Global Drinks Intel: What’s the story behind Hunter Laing’s first owned distillery?
Ardnahoe Distillery Co director Scott Laing: The starting point was in August 2015, when my father and I were trundling around the island with one of the local landowners, looking at various sites. Towards the end of the day, we came upon Ardnahoe, which looked spectacular and ticked every box as far as we were concerned.
We progressed very quickly to drawing up plans for a distillery and putting in a planning application in early 2016 and were granted approval eight months later. Construction took two years, so we had spirit running by October 2018. Since then, it’s been full steam ahead, producing about 650,000 litres a year, mostly of peated spirit. We could go higher – We could go up to 1m litres per year.
We’ve also created a visitor centre to capitalise on tourism on the island. All together, the distillery cost GBP12m (US$15.2m) to build.
GDI: Did you pivot to a white spirit while you waited for your spirit to qualify as scotch whisky?
SL: We’ve never done that. Our company (Hunter Laing) has always been an independent bottler and during the pandemic, the single-cask side of our business increased – we weren’t desperate for funds in any way. We were quite happy to carry on making the spirit.
GDI: Why did you choose Islay?
SL: From the single-cask side of the business, we knew that when an Islay whisky goes on to our pricelist, it usually sells out pretty quickly – It has a certain cache to it.
Islay was the gold standard in terms of what we were looking for. Initially, we were looking all around (Scotland), but it was always Islay that we had in our hearts. We were told it would be too difficult to build a distillery on the island, so we went away. But then, we came back and I’m very glad we did.
Islay whisky fans are a very passionate bunch. Although there are fewer of them, they’re very committed to the cause. When you’re selling something, you want a group of people who are passionate about what you’re selling rather than trying to market to a lot of people who are unmoved one way or the other.
Lots of people won’t touch the stuff, which is fine as long as we cater towards the passionates.
GDI: Was the choice of Islay a heart-led decision only?
SL: It was certainly much more difficult to build a distillery on Islay than on the mainland. You’ve got the logistics of getting materials onto the island in the first place, then there’s a limited number of people who can actually do the work on the island. There are tons of those kinds of problems.
On the other hand, I’m told that if we had built the same distillery today, it would have cost drastically more.
GDI: What have been your main learnings from the project?
SL: We’re based in Glasgow, so we were managing the project remotely, which added an additional layer of complexity to the situation. You’ve got to have people on the ground that you trust implicitly – which we did, thank goodness!
Once you’ve got good people in place, everything flows from that.
GDI: What was the biggest challenge?
SL: There were so many! Once we’d submitted the planning application, a decision was delayed several times for bureaucratic reasons. That was frustrating, because we were keen to get going.
GDI: Were you made to feel like the new kid on Islay by the established distilleries on the island?
SL: We weren’t rocking up as complete unknowns. Because of Hunter Laing – my father’s been in the industry for around 50 years – we weren’t new to Islay. We didn’t know everybody, but we knew a lot of the different personalities, so we had that calling card.
Once we had our architect and our manager, both of whom lived on the island, working on our behalf, that also made our entry smoother.
GDI: What are your expectations for the Ardnahoe brand?
SL: We’ve got a blank sheet of paper in front of us at the moment. We set reasonably ambitious volume targets for the first release and I’m very pleased that we’ve hit them. To be honest, we could probably have sold more. I’d like us to be seen on a par with the older established distilleries on the island – that will take time, of course.
I’ve had over ten years of whisky experience with Hunter Laing, but we’ve been selling single casks. which is a very different thing. Now we’re building a brand, which we can do worldwide. It’s something new for me and I’m looking forward to it.
GDI: Is this Hunter Laing’s first swing at building a brand?
SL: Not quite. About five years ago, we created an Islay single malt called Scarabus, which uses spirit from one of the other distilleries in our own packaging, which doesn’t identify which distillery it comes from. That was our first practice at building a brand, rather than being almost a reseller of other people’s brands.
Scarabus has done well, up to as far as it can. With Ardnahoe, I think the sky’s the limit, as the first brand that we’re building ourselves.
GDI: Tell us about this month’s debut for Ardnahoe.
SL: The Inaugural Release is a one-off. We wanted to create something that has as wide an appeal as possible, so we’ve used peated spirits in a combination of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. I think it tastes much older than its five years age statement.
Beyond that, we have a strategy in mind where we’ll build up to an older age statement, which we haven’t determined yet – something like an eight-, ten- or 12-year-old. We hope to have that as a permanent offering in the next few years. Until then, it’ll be about building up to that level with various releases that will show the progression of the spirit’s journey.
