Ardbeg House review: Concept design is a tricky business, but this Scottish whisky distillery-turned-hotel proves that it can be done to great effect

Whisky is the most cosmopolitan of spirits, enjoyed, or at least consumed, wherever human beings gather to numb their senses. It’s also the most provincial of spirits. The taste, aroma and texture of a whisky — or at any rate a good whisky — are specific to the place where it was made. Pinpoint parochial. Which is why you can tell the difference between, for instance, an Ardbeg, a Laphroaig and a Lagavulin, even though the distilleries where they’re produced are just a few miles apart — in this case, on Islay, off the west coast of Scotland. This is known as ‘distillery character’.

Few distilleries are more characterful than Ardbeg. It’s among the smokiest of all whiskies; it’s also very sweet. If you haven’t tasted it, imagine washing down a handful of melted Skittles with a draught of seawater that had previously been used to put out a fire on a peat bog. Many connoisseurs consider it the definitive Islay malt.

In 1997, the brand was acquired by the Glenmorangie Company, part of the Moët Hennessy drinks conglomerate, which is itself part of the LVMH luxury-goods and hospitality group. Almost overnight, Ardbeg went from being a respectable old stalwart to a white-hot cult sensation, thanks not only to the quality of the whisky, but also the wit, originality and energy with which it was reintroduced to the market. New Ardbeg expressions were given catchy names such as Heavy Vapours, BizarreBQ and Wee Beastie. Another one, Galileo, was sent into outer space to see whether doing so would affect how it tasted. (It did.)

In short, those who love Ardbeg tend to love everything about Ardbeg: the flavour, the attitude, the aesthetic, the vibe. Which helps explain the new owners’ decision to open Ardbeg House, a ravishing little hotel in what used to be a Victorian pub with rooms in Port Ellen, 10 minutes or so from the Ardbeg distillery.

The interior design, by Russell Sage Studios, defies any attempt at easy categorisation. Objects made of reclaimed copper from decommissioned pot stills sit alongside bespoke furnishings in blown glass, driftwood, studded aluminium and kelp-coloured velvet. ‘Eclectic’ doesn’t begin to cover it. It’s as paradoxical and as strangely delicious as Ardbeg itself, at once sumptuous and silly, elegant and frothy, totally over the top and, occasionally, quite brilliantly subtle.

The 12 rooms have names not numbers and, though no two are alike, all celebrate some aspect of the legend and lore of Islay and of Ardbeg. I stayed in Monster, where maritime mythology looms large. I was struck by the finely sculpted tendrils that coil around the bedposts, which I fancied were evocative not only of sea serpents but also of those gloopy, slow-moving streaks that cling to the side of the glass when you pour a dram of neat whisky.

Talk to Russell Sage for five minutes (impossible — those five minutes will inevitably extend to 50) and you’ll realise that flourishes such as those streaky bedpost serpents are anything but accidental. The hotel is full of them. The degree of thoughtfulness throughout is impressive — in the fabulous Islay Bar and Signature Restaurant on the ground floor as much as in the rooms upstairs. Concept design in hotels is a hit-or-miss business. This one’s a hit.

Sage is perhaps best known to the high-rolling public for his work on the Fife Arms, in Braemar, and, among whisky lovers, for Glenmorangie House, near Tain, his first collaboration with Moët Hennessy. They are places of powerful enchantment. But there’s something about the wild coherence of Ardbeg House that suggests a particularly close alignment between designer, project, place and product. Which is interesting, because Russell himself doesn’t have a taste for whisky. ‘Don’t drink,’ he told me. ‘But I can live off fumes.’

In a roundabout way, that’s what makes Ardbeg House great. You don’t have to be a whisky freak to get it. Let the Ardbeg pilgrims prop up the hypnotically lit bar and make their way through the 150-odd whiskies on offer (including several Ardbegs that are available nowhere else on earth). They’ll be happy. They were probably happy before they arrived. The rest of us can live off the fumes and savour the kooky buzz that the place as a whole inspires.

Rooms start from £225 in the winter and from £420 in the summer on a bed and breakfast basis.