Rating
8.4 (1188)
Region:
Islay
Country:
Scotland
Status:
active
Year opened:
1816
Address:
Port Ellen, Isle of Islay PA42 7DZ
Website:
Lagavulin Distillery website
Source:
Diageo
Brands:

The story of Lagavulin Distillery

« This story is also available in Dutch »

As early as 1742, there were perhaps ten illicit stills operating at Lagavulin. In 1816 local farmer and distiller John Johnston founded the first legal distillery, within view of Dunyvaig Castle, once the stronghold of the Lords of the Isles.A year later Archibald Campbell founded a second, which seems later to have traded under the name Ardmore. After Johnston's death the two were united, when Glasgow-based Islay malt merchant Alexander Graham, to whom Johnston had been in debt, acquired Lagavulin for the princely sum of £1,103 9s 8d.Graham improved the buildings and his successors, James Logan Mackie & Co., carried on the business successfully. As a result, Lagavulin went from strength to strength.Owner Peter Mackie became famous throughout the whisky world as the creator of the famous blend, White Horse™. A man driven by the Victorian work ethic and so nicknamed by his staff "Restless Peter", he was continually planning fresh ventures, one of which the famous "traditional" Malt Mill distillery opened alongside Lagavulin in 1908 and closed in 1960.Mackie was also committed to ensuring Lagavulin continued to be produced with meticulous attention to detail. The barley used to distil Lagavulin™ is malted at nearby Port Ellen and has a strong peat "reek" - it has perhaps twenty times as much exposure to peat smoke as a typical Speyside such as Cragganmore Single Malt Scotch Whisky. Fermentation of the barley is a slow process, too. Between 55 and 75 hours are taken for the full peat-rich flavour of the locally-malted barley to come through.The four stills at Lagavulin, two of them pear-shaped in the style inherited from Malt Mill, take this peaty wort and give it all the time and care it deserves. Following the original practice, Lagavulin™ receives the slowest distillation of any Islay malt - around five hours for the first distillation and more than nine hours for the second. This long distillation is often said to give Lagavulin™ the characteristic roundness and soft, mellow edges that devotees rightly prize.Lagavulin™ is a powerful yet wonderfully rounded pleasure. Its recently described "awesome power and marvellous complexity of flavours" are enjoyed by a significant number of malt lovers, for whom this big, dark, intense character just is malt.Perhaps "Restless Peter" can rest easy at last....

Source: Diageo