Laphroaig Distillery, Islay: Medicinal, Maritime and Unmistakable

Overview

Laphroaig (roughly la-FROYG, “the beautiful hollow by the broad bay”) is the most divisive of all Islay malts — a bold rush of medicinal peat, seaweed, iodine and TCP that people tend to either adore or recoil from. It is the closest distillery to Port Ellen of the Kildalton three, and famously the only whisky ever to carry a Royal Warrant granted by the then Prince of Wales, a devoted fan.

The history

Laphroaig was founded in 1815 by brothers Donald and Alexander Johnston, and it stayed in the hands of the founding family and their descendants for well over a century — most famously under Ian Hunter, and then Bessie Williamson, the Glaswegian secretary who rose to run the distillery and became one of the very few women to own and manage a Scotch distillery in the 20th century. During American Prohibition Laphroaig kept selling into the States on the grounds that its powerful medicinal reek made it plausible as a “medicine” — a story the distillery still enjoys.

The water & the land

Laphroaig’s water is drawn from the Kilbride Stream and its reservoir, dammed in the 1930s, running off the peaty Kilbride hills — soft, brown, non-mineralised water that carries plenty of peat of its own. The distillery still floor-malts a proportion of its barley over peat cut from its own beds, which is a large part of that unmistakable character.

Like its neighbours, Laphroaig was a farm-distillery on the Campbell estate rather than a clan seat. Family tradition holds that the founding Johnstons were of McCabe stock, a sept associated with Clan Donald — a nice thread of continuity, since Islay was the Lordship of the Isles’ own island, though it’s best treated as tradition rather than documented fact. What is certain is that the ground was Clan Donald’s until 1493 and Campbell thereafter.

How it’s made

Laphroaig runs an unusually large plant for Islay — three wash stills and four spirit stills, with capacity for around 3.3 million litres a year. It is one of the few distilleries left to malt some of its own barley (about 10%) on its own floor, using hand-cut Islay peat, before blending it with commercially peated malt for the rest. Maturation runs across American oak bourbon casks, oak quarter casks and European oak oloroso sherry casks, feeding an unusually wide range from 10 to 40 years old. Laphroaig has held a Royal Warrant since 1994, and its 15-year-old is reputed to be King Charles III’s own favourite dram.

Visiting

Laphroaig has a visitor centre with a shop, a small museum and a lounge, and runs a range of tours and tastings — book ahead. It opens daily in season with reduced hours in winter; check the website. Owners of a bottle can join the long-running “Friends of Laphroaig” scheme and claim a token square foot of Islay, collectible in person at the distillery — a genuinely fun reason to visit.

Nearby & more whisky

• Its peaty neighbour: Ardbeg
• The middle of the trio: Lagavulin
• Planning a day of it? Our Islay Whisky Trail covers the south-coast “big peaty three” and Port Ellen in one stretch.
• The whole picture: Scotch whisky — regions, distilleries & the oldest of all

Sources

• Laphroaig distillery — Wikipedia.
• Laphroaig / Suntory Global Spirits; Scotchwhisky.com Whiskypedia.