Nine Distilleries. 1. Laphroaig

I have just returned from a week on the beautiful island of Islay during which I managed to fit in a visit to each of the island’s eight distilleries. Add on to that a quick trip over to the neighbouring island of Jura, and that is nine distilleries in total.

The first visit was only an unhealthy walk away from where we were staying – the Laphroaig Distillery, about a mile or so from Port Ellen. It had the classic look of an Islay distillery – whitewashed walls stacked up against a seaweed-brown beach.