It was another early start in a week of early starts, and another ‘Islay breakfast’! Today was going to be a good one. A sampling of some new unknown drams at Laphroaig and then a final Ileach fling, our last distillery visit – Ardbog Day!…
Tag Archives: Feis Ile 2013
Feis Ile 2013 Day Five
Wednesday on Islay is Bowmore Day, and as fortune would have it we were staying in Bowmore so the 09:30 tour wouldn’t require a massively early start. Except that it did, as we were up and at the distillery for 07:30 to obtain a precious silver ticket that would allow us to buy a bottle of the more affordable Bowmore Feis Ile bottling. We’d arrived too late on Saturday to make the distillery so we were keen to ensure that we were able to obtain a couple of the final 300 bottles.…
Bowmore Bottle Your Own Experience
On of the attractions of this years Feis Ile is the opportunity to bottle your own bottle of Bowmore. On offer is cask number 23 from 1997. It is a first fill Oloroso sherry butt that is currently at 55.5%. Going down to the Number One Vaults to fill it was a fabulous experience, and it was really interesting to use the valinch to pull the whisky from the cask and to fill the bottle. I opted not to use any sort of filter so it will be raw and unique. A final nice touch was that as we left the warehouse we bumped into Rachel and Eddie who signed the bottle for me. Amazing.
Bowmore Bottle Your Own Oloroso Sherry Butt [55.5%]
Nose: Fruity, Christmas cake, peat smoke, very well balanced
Palate: Sweet, smokey, raisins, treacle, steak, spices
Finish: Very long, exceptional
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Feis Ile 2013 Day Four
Another day, another iconic distillery!
The sun was already in full swing when we rolled into the Laphroaig distillery car park. The girls were off to a Mixxit whisky cocktails class and the boys were meeting Vicky Stevens at Laphroaig for a tasting of all 5 batches of the Laphroaig Cask Strength 10 year old. Again, it feels like Christmas!
After the obligatory 'cartwheel in front of the Laphroaig waterfront sign' photo, Vicky led us into the dunnage warehouse. It was vault-like, damp, dark and quietly oppressive. Casks, laid three high, stood motionless in a state of stasis, the magic of maturation unseen but unstoppable.
The group, a smorgasbord of nations, assembled excitedly as Vicky locked us in a poured the first dram. Soon we were nursing a healthy measure of the Cask Strength Batch 1. Hailing from 2009 this whisky was big and bold, the flavours of Laphroaig turned all the way up to 11. Batch 2 was a lot sweeter and incredibly moorish – it really was fabulous trying the whiskies in such a unique location. Vicky recounted many great tales as she expertly led us through the whiskies and the warehouse. On the top floor we were treated to Batch 3 which was back to the more traditional bourbon influence with the old style bandages and TCP scent filling the warehouse. Batches 4 and 5 (5 only recently bottled) were enjoyed as we continued our tour through warehouse 1. It was really interesting noting the temperature variations throughout the building and sampling the spirit in the very place it was distilled and matured.
After a brief pause to collect our rent we were off on a distillery tour. James talked us through each stage of the process and we enjoyed a thoroughly enjoyable stroll through the building of Laphroaig. It's great to see that every day is a school day too; we never knew that the fire under the kiln shouldn't be that hot! It should be about 30 degrees so as to smoke the barley to perfection rather than cooking it. No distillery tour would be complete without a whisky so we finished off in the filling store with a dram of Quarter Cask – perfect.
The afternoon was set up to be free of whisky so we headed off to the Big Strand which is err… a big beach facing out to the Atlantic. Gloriously long and sandy we had a great walk along the beach taking the standard jumping photos!
The evening was spent in Bowmore. After some refreshments in the Lochside hotel, our walk home was interrupted by a sprint to the pier to beat the rising tide and claim one of the final bottles of Master of Malt's That Boutique-y Whisky Company prize – but more on that tomorrow. An amazing sunset rounded the day off and that left us looking forward to Bowmore and some fun with Master of Malt on Wednesday.
