Matt's Blog

The Long-awaited Islay Blog...

This is it… The long-awaited Vinology Islay 2008 blog.  If you’re planning on reading this from start to finish, I do hope you’ve allocated a good couple of hours reading time... Pictures to follow soon...

Sunday 29th June

09:00

The end of June saw a momentous occasion take place:  The Vinology Campbeltown and Islay Coach Trip, Vinology’s first ever Whisky tour.  After much organisation, on Sunday 29th June at 9:00 in the morning, 24 of us, myself and 23 of our most dedicated Whisky fans headed off from Stratford-Upon-Avon, collecting a group from Leamington Spa at 09:30 before making the long journey all the way up to Glasgow.  Quite a few people attending have done an Islay trip before and were well informed on the coach etiquette, which meant that much to the surprise of some of the Islay virgins, at 09:35 the first bottle of scotch was opened and promptly passed around the coach.  The second one quickly followed.

10:00

I did the job of host and made it round the coach individually welcoming everyone aboard and checking I had everyone’s mobile phone numbers for when I lost someone.  I made it to the ‘hardcore’ at the back of the coach and repeated the intro blurb, explaining that sandwiches and water were available etc. etc. and then added that I had also brought along a Gordon & Macphail Private Collection 1991 Bunnahabhain for the coach.  They went quiet.  I immediately interpreted this and correctly stated “That means go and get it, doesn’t it?”.  And so at 10:30 bottle number 3 did the rounds.  Bottle number 4 was dispatched at about 11:00.

11:30

We stopped at a service station for people to grab a coffee and I quickly lost several of the unprepared on a desperate search for Whisky.  It was quickly concluded that a motorway service station isn’t the place to go to buy single malt scotch.

14:00

Gretna Green was our next stop where we disembarked for lunch which was luckily well prepared for malt fans and their Whisky shop probably had one of their busiest days ever, as no doubt did their sampling area.  Back on the coach refreshed and everyone returned to the job of Whisky sampling as an assortment of Whiskies did the rounds.

17:00

Arrival at Glasgow and time to check everyone in.  All went smoothly apart from the fact that the Hotel had managed to book two friends into a double room, on declaring that they were good friends but not quite that good the hotel embarrassingly moved them to a twin.  We arranged a bar meeting for 18:30 although in fact most people were there by 17:20 keen to wash down the Whisky consumed on the coach with a few pints.  Dinner at about 21:00 before the more serious Whisky fans headed out to locate the various Whisky bars Glasgow has to offer.

21:30

A visit to the famous Uisge Beatha bar in Glasgow’s Charing Cross…

http://www.scotchwhisky.net/bars/uisgebeatha.htm

Normally famous for its Whisky range but now to us it’s famous for continually undercharging on malts.

Monday

01:00

I make it to bed

??:??

Everyone else finally gets to bed.

05:00

Alarm call!  Yes, someone managed to set off the fire alarm by breaking an alarm panel.  I’m not sure if I suspect someone from our group…  Back to bed just before 06:00.

09:30

We depart the delights of Glasgow and I immediately noticed people were a little more subdued than the same time yesterday, no doubt the alarm call hadn’t helped.  It was a clear hour before the first bottle of Scotch did the rounds.  Due to the slight delay in leaving, our next stop was all the way down into Campbeltown, to our first distillery of the trip:  Springbank.

12:30

Springbank!  Now although personally we’ve arranged trips to Islay before, there never used to be an evening ferry to Islay, so this was a real highlight for the trip as none of those in attendance had ever made it to Springbank distillery before, the distillery that perhaps has the reputation as best distillery.  We were met by the very welcoming Peter Currie who walked us down the road for lunch.

12:45

Lunch at the Ardshiel Hotel, just down the road from Springbank.  We were well looked after and the Hotel laid on a generous spread of sandwiches and freshly made soup, following on from a hearty cooked breakfast that morning it was just what was required to keep us going.

13:00

Back to Springbank, for a remarkable tour provided by Pete.  Springbank is one of only 6 distilleries that malts its own barley.  They also do pretty much everything the old-fashioned way, by hand; this does mean that they employ one of the largest number of people of all distilleries, a staggering 37, which is more than most of the Islay distilleries put together.

15:30

Pete continues his generosity by allowing us to sample pretty much every Springbank expression, all of which were very impressive.  He also allowed all of us to taste whichever of their non-Springbank whiskies (under the independent label Cadenheads) that we wanted to, an offer that was taken up by most.

16:00

A massive thanks from all to Pete before heading off for the ferry.  One of the travellers informs me that they occasionally suffer travel sickness and that they’re normally okay on the road but struggles with ferries… oh dear, the Islay crossing is not known for its smoothness.

18:00

We depart for Islay and the bar on the ferry gets immediately swamped.  We got off quite lightly, the ferry crossing was pretty calm.  We watch Andy Murray’s remarkable win over Richard Gasquet.

20:00

We arrive and pile onto the coach for the short nip to the hotel.

20:40

The Machrie was extremely welcoming, checking us all in in 10 minutes.

21:00

We were shown through to our room for dinner.  Although we were expecting to eat in the dining room, it transpired that the Machrie had other plans and we were shown through to the Garrick Room.  The room was named after the historic Garrick Club, thanks to its inheritance of the club’s famous old dining table.  It was at this table that members would sit at, joined for company by eminent politicians and writers, scholars and actors.  Amongst the great names to have propped it up are Dickens, Yeats, Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud.  We were impressed already.  A stunning meal impressed us more.

23:00

The lesser trained of the group headed for bed whilst the rest of us set up camp at the bar.

02:00

I succeeded in my duty as host by being the last person at the bar and so headed for bed.

Tuesday

09:00

After a bleary hour and a half getting ready and enjoying a truly fantastic breakfast we head for Bowmore distillery.

09:30

Arrival at Bowmore and we were warmly welcomed by distillery manager Eddie McAffer who personally conducted a tour of this great distillery.  Bowmore is also one of only 6 distilleries that malts its own barley!

12:00

Wow, that was a detailed tour, it’s 12:00!  We find ourselves in a dunnage warehouse being offered samples direct from several casks.  A real treat for sure.  A quick phone call to our next stop to tell them we’re running late.

12:30

Bowmore distillery lay on a generous lunch of hearty homemade soup and freshly made sandwiches.

13:00

We quickly nip round the corner to our next stop, a timeout from the world of Whisky as we pull up at Islay Ales Brewery.  We are again warmly welcomed and the beer flowed freely.  We were given a personal tour around the brewery by head brewer Paul Capper, who, strangely was from Birmingham.    A quick phone call to our next stop to tell them we’re running late.

14:00

Arrival at Bruichladdich distillery (pronounced “brook-laddie”).  Now although Springbank was expected to be the highlight for many as it was a distillery never before entered, many were of the thought that this had the potential to be the highlight and those that did certainly weren’t disappointed.  As soon as we arrived, the Whisky legend that is Jim McEwan appeared to greet us.  In the distillery shop (stroke café, stroke restaurant, stroke visitors centre) were Angus Ramsay and Angus Anderson, Catilena Festival players and as soon as we were all in Jim announces our arrival personally, distributes a dram to all and we received a personal serenade by Angus & Angus.  Nice touch.  Many people were in awe of meeting (albeit not for the first time for several people) Jim; including one club member who had been a Laddie collector for many years.  I knew he was desperate to locate a certain couple of Laddie expressions and he came to ask me about them, so my response, was, “Let’s find out for you, we’ll ask Jim”.  I was bemused by the reaction of “What?? You mean that’s Jim McEwan!?”.

14:30

Now I was secretly predicting that the man of legend himself would conduct our tour but purposely hadn’t made the announcement since I was well aware that if I did and then Jim couldn’t do the tour, for some of our dedicated Whisky club members it would be akin to telling a child that they were going to Disney Land and then cancelling the trip.  Jim hosted the tour!  It was certainly the liveliest and funniest tour with Jim cracking jokes throughout.  As we were doing the tour I recalled that Bruichladdich has webcams throughout the distillery and just to wind my business partner Mark up who was holding the fort in my absence, I sent him a quick text to tell him to check out the webcams.  I quickly got one back “I can see you by the spirit safe – you’re losing your hair!”.  Bitter were we Mark?  When I returned to the shop I found out that Mark had actually done the entire tour with us, virtually.  We walked through the barrel room and into the room where they vat and prepare for bottling.  As we were walking past, Jim stopped and commented on a nearby barrel stating that it was a barrel they were just about to bottle.  It was a 32 year old Bunnahabhain that was to be bottled under their independent label ‘Murray McDavid’.  “Shall we try it?” he asks.  Yeah, sure Jim, that just happened to be there?  It was sublime.  I happened to make the comment “That’s older than me!”, to which I received no response, indicating than ironically, even though I was the host and Whisky shop owner, I was actually the youngest person on the tour.  Jim certainly did well letting us try that particular cask, since even though it’ll be £100 a bottle, I’ve since taken orders for 12.  We returned to the distillery shop whereby countless purchases were made.  Including a purchase by one of the club members of an entire cask!  He also bought a Bruichladdich cap and after talking to his wife later on said to us that he’d told his wife about the purchase – the cap… completely forgot to mention the cask of Whisky.  In fairness he did mention it later since he actually had to put me on the phone in order to convince her it was a good investment.  A quick phone call to our next stop to tell them we’re running late.

17:30

Ok, very late.  We left Bruichladdich and nipped the short distance over to the new guys… Kilchoman (pronounced Kill-ho-man).  Although I’m not sure they were too pleased about our extreme lateness, they were very accommodating and actually gave us the full tour.  It wasn’t a tour that took that long since Kilchoman is such a tiny distillery.  Kilchoman is the first distillery to be built in 124 years, it’s a farm distillery that was built in 2005 and is one of the smallest distilleries in Scotland with an annual production of 90 to 100,000litres of alcohol per year.  Although they didn’t have any whisky for us to sample since to be whisky it has to be matured for a minimum of 3 years and they’re not quite there yet, they did however allow us to sample their new-make spirit which was quite impressive and showed they have a lot of potential.  As they don’t have whisky but do have a large shop they’ve seriously gone for it on merchandising and you could buy pretty much anything branded with the Kilchoman logo, from caps to T-shirts to umbrellas.  Kilchoman is also one of only 6 distilleries that malts its own barley!

18:45

We head on our merry way.  The plan was to nip back to the Machrie to freshen up, but since that was almost an hour’s round trip to get there and back to the Port Charlotte Hotel – our destination for dinner, I did a quick vote on the coach and decided to go straight to the Port Charlotte.

19:30

Dinner at the Port Charlotte Hotel.  Now this was impressive, a restaurant with one of the best reputations in the whole of Scotland and we were again greeted very warmly.  Not surprisingly, being that we were on a tiny island, the specialities were seafood and I can vouch that the Loch Gruinart oysters were to die for.

22:00

We return to the Machrie to prop up their bar.  Some head for bed, others continue to work their way across the top shelf of the Machrie bar.

01:30

I again succeeded in my duty as host by being the last person at the bar and so headed for bed.

Wednesday

09:00

Again feeling slightly jaded but happy having had another amazing breakfast we headed for our first stop of the day, Lagavulin.

09:20

We arrive at Lagavulin distillery to another warm welcome.  Situated in a small bay near the south coast of Islay, Lagavulin stands near the ruins of Dunyveg Castle. It was from here that 1,000 Islaymen set sail to fight alongside Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn in 1314, and in this bay the Macdonalds maintained their power base as Lords of the Isles until they were finally driven out by the Campbells three centuries later.

Lagavulin legitimately claims to be one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland. Distilling on the site is thought to date from as early as 1742.  In the late 1700s it is believed that there were up to ten illicit stills operating in the district. But by the 1830s only two distilleries remained in the bay.  In 1837 these distilleries amalgamated to form Lagavulin.

In a contrast to some of the distilleries we’ve visited who have lots of staff, here we saw only 2 and the person running the gift shop was the very same person who conducted the tour.  Although the tour was certainly extremely impressive and good fun. 

At the end of the tour we found ourselves in the barrel room whereby 2 casks had been cracked open for us to sample.  Now I was hoping that Lagavulin might put on something a little special for us, as we are good Lagavulin supporters as a business, but I certainly hadn’t anticipated what they did put on.

The first we sampled was a 15 year old Sherry casked Lagavulin, which was excellent, rich and sweet but still retaining ample freshness and still offering classical Lagavulin smoky character.

Next up, our guide calmly announced the details of the next barrel that they’d cracked open for us, it was the oldest barrel possessed by Lagavulin… a 1966 Bourbon cask… 42 years old!  What can I say… the oak was obviously on the forefront but hadn’t taken over this stunning dram which was so rich and intense, complex and obviously mature.  Toffee and smoke tingled the palate and stayed around for a breathtaking length of time.  After the tasting we returned to the shop to make our purchases.

11:30

Shocking!  We were ahead of schedule!  We decided in that case to walk the ‘short’ distance further up the road to Ardbeg, which one of our dedicated club members that had been twice before informed me was just 5 minutes.

11:50

5 minutes?  5 minutes ‘Islay time’ no doubt.  And of course it was raining.  We were greeted warmly as ever and spent 10 minutes wandering the Ardbeg shop.

12:00

Ardbeg laid on yet more excellent homemade soup with a generous spread of freshly made sandwiches.

12:30

We commence the tour of Ardbeg which was great fun and very informative.  It was fascinating to learn the story of Ardbeg and how they managed to build up such an amazing reputation, despite being mothballed and ceasing production completely in 1981.  In 1997 investment brought life back to the stills and since that day they’ve got from strength to strength.

14:15

A quick phone call to our next stop to tell them we’re running late.

15:00

We arrive at our final distillery, Laphroaig, I believe a nice one  to finish on!  After a look around the distillery visitors centre we commenced our tour of this very famous distillery.  Fascinating how such a massive distillery, knowing how much they produce can operate on such high capacity with no few staff, leagues apart from Bruichladdich and Springbank.

17:30

We managed to gain back some time and headed back to the Machrie Hotel for a quick freshen up.

18:00

Back to the bar to wash down the days drams.  We watch Andy Murray’s remarkable defeat by Rafael Nadal  before clambering back into the coach to head off for the Harbour Inn.

19:00

We were once more made very welcome and enjoyed a truly exceptional meal at the Harbour Inn, before everyone nipped round the corner to the famous whisky bar at the Lochside Hotel to do a bit more dramming.  I get in trouble from the hardcore Whisky club members for having a pint of lager.

22:00

We head back to the Machrie for a final gathering at the bar before one by one people headed off to bed.

01:00

Last man at the bar again so I head for bed.

Thursday

08:30

We blearily head off for Port Ellen to catch our ferry.  Ok it was our final day and we didn’t have much to do other than the long journey back to Stratford but it was certainly nice to have some nice weather for a change and everyone congregated on deck to catch some rays.

12:05

Back on the mainland finally and we start the extremely long route all the way home enjoying a final few drams on the way.  This was the only time I decided to rest my eyes briefly and awoke to discover several people had immediately seized the chance to take picture evidence!

02:00 –ish

Everyone arrives home and hopefully took the following day off!