Ardbeg Kildalton 1980 First Release Limited Edition Islay Single Malt

Ardbeg Kildalton 1980 First Release Limited Edition Islay Single Malt

$4,050 AUD

57.6% ABV 700 ml

Bottled on 27 September 2004 making this lightly peated expression a solid 23 year old. This was the first release of the experimental Kildalton series and is, thus, with an out-turn of only 1300 lip-smacking bottles, now incredibly rare. Considering it was initially experimental and somewhat of a gamble, this didn't appear to affect it receiving a quite excellent rating of 90 points from the WhiskyFun gurus!

It has become a legendary Ardbeg, since Kildalton was a one-off bottling of some experimental unpeated and lightly peated whiskies made at the distillery in 1980. It is known that these experiments ran from 1979-81, but while a 1981 Kildalton mini appeared in the Ardbeg Peat Pack a few years ago the 1979 vintage has yet to see the light of day.

This product is located in Australia.

Distillery

Ardbeg Distillery

The renaissance of Ardbeg is one of the most pleasing success stories of the Scotch whisky industry in recent times. Ardbeg had enjoyed a very buoyant existence in the 19th century, despite its relative remoteness, as noted by Alfred Barnard when he visited it in 1885. Ardbeg had been mothballed in 1981 and remained so until 1989 when it reopened but by then under the ownership of Allied Distillers. They closed it in 1996 and sold it the following year to Glenmorangie plc.  Things then started to happen with the opening of a visitors’ centre in 1998, some deft marketing (including the launch of the Ardbeg Committee in 2000) and the introduction of some imaginative NAS expressions under a captivating new label.

Ardbeg, like Glenmorangie, has continued to flourish under French ownership following the acquisition of both by LVMH in 2004.

Other Ardbeg Whiskies