malts, which unusually for a Highland whisky is quite smoky. Peatiness was a common characteristic in Highland whisky during Victorian times but until recent times had largely died out.

Other Highland and Speyside distilleries occasionally release limited edition smoky whiskies, but the peating level of Ardmore is consistently around 15ppm (phenol parts per million). While this makes the final spirit smokier than most other Highland or Speyside whiskies, but less so than many whiskies from Islay or the other islands which have peating levels between 25-55ppm. Much of the year is devoted to producing this style with the rest of the time producing a non-peated single malt named Ardlair. Other Ardmore bottlings are few and far between, mostly coming from independent bottling companies.

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Ardmore’s history

The Ardmore distillery was founded by Adam Teacher in 1898. His family were well established in the whisky blending industry and decided to open their own distillery to help meet growing demand for their blends. This was to be William Teacher & Sons first distillery but Adam, who was the brand’s founder William’s son, sadly died before construction was completed.

The site in rural Aberdeenshire, near the village of Kennethmont, was selected for its good rail and road links – it was located next to the main Aberdeen to Inverness railway line and also close to the fertile barley growing areas of the Aberdeenshire and its good supplies of water and Highland peat.

The distillery was renovated and expanded in the 1950s and then again in the 1970s and has eight large stills, making it one of the largest distilleries in the region. In 1976, the Teacher family sold Ardmore to Allied Breweries, who were later to become part of the multi national company Allied Domecq. Jim Beam Global, the huge drinks giant that later evolved into Beam Suntory, became the new owners in 2005, when they purchased 20 wine and spirits brands from Allied Domecq. The company is now called Suntory Global Spirits and continue to produce whisky for the Teacher’s Highland Cream blend. The first ever brand bottling of Ardmore single malt from Ardmore only appeared as recently as 2007 with the launch of the Traditional Cask expression. A small core range and some travel retail bottlings have followed.

• How to pronounce Ardmore? ahrd-moor
• Country: Scotland
• Region: Highlands
• Founded: 1898
• Current owners: Suntory Global Spirits
• Production capacity per year: 4.9 million litres
• Mash tun: 12.5 ton cast iron with copper lid
• Washbacks: 16
• Stills: 8
• Visitor centre: No

Ardmore Distillery
Kennethmont
Aberdeenshire
AB54 4NH
tel – +44(0)1464 831 213
www.ardmorewhisky.com

Did you know?

Ardmore is one of the most traditional distilleries in Scotland. It is one of few to have its own cooperage and was one of the last to use coal furnaces to heat their stills. The stills therefore have thicker bases to stop the contents burning.