Well folks I am back from 3 weeks and a bit in Scotland. I was on Islay for 2 weeks and the festival Feis Ila was one of the weeks. I visited all 9 distilleries and was there when the newest Kilchoman got sold by an auctioneer to the best bidder at 5400 pounds. I want to tell so much, but I am afraid the length of my post might cause people to not read it. So here is a photo impression of my visit.
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For those of you that can stick with me, here's the report. We arrived in Newcastle from Ijmuiden in The Netherlands and drove up to Ayreshire to stay 2 nights with my brother before going via other friends in Glasgow to Islay. It was pouring with rain in Inverary when we stopped there at Loch Fyne Whiskies. Had a nice chat with the very friendly personell there. Then on to Kennacraig to the ferry to Port Ellen. The crossing was nice and we got chatting to a nice German couple from Bavaria who were also going over. We met them at every event aferwards and at one of the Ceilidh nights I even dropped the poor German woman on the floor by accident dancing The Gay Gordons. Her husband said he didnt mind, becaue he dropped her every night he said. We stayed in a small cottage in Port Charlotte. Anyway the first Sunday we went to Bruichladdich which was a great day. I love Bruichladdich and all they do there. Take into account that Lagavulin has 2 people per shift working and its all computer steered, and take into account that Bruichladdich has no computers, but does employ 50 people. I went to two master classes in Bruichladdich. One with Jim McEwan the genius and one with Andrew Gray who did a Robert Buirns masterclass with Rum finishes. I bought a bottle of 1989 Bruichladdich cask strength which had been finished in Demerrara Rum cask. Very nice dram indeed and for the folks who dont like too much peat, it was not very peaty. Every evening we went to the Ceilidh and when it was at Port Ellen I got in for free because I sang at the ceilidh in Bruichladdich. There was also a whisky tasting ceilidh and you could win three bottles of the festival bottlings if you could guess what was in the 9 glasses blind. I didnt do a good job of it and was amazed that I didnt get them in the right order. Laphroaig was also a nice ceilidh and we had to pass the peat burning to get to the tiolet and I managed to take a snapshot of it. Its in my pictures. Lagavulin I didnt like too much, but did like the masterclass at Ardbeg with Mickey the destillery manager. We got everything from new spirit right up to Uigedail and Super Nova. Very nice and it was all inside the warehouse where we could smell the whisky breathing. Bunnahabhain had an excellent distillery. Very nice location indeed and they had a great band playing called Skerryvore. It was a sunny day and the atmosphere was amazing. Tried a few drams and their festival bottling. Caol Ila had a very nice festival bottling out as well. Another high point for me was the open day at Jura. I did a blending masterclass with Richard Patterson of Whyte and Mackay and found out that its no easy task to make a blend by any means. Richard Patterson is a very funny and charismatic man and we all had a great time on Jura an dafter the masterclass with their three new expressions "The Paps Of Jura" we got our dinner and were mad honorary Duirach's. Jura folks. Willie Cochran the distillery manager asked us to start breeding straight away, because there are under 200 inhabitants on Jura. The expression Mountain of Gold of the Paps was a wonde to drink.
Anyway I will stop here because it is a bit long winded. I doubt if anybody will read it. But hopefully you can look at the pics.
Peace,
Jock