A LITTLE WHISKY ON THE SIDE

Five years ago I was asked to help develop a new Scotch Whisky brand from scratch. The idea was to create a new Lowland Single Malt Whisky by establishing a new distillery on the grounds of the historic Ardgowan Estate on the West coast of Scotland. Nestled between the sea and mountains, Ardgowan is a very special place steeped in Scottish history. Robert the Bruce fought on these lands twice: first on the English side to take the castle and then, prior to his victory at Bannockburn, defending it on the side of the Scots. Today the estate is owned by Robert the Bruce’s direct descendent - the 12th Baronet of Ardgowan, Sir Ludovic Shaw Stewart. This location is not only the source of water of exceptional purity and sweetness but is also close to the sea and the warming effects of the Gulf Stream. All of which makes it the perfect place to produce an exceptional lowland single malt with distinctive maritime characteristics. In the first phase of the project, it was important The Ardgowan Distillery Company behaved as an established whisky brand and therefore creative development was required for the execution of two key strategic initiatives. The first strategic initiative was to create a brand that would help raise the £12m required to build a state-of-the-art distillery on the Ardgowan estate. And the second was the development of a series of limited edition sub-brands of blended Whisky, designed to establish Ardgowan’s reputation in the Scotch Whisky business and to generate income in the interim. With limited resources I set about building the brand – quite literally – from the ground up, basing everything, in the first instance, on the terroir. I developed a clear brand strategy, and designed the brand identity including – with the aid of Scottish photographer Thomas Dobbie - an image bank of proprietary images that give a strong flavour of this remarkable place. As part of this process I also learned to fly a camera drone and then shot and directed a brand video and commissioned the accompanying score from composer John Walsh. Finally, in order to give a sense of the scale of the ambition, and also to serve as a simple mission statement, I developed the line ‘Ardgowan. The greatest whisky in the world is one you haven’t tasted yet’. Meanwhile, I also developed a number of blended malt sub-brands working with packaging designer Rory Dowling which have won a number of industry awards such as Expedition (winner of Best Blend over 12 years at the Scottish Whisky Awards 2019), Discovery and Clydebuilt Coppersmith (Gold winner at 2021 Scotch Whisky Masters) and Shipwright (Silver winner at Scottish Whisky Awards 2021). With £12m finance in place, the first phase is now complete and work has commenced on our state-of-the-art distillery on the historic Ardgowan estate. The task now is to begin to put the elements in place that will make Ardgowan famous, developing the brand in terms of world class customer experience (physical and virtual), brand and product communications and product and packaging design.