Octomore

Getting our hands on some Octomore was a bit of a fluke.

In 2001, my dad and I were on our first tour of Scotland, the focus of which was her distilleries (well, d'uh!). Our first visit to Bruichladdich on the Isle of Islay was the beginning of a perennial habit. Bruichladdich had just reopened since becoming dormant in 1994 and were offering something called Octomore Futures. This was the inception of the highly peated whisky that has since become a part of their core range. The contract was for a dozen bottles of single malt which had yet to be distilled from the most heavily peated malt in the industry at the time - 80.5 ppm of total phenols. Dad bought, and we waited.

In September of 2009 we brought back our first payload. Due to Canadian import restrictions (don't get me started!), we were only allowed to bring back 1.14 litres of alcohol per person without having to pay exorbitant duty. We convinced mom to come along with us on this particular trip, not the least of which was so we could bring back one more bottle of our long awaited uisge beatha! Until this point in time she had not wanted to be what she thought would be a "third wheel" on our trips, but this was a good excuse for her to relent and join us on our adventures.

Nice.

Sampling the long awaited tipple at Caladh Sona
 

Budgie and Duncan McGillivray in the Bruichladdich stillhouse in 2006

 Slàinte

Lagg

Getting to Lagg was a bit of a journey.

It wasn't the distance - I like driving in Scotland, and the sense of “distance” for a Scot is quite different than that for a Canuck. But it was the weather. It was, not surprisingly, grey when we arrived in Lochranza on the ferry from Claonaig. For the final few miles to our evening lodgings at the Lagg Hotel at the south end of the Isle of Arran, the road had become quite hilly and winding. I'm sure the scenery looking south towards distant AilsaCraig would have been spectacular had it not been obscured by heavy fog. Narrow Scottish roads can be tricky to drive at the best of times, but when you can't really see what's coming around the next bend it tends to be especially hairy.

But don't let that put you off.

 

The Isle of Arran seen from Claonaig on the Kintyre peninsula

 

  

Ailsa Craig, home of world famous curling rocks

 

 

Lagg Distillery under construction in 2018

My dad taking a well earned snooze in the Lagg Hotel lounge

 

Slàinte

 

1984

 At the northern end of the Isle of Jura is a place called Barnhill, which is somewhat renowned as the location where George Orwell finished his last novel "1984" while he was dying from tuberculosis. Having visited Jura several times, my father and I decided to travel as far north as we could by car in 2022, just to see where the road would take us. Where the road turned into a cart track a sign had been posted indicating mileages to the next locations. Beside the entry for the four miles to Barnhill someone had scribbled an addendum which those familiar with Orwell would chuckle at.

 

And here's a photo of my dad in the Jura Hotel across the road from the Jura Distillery, where we enjoyed a dram and a lager, in no particular order.

 

Slàinte