Islay single malts

Islay whisky is Scotch whisky made on Islay (Template:PronEng eye-luh)or Ìle in Gaelic, the southernmost of the Inner Hebridean Islands located off the west coast of Scotland. There are eight active distilleries on the island, as of early 2008, with a ninth being made ready for production. Islay is a centre of "whisky tourism", and hosts a "Festival of Malt and Music" known as Fèis Ìle each year at the end of May, with events and tastings celebrating the cultural heritage of the island.

Styles of whisky

The distilleries along the southeastern coast of the island, Laphroaig, Lagavulin, and Ardbeg, have the strong peaty character which is considered to be characteristic of the Islay malts, and is ascribed both to the water from which the whisky is made and to the peating levels of the barley. Many describe this as a “medicinal” flavour. They also possess notes of iodine, seaweed and salt. Caol Ila, on the northern side of the island, across from Jura, produces a strongly peated whisky as well.

The other distilleries on the island make whisky in a variety of styles. Bunnahabhain and Bruichladdich make much lighter whiskies which are generally lightly peated, though Bruichladdich also produces several heavily peated products. Bowmore produces a whisky which is well balanced, using a medium-strong peating level (25ppm) but also using sherry-cask maturation. The newest distillery, Kilchoman, started production in 2006. In location it is unlike the other seven distilleries, which are all by the sea.

Former distilleries

Islay has also been the home of a number of distilleries which are now closed, the most famous being Port Ellen, which operated from 1825 to 1983. There is still a maltings at Port Ellen, which supplies many of the Islay distilleries with malted barley to their individual specifications. In March 2007 Bruichladdich Distillery announced the reopening of the distillery at Port Charlotte (Port Sgioba in Gaelic), which was closed in 1929, and was also known as the Lochindaal Distillery.

Distilleries

Active Distilleries

Distillery	Pronunciation	Meaning	Years active	Location	Notes
Ardbeg	ard-bég	small headland	1815–1981, 1990–1996, 1997–	5 km east of Port Ellen	owned by Glenmorangie, some blended as Wardhead
Bowmore	bo-moore	great sea reef or sea rock	1779–	in Bowmore, the island's capital	owned by Suntory, sells 7-year-old malt as McClelland’s
Bruichladdich	broo-ich laddich	bank on the shore	1881–1995,^‡ 2001–	on western Loch Indaal, across from Bowmore	reopened as an independent distillery
Bunnahabhain	bū-na-ha-venn	mouth of the river	1880/1883–	4 km north of Port Askaig	owned by Burn Stewart, a notable part of the Black Bottle blend
Caol Ila	cull-eela	The Sound of Islay (between Islay & Jura)	1846–1972,^‡ 1974–	1 km north of Port Askaig	owned by Diageo
Kilchoman	keel-choman	St. Comman's church	2005–	on the Atlantic coast	first all new distillery since 1881
Lagavulin	lahk-a-voolin	the hollow where the mill is	1742/1816–	4 km east of Port Ellen	owned by Diageo
Laphroaig	la-froyg	beautiful hollow by the broad bay	1815–	2 km east of Port Ellen	owned by Fortune Brands
Port Charlotte	—	named after Frederick Campbell's wife	1829–1929, 2007–	in Port Charlotte, 3 km south of Bruichladdich	owned by Bruichladdich, a heavily peated variation is named Octomore after the distillery ruins nearby.
^‡ Except during the Great Depression (~1930–1937) and World War II (~1940–1945)

Closed distilleries

Achenvoir (pre-1816–1818+), in Argyll
Ardenistle (1837–1849) / Kildalton (1849–1852) / Islay (1852–1852), subsumed by Laphroaig 1853
Ardmore (1817–1835), taken over by Lagavulin 1837
Daill (1814–1830), ruins on road between Port Askaig & Bridgend
Freeport (1847–1847), location unknown
Hazelburn (1825–?), uncertain relation to the Hazelburn distillery of Campbeltown
Kildalton (1817–1837), merged with Lagavulin
Killarow (c.1760–1818) / Bridgend (1818–1822), ruins in village
Lochindaal/Port Charlotte/Rhinns (1829–1929), near BruichLaddich
Lossit (1821) / Ballygrant (1826–1860), ruins south of the village A846
Malt Mill (1908–1960), part of Lagavulin
Mulendry (1826–1831), location unknown
Newton (1818–1825), ruins immediately south of A846 between Port Askaig & Bridgend
Octomore (1816–1852), ruins near Port Charlotte
Port Ellen (1825–1929, 1967–1983), large port village of Islay, converted to a malting
Scarabus (1817–1818), no evidence of production
Tallant (1821–1852), Tallant farm south of Bowmore
Torrylin (?–?), may have been on the Isle of Arran

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