The Story
Situated on the banks of Lagavulin Bay on the island of Islay, Lagavulin Distillery is one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland. Distilling took place on the banks of Lagavulin Bay as early as 1742, and by the turn of the century, there were as many as ten illicit stills operating in the area. In 1816, John Johnson founded the first legal distillery on the site, and within a year Archibald Campbell had opened a second. After Johnson's death, Alexander Graham acquired Johnston's distillery for £1,100 and eventually united the two distilleries together under the Lagavulin name. Since that time, the rich, peaty water that runs down the brown burn and through the Solan Lochs into the hills just next to Lagavulin Bay has served as the lifeblood of the distillery.
Lagavulin is known as one of the most intense, smoky single malt whiskies ever made — the peated barley used to create Lagavulin Single Malt has up to twenty times as much exposure to peat smoke as compared to typical Scotches. Once the grains used to craft Lagavulin Whisky have been harvested and malted, they are dried over a peat and gas fire calibrated specifically to produce Lagavulin's signature, bold flavor profile.
Distillery manager Georgie Crawford wanted to created a special whisky that would capture not only Lagavulin’s signature flavor, but “the feeling of the place.” To do so, she took inspiration from famed whisky writer Alfred Barnard, who after visiting Lagavulin in the 1880s and sampling an eight-year-old whisky (which was quite old for the period), found the whisky “exceptionally fine,” noting that “no prettier or more romantic spot could have been chosen for a distillery.”
Lagavulin 8 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky is aged for eight years in refill American oak casks. The whisky has an aroma of sea breeze, charcoal and citrus fruit, along with notes of old wood, breakfast tea, black currant and mint. The palate is distinctively Lagavulin, with complex smoke notes fading into cedar and ocean spray.
Make sure to pick up your bottle today!