Posts Tagged “Feis Ile”
It’s once again the first day of the Fèis Ìle festival, which makes it time to taste a Lagavulin in celebration. Last year, I tasted the 2014 Festival bottling, but have somehow missed the 2015 release. I’m sure a sample will turn up eventually, but this is a good opportunity to reach back to the 2010 edition of the…
Ardbeg, masters of marketing hype that they are, have attempted (and are reasonably successful) to make the Fèis Ìle open day into something more global than just the festival on Islay. Despite being a rather small operation (1.3 million liters per year, smaller than Bruichladdich and about a third of Laphroaig). How was this done? The…
Bowmore open day is today, and we honor the self proclaimed oldest distillery on the island with a dram of the 2014 Fèis Ìle bottling. This was a particularly good selection of casks, which shine even through the relative youth of the whisky. The Bowmore Small Batch seems to be of a similar age, but doesn’t…
Laphroaig is one of the most popular distilleries on Islay, and the Càirdeas releases have an almost religious following among aficionados. Officially, this is a Friends of Laphroaig release which to the best information I have is an 8 year old, having spent seven years in ex bourbon casks and was finished for one year in Amontillado…
Last year’s Lagavulin festival bottling was probably the best of the Fèis Ìle crop last year. A sweet sherry bomb, this is a great sipper. As I mentioned in another post, Lagavulin has the most limited core range of all distilleries, holding a single expression: the 16 year old. Other regular bottlings include a yearly release of a 12…