Laphroaig

Laphroaig Distillery

Laphroaig Distillery

The meaning of the gaelic word ‘Laphroaig’ is often quoted as “the beautiful hollow by the broad bay”, or as one Ileach, ‘Windy’, interprets, “the beautiful broad by the hollow bay”.

Laphroaig along with Lagavulin and Ardbeg are known as the Kildalton distilleries. It’s one of the most peaty whiskies with strong anti-septic tones, enough for it to classed as medicinal and legally imported during the American prohibition period. Celebrating 200 years of whisky production in 2015, Laphroaig has a long history in whisky.

Peats are still cut by hand from its own peat bed, claiming that cutting by hand preserves more oils which add to the flavours in the peating process.

Tom Anderson with a hand peat cutter.

Laphroaig currently has a wide selection of expressions to choose from including; Ages 10 Year Old, 15 Year Old, 18 Year Old, 25 Year Old, Lore, Select, Quarter Cask, Cask Strength, and Triple Wood.

Visit Laphroaig

The distillery offers a range of tours. From the basic tour of the distillery to the Distillers Wars tour where you get to sample straight from a selection of casks and even fill your own bottle to take home. I was recently fortunate enough to take a tour with Tom Anderson who worked there for many years in times gone by and very enjoyable and informative it was too.

If you become a ‘Friend of Laphroaig’ by joining online, you can visit your square foot of land that you get a lifetime lease for. You can also collect your ‘rent’ in the form of a dram. If you’re the designated driver you get to take yours home in a miniature.

Have look at some of the Laphroaig expressions available at our shop.