From Bruichladdich to the town Bowmore, this series outlining my recent trip to Islay will now detail our visit to the Laphroaig distillery – which, appropriately, was the second distillery we visited on our tour. The drive from Bowmore to Laphroaig took in the area of twenty minutes (which seems to be a common theme when driving around Islay) and brought us right through the peat bogs. Now, the peat bogs are quite interesting! This is where they break the peat that is used to get that peaty (would you ruddy believe it), smoky, Islay taste. What you might not have guessed is that the peat is actually broken/dug out/whatever you prefer to call it by hand; there is no machinery used, just good old man-power.
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It has been suggested that it means Hollow Broadbay, but that’s something that I can neither confirm nor refute, however what I can tell you is that it is the name of what is arguably one of the best known whiskies in the world: Laphroaig.
Found in the Islay region of Scotland, with its roots going back to 1810, Laphroaig is one of the big boys of the whisky world; known for its intense, smoky character. The bottle which I’ll be introducing you to today is known as Quarter Cask, which thankfully doesn’t mean that it was made out of American 25c silver coins. What it does mean is that the barrels in which the whisky was matured were smaller than the industry standard, one quarter of the size of the barrels normally used by Laphroaig (would you believe it!), which the distillery claims gives the whisky more contact with the wood, hence a richer flavour.
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