There are many areas of Scotland with concentrations of distilleries but of all of them there are none to compare with the lovely remote island of Islay. Of the other island sources Orkney has a mere two, Skye, Mull and Arran only one each, yet Islay has an astonishing seven – all of them highly regarded, all of them very different and yet still distinctively Islay. They tend to attract extreme reactions, some people finding the strong phenolic tastes of the southern ones too much for them. However those that acquire the taste tend to be adherents for life, indeed for the committed Islay drinker there is little else worth bothering with.

In alphabetical order (so as not to anticipate our tastings) they are:

Ardbeg
Bowmore
Bruichladdich
Bunnahabhain
Caol Ila
Lagavulin
Laphroaigh

And if that isn’t enough then just a short ferry hop across the sound is the Isle of Jura distillery, while you can still obtain Port Ellen, although sadly this Islay distillery was dismantled some years ago and the remaining stocks are rising in price rather quickly.

In the next few weeks we’ll be offering tasting notes on all of these well loved drams. Indeed we’ve looked at one of the versions of Bruichladdich already. If you’re new to the delights of Islay then we hope you’ll be encouraged to experiment. I (Bill) am even hoping to convert Mike from his Strathspey favourites!