Ardbeg 26 Year Old Hunter Laing Kinship / Feis Ile 2017 - Signed by Jim McEwan

You would not think it to see it now, but Ardbeg had a difficult time of it for much of the 20th century. The distillery was bought in a joint venture between Hiram Walker and DCL in 1959, both intending to supply their blends. The subsequent years were very successful, but DCL backed out in 1979 (closing many of their other distilleries a few years later), and Hiram Walker then struggled in the 1980s era oversupply when interest is blended Scotch was waning. They closed it down for the majority of the decade. It re-opened briefly in the 1990s before being revived for good by Glenmorangie plc in 1997. The lack of demand in the period prior to this, thankfully, saw a lot of casks sold to independent bottlers, many of which have gone on to become legendary releases.

To celebrate the commencement of the construction of the Ardnahoe distillery on Islay in 2017, Hunter Laing released a selection of 6 bottles called the Kinship collection. Each celebrating a different Islay distillery and available exclusively at Feis Ile in 2017.

This is Edition 5 of the 2017 releases, a 26 Year Old Ardbeg matured in a bourbon cask. A second Kinship series was released in 2018 to celebrate the completion of the Ardnahoe project.

Feis Ile, also known as the Islay Festival of Music and Malt had humble beginnings. It traces it origins back to 1985 and the establishment of The Islay Festival Association after it was realised that an event celebrating Gaelic, music and culture would drive tourism to the island. The inaugural event was rtwo weeks of music, drama and workshops with ceilidhs, concerts and dances in the evening. The first whisky tasting took place as a festival event in 1990, and ten years later the island's distilleries began to be directly involved, organising their annual open days to coincide with it. Today it is one of the biggest events on the whisky calendar, annually drawing hundreds of revellers, and turning out an increasingly sought-after batch of limited edition whiskies like this.

This particular bottle has been signed by the mind behind the Kinship series, Jim McEwan.

One of 209 bottles.