Scotland, Isle of Islay. Distillery operational. Owner: LVMH - Diageo

Founded in 1815 by McDougall & Co. in the south-east of Islay, near the Kildalton Cross, Ardbeg's malt was for a long time overshadowed by its neighbours and competitors Lagavulin and Laphroaig.It was under the patronage of the McDonald family (Glenmorangie Plc), who bought the distillery in 1997, that it was able to develop its potential and introduce the public to the treasures sleeping in its vaults. Between September and November 1997, no less than three bottlings - two of which would become great classics - were released on the market, the Ardbeg 17 Year Old, Ardbeg 1978 and Ardbeg Provenance 1974. The following decade was rich in single cask, cask strength bottlings matured in sherry and bourbon casks, each more impressive than the next. And it was dressed in a new green bottle with confident Celtic-Gothic aesthetics that Ardbeg flooded the market for fans of malts dominated by aromas of smoke, peat and tiger balm.

An Ardbeg distilled in 2007 and bottled in 2017, matured for 9 years in second-fill Oloroso sherry butts. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) was founded in Edinburgh in 1983 by a group of friends with a particular passion for whisky. The club selects casks whose bottles are then only available to members. The name of the distillery is not mentioned on the label but each distillery is given a number when the malt is bottled. The first cask selected by the SMWS, for example, was Glenfarclas, and it therefore uses the number 1. The second number refers to the number of bottlings from each distillery. The club was sold to Glenmorangie in 2004 and then to a group of investors in 2016.