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The Ardara
Distillery has released the 2026 Edition
of Ardara Single Malt Irish Whiskey,
marking the second release of the
heavily peated Donegal single malt.
The Ardara Distillery, home of Sliabh
Liag Distillers, has released the 2026
Edition of Ardara Single Malt Irish
Whiskey, marking the
second release of the heavily peated
Donegal single malt.
The release took place on Saturday 8
August 2026, with the distillery opening
its doors for free tours throughout
Ardara Show Day. Visitors were also able
to taste the new 2026 Edition at the
Ardara Show.
Ardara Single Malt began its journey at
last year's Ardara Show, where the first
pour was shared with the local community
that had supported the distillery from
its earliest days. Visitors to Ardara
Distillery were able to see its three
Forsyths copper stills in operation
while learning about Donegal's history
of illicit distilling, the family recipe
that inspired the whiskey and the return
of the region's long-lost tradition of
smoky Irish whiskey.
The 2026 Edition continues the
distillery's mission to reclaim an
important part of Donegal's whiskey
heritage: its smoke.
A century ago, Donegal was known for
producing a distinctive smoky style of
whiskey. Barley was traditionally dried
over burning turf, resulting in heavily
peated spirit, much of it produced
outside the law. As regulation
tightened, Irish whiskey evolved towards
a smoother style and Donegal's smoky
character gradually disappeared.
Ardara's attempt to revive that
tradition has its origins in a family
recipe passed down to founder James
Doherty.
James Doherty, founder of The Ardara
Distillery, said: "At Ardara, we're
bringing back smoke. Six weeks before
she died, my grandmother gave me the
whiskey recipe that had belonged to my
grandfather, an illicit distiller in
Donegal. By then, the style he had made
had almost disappeared. Irish whiskey
had become smooth, and the smoky
character once associated with Donegal
was fading from memory. This whiskey is
made his way: heavily peated, all grain
in and triple distilled.
"When we released the first Ardara
Single Malt in 2025, we took the
ambitious step of releasing 10,000
bottles, and we're delighted with the
way that whiskey has performed in
Germany, France, the UK and the global
Duty-Free market. We're just about to
ship Ardara to the USA. For us, that's
hugely encouraging. It shows that there
is an appetite for this style of Irish
whiskey beyond Donegal, and that the
story we are telling about the return of
smoky Irish whiskey is beginning to
resonate around the world.
"We want to bring back that
love of smoky spirits, not by simply
recreating the past, but by making the
whiskey properly and giving that lost
craft a place in the world again. That's
what my wife Moira and I set out to do
when we started building the distillery
here in the south-west of Donegal.
"The second release of Ardara Single
Malt is an important moment for us. It
shows that what began with my
grandfather's recipe and our
determination to reclaim Donegal's smoke
is now becoming an ongoing whiskey
tradition of its own. The 2026 Edition
is the clearest statement yet of our
purpose: to reclaim Donegal's lost
whiskey craft and prove smoky Irish
whiskey can stand with the best in the
world."
The Ardara Method
Ardara Single Malt is produced using
what the distillery calls The Ardara
Method – a combination of heavy peating,
keeping all the grain in during
production and triple distillation.
The malt is heavily peated to create the
whiskey's distinctive sweet and nutty
smoke. The grain remains in the wash
throughout fermentation and into the
wash still, helping to produce a fuller,
weightier spirit capable of carrying the
intensity of the peat.
Following triple distillation, the
spirit rests for 72 hours in 6,000-litre
Solera Vats. The volume is then reduced
to 1,200 litres before the spirit is
transferred into casks, creating what
the distillery describes as an ongoing
link between the very first bottle and
those that follow.
The resulting whiskey combines sweet
smoke with orchard fruit and rolled
tobacco, delivering a character that is
powerful without being overpowering and
smoky without becoming medicinal.
"There is a dragonfly on every bottle of
Ardara, drawn from the ones found around
the pond at the distillery," James
added. "A dragonfly spends most of its
life underwater, out of sight, before
breaking the surface and taking flight.
For generations, Donegal's smoky whiskey
tradition was much the same: once a
defining part of the place, then hidden
from view as the style disappeared from
Irish whiskey. We're not just bringing
that tradition back; we're giving it a
future."
Ardara Single Malt 2026 Edition has been bottled at 46% ABV, Ardara Single Malt
is said to open with sweet, fruity and nutty
notes, accompanied by a touch of waxiness and sweet pipe smoke.
On the palate, hot beignets and poached
pears lead into flavours of roasted
coconut, almond, leather and rolled
tobacco. Sweet smoke and campfire notes
follow, before a long, sweet finish of
baked apple.
The 2026 Edition of Ardara Single Malt
Cask Strength, bottled at 60.9% ABV,
delivers the same core character with
additional intensity. Green melon and
husky citrus feature on the nose,
followed by beignets, honeyed pear,
coconut, leather and rolled tobacco on
the palate. A subtle note of menthol
develops into a smoky, earthy finish
with baked apple and raisin.
You will find the current
Ardara whisky range available from specialist online whisky
shops such as
The Whisky Exchange
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