The Donegal based Ardara Distillery has announced the launch of the second release of its heavily peated single malt.

Ardara Single Malt 2026 Edition (46% ABV) is a triple-distilled single malt Irish whiskey, comprised of a combination of Oloroso Sherry casks (63%), Bourbon barrels (35.7%) and 1.3% Virgin Oak casks (1.3%).

Produced using what the distillery describes as ‘The Ardara Method’, the malt is heavily peated to create its distinctive sweet, nutty smoke. All the grain is kept in throughout fermentation and into the wash still, building a fuller, weightier spirit with the character to carry the smoke.

The whiskey is then triple distilled before resting in 6,000-litre Solera Vats for 72 hours. It is then emptied to 1,200 litres and filled into casks, creating an eternal link of continuity from the very first bottle to the last. A Cask Strength version is also available, bottled at 60.9% ABV.

The latest release from the distillery, which is home to Sliabh Liag Distillers, is the second release of Ardara Single Malt, a whiskey created to reclaim a lost part of Donegal’s whiskey heritage: its smoke.

A century ago, Donegal was known for making a smoky whiskey unlike any other. Barley was dried over burning turf and whiskey was made heavily peated, much of it outside the law. Then the law closed in, Irish whiskey became smoother, and Donegal’s smoke faded from view. Ardara is committed to bringing it back, and that commitment has its roots in a family recipe.

Ardara Single Malt 2026 Edition, is said to be sweet, fruity and nutty, with a hint of waxiness wrapped in sweet pipe smoke. Hot beignets and poached pears arrive first on the palate before deepening into roasted coconut, almond, leather and rolled tobacco. Sweet smoke and campfire notes follow, giving way to a long, sweet baked-apple finish.

Ardara Single Malt 2026 Edition Cask Strength, is said to bring the same character with greater intensity: green melon and husky citrus on the nose, followed by beignets, honeyed pear, coconut, leather and rolled tobacco on the palate. A hint of menthol carries through to a smoky, earthy finish of baked apple and raisin.

Commenting on the launch, 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.”

Ardara Single Malt 2026 Edition and Ardara Single Malt 2026 Edition Cask Strength, will be available later this month through selected specialist retailers, for the respective RRP’s of €90.00 and €130.00.