Day 23 – Islay 3

Today sees me off to the Kilchovan distillery in the morning, it is a farm distillery and the newest on the island at only 5 years old, they are doing things slightly different from the traditional distillery and the whisky is already showing promise, they are doing everything the same as farmers on Islay would have done 100 years ago and it is interesting to see it all done in miniature compared to the major distillers.

This afternoon I headed to Laphroig for the afternoon tour only to find I had mixed up the times, the last tour had left 1/2 hour before. To ease my disappointment I was offered a dram of the 18 year old, which I had not tasted before, after a short while the tour came back and one of the girls asked if they could taste the 30 year old, at 500 pounds a bottle the girl behind the bar said that she could not give out tastings of this one as it is a limited edition to 1500 bottles only. She then went on to say that if some one was to buy a bottle she would give everyone in the bar a taste, she was not expecting what the beared Canadian man was to say next, I’ll buy one. Needless to say the girl was a bit shocked but true to her word after selling him the bottle she opened another and 10 drams were poured. It was a delicious dram, 16 years in sherry cask and finished for 14 in Oak cask.  

Also I went off to see the place when the Lord of the Isles ruled from Islay, this is also the ancestral place of the MacDonald’s, It was an interesting place which went back to 800 AD and Vikings, lots of interesting stone carved tablets as well.