Visiting Lagavulin, Coal Ila and Bowmore on Scotland's 'whisky island'

The Herald Scotland

19-05-2025

I have a special place in my heart for this beautiful island, and it is definitely one of my absolute favourite places on earth.
We were visiting for a little holiday with family, although this drinks writer never rests when there are distilleries nearby, so of course we could not resist a couple of spirit-focused stops.
We had three different whisky distilleries on our itinerary as well as one rum distillery during our time on the island, so let me tell you a little bit more about them all.
I have had the pleasure of taking part in tastings at Lagavulin in the past, but have never managed to do a tour around the production areas and was thrilled to finally be able to do so this time around.
I never really feel like I've properly visited a distillery until I've seen the still room, as it's my favourite part. Lagavulin feels very traditional and charming. I thoroughly enjoyed the stories that our excellent tour guide Sophie told us about the history of the distillery and the people who had worked there in the past.
Lagavulin Distillers Edition also happens to be one of my dad's favourite whiskies, so it was important to me have the opportunity to visit with him. Visiting distilleries where you have a personal connection will always be extra special.
The only distillery on the island that I have never even stood outside of, is Caol Ila. So obviously it's been the one distillery that I've been the most curious about, especially as it's located in such a beautiful part of the island where it looks over towards Jura.
And it did not disappoint. The views are incredible and we enjoyed a lovely tasting of five whiskies straight from the casks.
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One of the highlights was trying an unpeated Caol Ila, and I find it fascinating when you can try peated and unpeated spirit from the same distillery right next to each other as you understand the spirit in a completely different way.
A smoky character is lovely in a whisky, but it can often be quite powerful and have a tendency to overpower the spirit. I did not see the production areas this time around, but I will definitely be back!
I did not know what to expect at our third distillery, which was Bowmore. It is such an old distillery and seems very traditional as well, but this was one of the best distillery tours I have ever done so it definitely surpassed my expectations.
As the distillery was not in production, we got to see pretty much everything and when I say everything, we even got to stand both inside of the kiln and on top on the kiln floor where the barley lays when it gets malted, which I have never done before.
If you get the chance to try an older Bowmore in ex-bourbon casks, I would highly recommend it - we tried one straight from a 2006 cask and it was incredible.
Just before leaving the island we also managed a quick tour around Islay Rum, which can be found on the outskirts of Port Ellen. On an island known for its whisky, why not make rum?
I particularly like the white rum Geal which is very approachable and has a lovely tropical character, but for die-hard whisky enthusiasts perhaps the barrel aged rum would be the go-to as it has (of course) been matured in ex-islay casks which imparts a lovely smoke to it.
My whisky of the week was one of the drams included in the line up of our tasting at Lagavulin Distillery: the 14-Year-Old Lagavulin Islay Jazz Festival 2024 release.
This whisky has been matured in first fill ex-bourbon initially before being finished in ex-South African Cabernet Sauvignon wine casks. It had a lovely sweetness and quite a tropical character of both pineapple and vanilla, blending together with an intriguing bonfire smoke.
When I returned to this whisky after having tried the remainder of the line up, it had an intense note of gorse flower (often described as similar to pineapple or coconut) on the nose. I could imagine this being an excellent whisky for late summer evenings