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Good morning, it's 24th May and it's 7am. This is the start of Laphroaig's Open Day.
What have we got planned today? Well I'll be in here, this is the old manager's office
and what I'll be doing is tasting different liquid. About 8 years ago we did a batch of
liquid using the malt from Laphroaig floor maltings so that's proved to produce a very
different flavour and I'll be five different casks from today in here. As you can see I've
got a few props as well, some of the things we will be smelling in the liquid.. rose petals,
pea pods, monkey nuts, some toffee on the top there and also some carbolic soap as well.
Lot's of different flavours in the whiskies I'm tasting today. Also outside, just in the
bay behind me, we'll be doing the boat trips again. You'll get picked up at the distillery,
taken down to the peer, come out taste some whisky in the bay and then go out to the island
behind us, taste another whisky out there and then back into the bay of Port Ellen where
you'll taste your third whisky. It was really popular last year so we have two boats this
year to make up for that. In the Friends of Laphroaig lounge we'll have Simon Brooking,
our American Master Ambassador doing the core range plus this year's festival offering which
is Cairdeas and for Friends of Laphroaig you'll see that coming next week for order online.
It's proved really popular so far, it's an 8 year old Cairdeas Ileach edition and it's
casks that I've picked myself from through the wall, in warehouse one. An 8 year old,
only Maker's Mark casks so these slight differences go to produce a very good whisky. I've got
some here in the glass, a very different Laphroaig a more floral base. Great flavour on the back
end, really sticks with you, real medicinal flavours that you associate with Laphroaig.
So you can look forward to that next week. What else have we got on? We've got lots of
tours, and we're just going to do a tasting at the end of the day, we'll probably just
grab some folk, we'll do some old, old casks in the museum. We're going to do some 15 Year
Old up on the plots and then back down to the still house to do 10 Year Old. Simon is
going to be doing that as well and then later on this evening we're going to have a Burn's
Supper to finish off the day and a proper Burn's Supper where we do all the toasts and
such like. These events have proved hugely popular, the only problem is last night as
you may have seen in the news the ash cloud is affecting us slightly as well so our Master
Blender, Robert Hicks couldn't get here. Also yesterday the ferries were cancelled because
of the strong winds. But we'll get through it, we're used that that on Islay, it's kind
of what makes Islay what it is and I guess another reason why the whisky tastes the way
it does. So we're all set for a great day here, looking forward to it immensely and
we're going to have lots of fun as well with different Laphroaig's and the whole range
as well, so with
a Cairdeas Ileach edition I'll just toast you, Slainte!