Enter Ardnahoe

Enter Ardnahoe

Islay's New Kids On The Block

Islay does not, on paper, need another distillery. It's already home to some of the most famous names in the whisky world, an island of roughly 3,000 people supporting nine (soon to be more) working distilleries, most of which have had well over a century to figure out what they're doing. So when word went round in the mid-2010s that a new distillery was going up on the northeast coast, the reasonable reaction was a polite, if slightly skeptical "good luck with that."

Enter Ardnahoe — the first new-build distillery on Islay in over fifteen years, opened in 2019 by Hunter Laing & Co, the Glasgow-based independent bottling family decades deep in selecting, blending and bottling other distilleries' spirits, Stewart Laing and his sons Andrew and Scott apparently decided they'd learned enough by osmosis to have a go themselves. Which is a bit like a restaurant critic suddenly opening a restaurant — bold, and the kind of move that only works if you actually know what you're talking about.

Depth / Knowledge

Ardnahoe sits on a bluff overlooking the sound of Islay, with the Paps of Jura looming across the water and a visitor centre café that regularly gets mentioned in reviews almost as often as the whisky itself. Its water comes from Loch Ardnahoe, the deepest loch on the island, filled purely by rainfall rather than groundwater — meaning it's never touched mineral bedrock. Whether or not that measurably changes the whisky is the sort of thing distillers argue about for fun, but it's certainly a nice line for the tour guide!

To help create the Ardnahoe spirit, they pulled Scottish whisky legend; Jim McEwan out of retirement — a man who started as a cooper at Bowmore in 1963 and later spent years reviving Bruichladdich from the dead. If whisky had a Avengers-style "one last job" trope, McEwan taking on Ardnahoe as Production Director would be it. He's since retired again (for real this time, presumably), handing the reins to David Livingstone, a third-generation Islay distiller with Lagavulin in his blood.

The Flavour Of Patience

Despite distilling since 2018, Ardnahoe sat on its hands for over five years before releasing anything. In an industry where plenty of new distilleries can't resist cashing in the moment their spirit legally qualifies as whisky, Ardnahoe just... waited.

It turns out patience is a flavour as well as a virtue.

Praise Indeed

When the Inaugural Release (a five-year-old, matured in ex-bourbon and Oloroso sherry casks) finally arrived, it didn't just get polite applause — it picked up gold medals at both the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and the International Spirits Challenge in 2025. Whisky Magazine noted the whisky showed a complexity that belied its age, with the bourbon and sherry cask influences unusually well balanced for something so young. Reviewers across the board kept circling the same baffled compliment: this really shouldn't taste this good at five years old.

Since then, the core range has grown into a small, steady trio — Infinite Loch (peaty and fruity, dark chocolate on the finish), Bholsa (darker, spicier, more sherry-driven), and a Cask Strength edition that one reviewer called "an extraordinary smoky-fruity-juicy masterpiece" after giving it time to breathe. That same review — from Dramface — casually mentioned it had been crowned that site's Whisky of the Year. Not bad for a distillery that's been bottling for under two years.

At The End Of The Day

Strip away the awe-inspiring scenery and the McEwan pedigree, and Ardnahoe's appeal comes down to something refreshingly old-fashioned: proper worm tub condensers, seemingly no rush to market, and a clear, consistent house style built on genuine Islay peat rather than gimmicks. In an era where new distilleries often lead with flashy branding before the liquid can back it up, Ardnahoe did the opposite — kept quiet, let the whisky mature properly, and let the reviews do the talking once it actually had something worth reviewing.

For a distillery that's barely old enough to have a driving license, that's a rather grown-up way to make an entrance.

Shop Ardnahoe

We stock the full Ardnahoe core range — try them all and see what the fuss is about: