Islay Festival Special

The line up of Islay bottlings

We had an Islay night for November's club tasting at the Britons Protection. There was a line up of bottles representing six of the island's best known distilleries. Not only that, but each was from Feis Ile - the Islay Festival - an annual event during which a series of special whiskies go on sale.

Bowmore 2019

Martin, who led us through the tasting, pointed out that the Feis Ile specials had developed a reputation some years ago for having dipped, as some distilleries put quantity over quality. This has apparently now been reversed and more recent expressions are better regarded.

The first one we had on our tables was a 2019 from Bowmore, the oldest of the island's distilleries able to trace its history back to 1779 and these days owned by Suntory.

This bottling was described as "distinctively Bowmore". Sharp and dry, enjoyable and "quite nice". Creamy on the nose, other tasting notes from the group included fruity and minty. It was £85.

Caol Ila 2019

We moved on next to Caol Ila, by far the biggest distillery on Islay by volume, which much of its output going into Diageo's blends such as Johnnie Walker. The expression we were trying also dated from the 2019 festival and was the priciest of the night at £130 (although good luck getting any of them for close to the RRP these days, as hinted at earlier these festival bottlings are highly collectible).

This got a great reception from the room. Some sherry in there, and all round a bit of a beast of a dram that really kept going. A bit of water took off the top end but added to the general warmth. Terrific!

Bunnahabhain 2021

Dram number three came from Bunnahabhain, which until recent years bucked the Islay trend by generally producing unpeated malt. Even today, it perhaps shies away from the big peat monsters seen elsewhere on the island.

Our bottling was from the 2021 festival, and had a red wine finish. This went well with the hint of peat, we thought. A great nose, and a nice mouthfeel and aftertaste too, although maybe lacking a little bit of oomph in the middle. There was something musty about it, and someone also detected Parma Violets. A bit dry but also sweet, this was £85.

Ardbeg Kelpie

After a half-time break and a chance to recharge our beer glasses at the bar of the Britons, it was back for another trio of Islay whiskies. Number four took us to Ardbeg, a distillery that is a firm favourite of many club members (but, it's fair to say, not others!). We had the 2017 festival bottling, known as Kelpie, the twist here being the use of virgin oak casks from the Black Sea.

We wondered on trying it whether those casks had actually knocked some of the peat out this. It tasted soft, or as someone suggested, "like whisky squash". There were some floral notes, but not all of us liked it all that much. It was £98.

Lagavulin 2017

Lagavulin was our fifth stop of the evening, another Diageo distillery best known for its ever popular 16-year-old. We had a 2017 festival bottling on this occasion, a cask strength version of the 16yo finished in Moscatel, with casks previously used by Caol Ila.

And it smelt really fantastic on the nose. It was lovely on the palate too, albeit rather muted. A good all-rounder, we thought. Easy drinking all things considered. It was £125.

That brought us to the end of the evening. And any Islay tasting can only really ever end with the biggest beast of them all, Laphroaig. We had a 2019 bottling of Laphroaig Cardeas, at 59.5% one of the stronger expressions of the night.

Laphroaig 2019

All dark chocolate and leather, this is "good expensive stuff" as someone said. It wasn't quite as expensive as some of the other drams though, not bad value at £85.

It was enough for third in the dram of the night voting for the Laphroaig, but it finished behind the second-placed Lagavulin and the overall winner - dram two from Caol Ila. A victory for one of the perhaps less fashionable distilleries on the island.

Thank you to Martin for taking us through another great evening, and for sourcing and keeping these bottles for us down the years. Thanks again as well to all club members for attending, and the team at the Britons Protection for hosting us.