Whisky Island Hopping: Colin Gordon Finds His Home at Ardbeg

When I traveled to Islay last summer, I had two goals for my visit to the iconic Ardbeg Distillery. One was to see the brand new stillhouse, which had effectively doubled Ardbeg’s production capability, and the other was to meet the guy that ran the place, Colin Gordon. I knew he had bounced between Islay and mainland Scotland in a variety of whisky roles before landing at Ardbeg, and I was anxious to hear about his journey. Our conversation would have to wait, however. I was able to explore every impressive inch of the gleaming new distillery expansion, but Colin was traveling during my visit. Luckily, he came stateside in March this year for the launch of the latest Ardbeg Committee Release, Eureka, so we were finally able to have a proper chat.

Colin has been the distillery manager at Ardbeg since 2020, but he still gets introduced as the “new” guy. That might seem odd until you consider that over more than two centuries, Ardbeg has only had 20 other distillery managers. In five short years, Colin has already had a healthy career at the distillery, overseeing the largest expansion in its history and during a global pandemic, no less. Our discussion was wide ranging and revealing about his path to Ardbeg, the distillery’s future, and the future of Islay whisky broadly.

Note: This interview has been lightly edited for readability.

Drinkhacker: Ardbeg wasn’t your first job on Islay. How long have you worked on the island now?

Colin: I can never get it right. We first came across in 2013, so 12 years ago. I worked with Diageo for around 8 years. It was that period when the old school malt distillery managers were finishing and retiring, and they were keen to bring in people. I got my master’s degree at Heriot-Watt in Edinburgh and applied for the Diageo program. I applied and got into the program. I was very excited, hoping they were going to send me to an iconic distillery. And they sent me to Burghead Maltings instead. But it was important to learn. I did a stint at the malting there and then went to Islay in 2013. I spent 8 months in Caol Ila and then back to Speyside for a year. Then we ended up going back properly to Islay in 2015 to run the Port Ellen Maltings. I did that for three years then went to Lagavulin for two. Then the Ardbeg job came up and that was it to be honest.

Drinkhacker: What drew you to Ardbeg?

Colin: It’s an amazing place. Every distillery is unique, but there was always something about Ardbeg that I was very drawn to. I knew a lot of the team, Jackie [Thomson] and Dugga [Bowman] in the warehouse and a lot of the operators and the warehouse guys. They always made such a great whisky, a great spirit. People genuinely cared about the place and were very proud of where they worked. I just loved the history of the place, that it had been saved and brought back and investment was coming in. When Mickey said he was retiring, I knew I needed to go for it. Delighted that I did.

Drinkhacker: There has been a bit of churn with distillery managers in recent years. What do you think has driven that?

Colin: A lot have retired since I started with Diageo, but I think it’s a natural progression. Automation has increased and big corporate structures tend to offer less autonomy, and you are kind of under the microscope. But that’s one thing I love about Ardbeg, they put full trust in me to run the site with the team. We collaborate a lot with Dr. Bill [Lumsden] and Gillian [Macdonald] and the whole whisky creation team, but it’s a great place to be. Touch wood!

Drinkhacker: Mickey Heads was Ardbeg’s distillery manager for 13 years prior to your arrival. What was that handoff like?

Colin: The job at Ardbeg was advertised I think in February 2020. I was told Mickey was leaving and encouraged to apply. But then everything went quiet because of Covid and lockdown. It probably wasn’t until June that we got to the interview process. Because of that, the day of our handover in October was Mickey’s very last day. That was daunting. I knew Mickey and had huge respect for him. He’s a legend and a true gentleman, very humble and generous and unbelievably knowledgeable. But I had one day with him. It was just the way it was. I joke that Mickey reminded me as he left that this was the first new stillhouse for over 100 years, so quality needs to be bang on. Cheerio! He was honestly great and told me to give him a phone if I needed anything.

Drinkhacker: How did Covid impact your first years on the job?

Colin: It was going to be difficult regardless because we had to get into the new stillhouse and the old stillhouse had been run hard. Copper was thinning. We really couldn’t run those stills much longer, so we needed to get the guys trained and commissioned. Everyone was in face masks still and social distancing, so it was crazy. It was an exceptionally proud moment though in March 2021 when we first ran spirit. I feel like I came in for the glory at the end after Mickey did all the hard work. It was a special day for Ardbeg, very few in its 200-year history where they commissioned a new stillhouse. The teamwork was brilliant and the support we had was great.

Drinkhacker: How is the new stillhouse operating? What were some of the challenges of replicating a 100-year-old system?

Colin: It runs really well. The spirt is great. We’re very, very happy with the spirit. It took time to settle in, the copper had to get oxidized, but the spirit is fantastic. Certain things were always going to have to remain consistent. Stills were the same shape and size. We aim for the same run times, same fill and charge volume. A couple of things were different, so we were a little unsure about them at first. In the old stillhouse, it was a very short run between the condensers and the safe. Ardbeg has always had a very short foreshot. We maybe only run it for 10 minutes to clear the line because Ardbeg wants to capture those big, fruity notes at the start of the distillation. With the new still, it’s a longer run from the condensers to the safe, so we actually played about a little at the start to find the cut point. That sounds pretty small, but it’s important to get it right.

Drinkhacker: Ardbeg has been one of the most prolific Islay distilleries recently with several annual limited editions in addition to the core lineup. Should fans expect to see more new releases in the coming years?

Colin: We’ve always been quite creative, and we like to create. There has been quite a number of releases the last few years. I think that’s pulling back a bit. We’ve always got to make sure that quality comes first. And it needs to be a good story. We did a number of things, sometimes front-end experiments like Heavy Vapours, where we removed the purifier in distillation, or the Ardcore with the heavily roasted malt. Then some casks and different maturations. Day-to-day, our job is to ensure consistency is key. With the opening of the new stillhouse, expanding from six to twelve washbacks, we’ve got more scope if we want to try to play about with things. So, we’ll still absolutely look to do that. Dr. Bill is always a man that looks to push boundaries.

Drinkhacker: The latest limited edition, Eureka, is a special one for the Ardbeg Committee. How did it come about?

Colin: This release celebrates 25 years of The Ardbeg Committee which formed in 2000. Jackie Thomson is the chair and was very involved in bringing that about. We never wanted Ardbeg to close again, so we formed a committee. Why a committee? Because Islay is full of committees. And it became an opportunity for people to get together and get special bottles and stay up to date on the distillery. We’ve got 200,000 members all over the world.

Two years ago, on Ardbeg Day at the distillery, we invited 100 people up to the west maltings to sample different whiskies and give us tasting notes. They picked their two favorite samples, and we combined them to create Eureka. One was bourbon-matured but with heavily roasted malt with great coffee and dark chocolate notes. The other was standard Ardbeg spirit matured in Pedro Ximenez casks. The phenols are ramped down a bit because the dark roast malt, about 20% of the mashbill, was combined with 80% lower phenol pot still malt. The smoke is still there, but it is dialed down with these amazing coffee and chocolate notes. It’s good to get the Committee involved!

Drinkhacker: Having produced Ardbeg single malt now for five years, what do you think differentiates it from other Islay malts?

Colin: I joke that you know you’ve drunk Ardbeg for three days after. It’s such a great spirit, the peaty paradox, the soot and the fruit. By using very heavily peated malt barley but with lots of reflux and copper contact, those oilier heavy notes drop back into the still. It’s such a great spirit. I think it’s crazy the variety of flavor we have on Islay and we’re all using the same ingredients. What I love about Ardbeg is the smoky, sooty, ashy notes combined with wonderful herbal and citrusy notes. In older Ardbeg, you get these incredible menthol notes coming through. That mix is something really wonderful.

Drinkhacker: Dr. Bill Lumsden and Gillian Macdonald oversee whisky creation for both Glenmorangie and Ardbeg. How do you work with them in the design process?

Colin: Day-to-day, my role is that the distillery is doing everything it needs to do and getting mature spirit out to the bottling hall as needed. Bill and Gillian nose all the new make, and we catch up regularly to see how they feel. We have innovation meetings to discuss casks they want to fill or ideas on site that we’ve got. It’s a huge amount of collaboration, but at the end of the day it’s Dr. Bill’s call. He’s an amazing man to work with.

Drinkhacker: Port Ellen Maltings, a malt supplier to Ardbeg and other distilleries on the island, is scaling back production for outside customers now that Diageo has reopened the distillery there. How is that impacting your malt supply?

Colin: We had a very longstanding history with Port Ellen Maltings, but Ardbeg had often brought in peated malt from the mainland, as well. We have a mix. We’ll still take from Port Ellen, it’s very handy especially not having to deal with the ferries. We’ve still managed to keep that relationship, but we do bring in from the mainland, as well. The key thing is to make sure the spec is on, the phenol level in the malt. The suppliers we’ve worked with have been really fantastic. From a continuity of supply, I think it works well having from both. Other distilleries on Islay are taking all from the mainland, and it’s challenging with the ferries.

Drinkhacker: About those ferries. When I visited Islay, a common refrain especially from smaller producers, was the infrastructure challenges on the island that continue to grow with the addition of new distilleries. How has that impacted Ardbeg?

Colin: I think because we’re an island of 3000 people, a lot of Scots even think we’re a remote place if they’ve never been. It’s really not. We’ve got flights to Glasgow and six or seven ferry sailings a day. My wife is from an island that’s a quiet, sleepy little place. Islay is a busy place with a lot going on with the distilleries. We’re waiting on two new boats that will ease the pressure massively. All of the Hebrides have felt it, but Islay shouts the loudest. We’ll be OK when we get those two new boats.

As for the new distilleries, it’s great for the island in terms of jobs and work and business coming. As an island, Islay is lucky because it can be difficult. We have such a great opportunity to keep our young on the island. A lot of isles don’t. Young move to Glasgow or Edinburgh for work. We have zero unemployment on the island. My team is twenty, and probably half of them are under 35 with families on the island. Islay is a thriving economy, and it can only be a good thing that people are still investing and providing opportunity.

The post Whisky Island Hopping: Colin Gordon Finds His Home at Ardbeg appeared first on Drinkhacker: The Insider’s Guide to Good Drinking.