This New Hotel on a Tiny Scottish Island Is Redefining Whisky Tourism With Playful Interiors and Nightly “Wee Drams”

The smoky, peaty malt whisky of Islay soaks into island life, with its 10 distilleries and Fèis Ìle (a whisky-forward culture festival) held every year. Ardbeg Distillery—owned by The Glenmorangie Company since 1997, which is part of Moët Hennessy under LVMH—has been crafting its signature, smoky single malt for over 200 years, amassing a global cult following and a legion of pilgrims to Ardbeg every year. There were once 23 distinct distilleries on the island. Now there’s 10, and Ardbeg is assuredly its most famous.

Their latest venture? Ardbeg House, a luxury 12-room hotel that sits on the nib of Port Ellen, a quaint town on the Hebridean island just off Scotland’s west coast. Every day at 6.15 p.m. (in a nod to Ardbeg’s founding year, 1815), guests are welcomed to the hotel’s Islay Bar for whisky hour, to toast the day with Ardbeg’s small-batch, secret recipe “Badger Juice” that lingers like toffee. Over the course of my stay on Islay, I never miss the chance to sample these delectable wee drams, offering a trip through the House’s 500-plus selection.

Staying at Ardbeg House is an initiation into centuries-old traditions—and not just for whisky lovers. The history of the island and the creativity of its residents are, quite literally, woven into the hotel’s fabric. The distinctive Ardbeg “A” is ornately cast in iron and greets you as you enter. Designed in partnership with Russell Sage Studio, the individual, boisterously designed suites and rooms feature the work of more than 20 Scottish artists and makers. I stay in the Fèis room, inspired by the local traditions of music and song, with a bed made from a deconstructed piano. In the Monster room, a croc skin-like Fromental wallpaper (one of 24 bespoke prints) pays homage to the local mythical creature, the “Islaygator” (which was also immortalized in the Ardbeg Alligator whisky, a limited edition bottle from 2011), with a monstrous, emperor-sized four-poster bed swirled with metal serpents. In the Smoke room, there’s a leather headboard that looks like rows of peat, with a secret compartment concealing two miniature bottles of Ardbeg Ten. Thanks to Sage’s boundless design imagination and a dose of Scottish humor, it’s both sophisticated and unserious.