BUY A CASK OF ARDBEG
At Mark Littler Ltd. we offer honest and impartial advice to help you buy quality casks whisky at a fair price.
New-fill and young Ardbeg casks are not available at the moment. Older Ardbeg casks start around £300,000. If you would like advice on purchasing casks please do get in touch.
Buy an Ardbeg whisky cask
Are you looking to buy a cask of Ardbeg whisky? We are specialist brokers with hundreds of five-star reviews and a proven track record of helping and educating people to ensure they make the right decision when they come to buy a cask of Ardbeg.
A very limited number of Ardbeg casks were released to the public in the 1990s and this is the only time that Ardbeg casks have been available direct to the public. Ardbeg don’t release new-fill or young casks onto the secondary market, however their are a very limited number of older casks available, and these start around £300,000.
By choosing to purchase a cask through Mark Littler you gain access to the whole cask market rather than just our own inventory. That means when you come to sell your cask you will not be selling the same product as everyone else (as is the case when people buy from distillery investment schemes), meaning your cask will command a premium.
If you think that a cask or casks from Ardbeg distillery is the right choice for you then we can help you find you the cask that meets your needs. Alternatively, if you are open to suggestions then we can also discuss other potential matches for your cask investment needs.
Download Our Cask Buying Guide
How Mark Littler Can Help You
Let’s assume you have read our cask guide and watched all of our cask investment videos. If not, follow the links and put yourself in an informed position before you buy.
If you think that casks are a good investment for you then we can now help you find you the perfect cask for your needs.
Here is what we do in a nutshell:
Mr Smith comes to us to find three casks, one for each of his three grandchildren. We find him casks a selection of casks from Bruichladdich, Ben Nevis, Caol Ila, Bowmore, Ardbeg, Springbank, Highland Park and Arran to meet his budget and needs. His casks are then moved to our exclusive HMRC Bonded Warehouse.
Mr Smith visits his casks every 2-3 years on his way up to Scotland. He contacts us every Christmas to have 6 bottles drawn from each of his casks.
We have the bottles applied with bespoke labels and he enjoys how the whisky inside his casks is maturing and developing.
When his grandchildren reach 21 they decide to sell their casks. Mark Littler LTD. help them draw a final six bottles from the cask as a keepsake. The casks are then sold in bond and the three grandchildren each use the proceeds from the sales towards a house deposit. Best of all their profits are free from Capital Gains Tax.
How We Evolved As A Broker
We don’t only sell casks to people. In fact, our primary business is selling bottles and casks for people. We are established antiques brokers and have sold everything from medieval gold rings to classic cars.
So how did we get to a position where we were selling casks to the public? Learn more in this short video:
Advice You Can Trust
Since 2016 our aim has been simple – to provide a trustworthy source of information to help people make sound decisions when they are selling their items. To date we have sold millions of pounds worth of antiques and whisky (both casks and bottles) for our clients.
We’re now applying this same logic to help people invest in casks of whisky. Rather than providing sales pitches disguised as educational material, it’s our mission to become the ultimate source of open and honest cask investment guidance.
The information you will find in OUR GUIDE, CASK VIDEOS, BLOG and CALCULATOR is all designed to help you make a balanced decision. We would rather you knew all the facts and didn’t buy a cask than buy one based on ‘fake news’.
The History Of The Ardbeg Distillery
With a name that has been derived from the Scottish Gaelic words for Small Promontory, Ardbeg Whisky has a long and illustrious history which dates all the way back to the late 18th century.
The Ardbeg distillery is located in Ardbeg on the isle of Islay, in Argyll & Bute in the Inner Hebrides. Owned by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, this distillery is known for produced a peaty Islay whisky using malted barley which has been sourced from maltings in Port Ellen.
Having been producing fine whisky since 1798, the Ardbeg distillery started its commercial production a few years into the 19th century, in 1815. For much of its long history, similar to most other Scottish distilleries, it produced whisky to be used in blended whiskies, instead of as a single malt. By the end of the 19th century, the distillery was producing an impressive 300,000 gallons of whisky every year and had 60 workers.
In 1981, production temporarily came to a halt, however, in 1989 it resumed once more, albeit on a limited basis, and went on at a low level until 1997 when the distillery was finally purchased and then reopened by Glenmorangie Plc. Full production resumed a year later and the distillery has continued to thrive ever since.
Ardbeg’s whiskies have earned a number of highly regarded awards over recent years, including the Whisky Bible 2008 award for Scotch Single Malt of the Year and World Whisky of the Year for the Tens Years Old expression. Ardbeg Galileo also won the category of World’s Best Single Malt Whisky at the World Whiskies Awards in 2013.
Ardbeg distillery has participated in numerous interesting marketing campaigns and takes part every summer in Islay’s festival of music and malt whisky, Feis Ile. In 2011, there were 20 vials of Ardbeg sent up to the ISS (International Space Station) to see how they interacted. They returned to Earth 3 years later.
Interestingly, there are numerous cultural references to the Ardbeg distillery. In 2003, Ardbeg inspired Osmo Tapio Raihala, a Finnish contemporary music composer, to compose a symphonic poem which was then recorded in 2011 and offered for sale in 2014. It has also featured in several TV series and movies, with John Constantine, played by Keanu Reeves, drinking Ardbeg in the movie Constantine in 2005. Harry Pearce, a character in the BBC TV series Spooks, is also seen regularly drinking the whisky.