Tell us about your background and how you became founder of Ardross Whisky Distillery

Ardross is owned by a Trust who, among other activities—most notably in the art world—are committed to long-term investments. They have faithfully restored and renovated a number of Grade I and II listed buildings in London and beyond. London’s The Ned, The Wolseley, and Les Ambassadeurs Casino in Mayfair are just three well-known and lauded examples of such buildings in their portfolio. This ownership structure allows us the luxury to think about the future in generational terms. In other words, we are insulated from the vagaries of short-termism, which proves very useful in activities that require a very long-term outlook, such as Scotch whisky creation and maturation.

It also helps that there are very high barriers to entry in the Scotch whisky industry, both financial and expertise-related, and that meeting Andrew Rankin provided us with an opportunity to overcome some of these barriers.

Andrew is an icon in the world of whisky with a career spanning almost 50 years. Having spent 22 years working on some of the world’s most famous whiskies at Morrison Bowmore (namely Bowmore Black, the Trilogy releases, and the 50-Year-Old), his knowledge and expertise—especially when it comes to wood maturation—is unparalleled. Andrew was tasked with finding and building us a home in Scotland and, having undertaken a roving journey across Scotland, eventually came across Ardross Mains—a 19th-century farmhouse deep in the Northern Highlands which was sympathetically renovated with the utmost care.

It would be a mistake to say I am driving Ardross’s success, as it is largely thanks to Andrew’s incomparable expertise and understanding of the industry, and connections in Jerez, Japan, and the US, that we are where we are today. I sometimes have rather unconventional ideas and he is the wise guy who has the years, the grounding, and the erudition to prevent us from making mistakes which, in this industry, can be very costly. It makes for an interesting partnership—sometimes we are completely at odds, and it is from this friction, I think, that creativity ensues.

Tell us more about the team behind Ardross Distillery and what they bring

The quality of expertise behind the Ardross project is something we are very proud of. We have the credibility of industry professionals in everything related to production, providing a foundation on which out-of-the-box thinking can thrive.

In addition to Andrew, Willie Dobbins, who spent over 30 years at Morrison Bowmore before joining Hunter Laing, is Ardross’s Operations Manager, and Sandy Jamieson, who has worked in the industry since 1979, is our Distillery Manager.

Between our Master Distiller, Master Blender, and General Operations Manager, we have a combined 130 years of industry experience under our belt—something very few new distilleries can claim.

What is Ardross Distillery’s vision for its new make whisky?

Ardross specialises in Single Malt and will produce two ‘main lines’ of Scotch: a Northern Highland Single Malt and a Peated Single Malt. Experimentation is high on the agenda—along with different cask finishes, the team is playing around with phenol levels (producing heavily peated styles akin to Laphroaig and Ardbeg and maturing them in Sherry butts).

When the first trials of the Ardross new-make were produced in 2019, the industry feedback was unanimous that the quality was phenomenal.

Ardross set benchmarks at a recent Christie’s auction, selling 3 barrels of new make for £200,000. What was your reaction?

It was an honour to be selected by Christie’s for inclusion in the Finest and Rarest Wines & Spirits auction in December 2021, given the auction house has never previously auctioned casks of new make. The 3 casks were sold for £200,000 (before fees); their inclusion, and the record-setting price at which they were sold, demonstrate immense confidence in Ardross.

Tell us about the Ardross Single Cask Society (ASCS) and its inspiration

The inspiration was twofold. Firstly, I believe in vicarious learning and had always dreamed of assembling a group of interesting individuals from different geographies and various career paths around Ardross and our common passions. The Covid crisis crystallised this dream when we realised that the demand for the casks we held in our inventory had risen very significantly. We thought that by creating a framework sensibly priced for the purchase of casks of the utmost quality, we would be able to start this ‘community-building’ process. The Scotch whisky market is notoriously opaque and hard to penetrate for the neophyte. People are attracted to the indulgence and romance of owning a part of Scottish culture but can sometimes be unsure or uneducated about cask ownership and market dynamics. We provide a no-nonsense proposition combined with an innovative reputation-building programme resting on leveraging the four pillars of Ardross: our land, our people, our tools, and our savoir-faire.

The ASCS is about sharing our creations with like-minded enthusiasts. We recently partnered with Maestro Habanero Manuh Harit to create the ‘Ardross Grand Cru Laguito N.5.’—a full-strength cigar offering a wide range of woody flavours, with hints of coffee, cocoa, nuts. Its uniqueness lies in the extra-ageing of the blend conducted in our own casks, smoothing it out and revealing a rounder and mellower smoke. We sent a box to each of our Members, a gift that bridges our interests and passions to thank them for their confidence in us.

We live in a world where everything is available straight away—one click and you can have everything you want. And we are quite contrarian in that regard. The idea is to make you discover, or enter our world, almost sequentially. Delayed gratification is part of the appeal—the idea is to build value and for our value proposition to unfold over time.