Ardnahoe

To celebrate the inaugural release of Ardnahoe whisky into the single malt universe on May 10th of 2024, here's a bit of photographic history for you. I'm willing to bet the Laing family as well as Jim McEwan MBE are all thoroughly chuffed. Congratulations to everyone involved.

The building begins. Looking east towards Jura and the Paps, September of 2017

 

Architectural drawings for the distillery to be

A panel to be installed in the finished distillery, similar in style to the graphic one sees revealing itself on the start page of the Ardnahoe website

 A mural in the café in 2019. As the caption says, there are many such murals by Sean O'Leary to be found on Islay - a very impressive one adorns a wall in the Islay Hotel in Port Ellen

 Ardnahoe Distillery in September of 2019...time for a dram

 

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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

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a couple of my faves

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. My first steps will be about two of my personal favourite single malts, Bruichladdich and Laphroaig. Both distilleries are on the Isle of Islay, part of the Inner Hebrides off the west coast of mainland Scotland. Maybe someday I'll put up a map of Scotland and all her distilleries, or find a link to a good one...remind me, would you please?

The Laddie is on the west coast of Loch Indaal, in the village of and just north of the Bruichladdich pier from which this photo is taken. Loch Indaal is a long and fairly wide body of water, open to weather coming from the southwest across the North Channel from Ireland and the Atlantic. The distillery and warehouses are situated just across the road from the loch.

Laphroaig is on the south coast of Islay, sheltered somewhat by Laphroaig bay. I say somewhat because it can still get lashed quite severely by storms blowing in from the southwest. It has warehouses directly on the shoreline.

I'll be highlighting distilleries in no particular order and will be putting up photos on an irregular basis, especially if I revisit the distillery in the future, so please don't hesitate to return.

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