This year, the Distillery is resurrecting the island’s carnival traditions. In an Islay time gone by on the last day of the Feis Ile Festival, locals transformed everything from tractors to tricycles into magnificent floats. If it had wheels, they decorated it. Honking and tooting its way through Port Ellen and eventually to Ardbeg, this typically Islay cavalcade of colour represents a long-standing love for festivity on the island.
Ardbeg Day will be held on Saturday, 1st June 2019. Inspired by Islay’s rich history of carnivals, Ardbeg will release Ardbeg Drum – a limited edition bottling imbued with the ultimate influence of carnival spirit, rum. In a first for the Distillery, Ardbeg have taken Ardbeg single malt from ex-Bourbon casks, and rested it awhile in ex-rum casks from the Americas to coax out tropical tastes.
Distillery Manager Mickey Heads said: “The Ardbeg Day Carnival is about embracing all things tropical. From music and dance to food and fashion, we’re all set to revel in both culture and character. And we’re delighted to introduce Ardbeg Drum – a celebration of all of the mixed up, mashed up influences that make Ardbeg, Ardbeg.