LOT ID: 0724-199
End Date : Sep 11 2024 09:28 PM
Ardbeg 1974 - 2002. 28 Year Old. Bottled exclusively for Oddbins. Cask number 3475. One of 126 bottles. 70cl. 44.5%. In presentation box.
A stunning single cask Ardbeg 1974 bottled for Oddbins as a 28-year-old in the early days of Glenmorangie’s single cask programme. This was the first in an extraordinary series of officially-bottled single casks from the 1974 vintage, and was bottled from an ‘oak barrel’ (most likely a first or second refill bourbon barrel) left over from the legendary Ardbeg 1974 Provenance bottlings.. Cask 3475 yielded just 126 bottles at its natural cask strength of 44.5%. These 1974 vintage single casks from Ardbeg have gone down in Islay whisky folklore and in our humble opinion have never been bettered.
FILLING LEVEL
Into Neck
Founded in 1815, Ardbeg is one of Islay’s iconic distilleries. Ardbeg was purchased by Diageo forerunners DCL and Hiram Walker in 1973, with Walker taking full control in 1977, the year the distillery’s maltings were closed. Ardbeg was mothballed for most of the 1980s; production began again in 1989 under new owners Allied Lyons, but only for two months a year until 1996 when the distillery closed again. In 1997 the dilapidated Ardbeg distillery was bought by Glenmorangie plc (now part of LVMH) and its fortunes turned. Ardbeg was restored and relaunched, kickstarting the craze for heavily peated single malt whisky.
Ardbeg was seldom commercially available before the Allied/DCL takeover - the old white label official bottlings are now very rare. Allied bottled a handful of black label Ardbegs in the 1990s including the popular Ardbeg 30-year-old. The breakthrough bottlings were the Ardbeg 17-year-old and Ardbeg 1974 Provenance released by Glenmorangie in 1997 - these were soon followed by numerous magnificent single casks from 1970s vintages that cemented Ardbeg’s reputation. Independent Ardbeg is uncommon nowadays.
Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.
This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.
BID | DATE | TIME | |
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£2,500.00 | 11th September 2024 | 17:48 | |