Bowmore Distillery - 4 Things to Know Before Visiting

Kilchoman is a small-scale, farm-based distillery located at Rockside Farm, not far from Bruichladdich. It produces produces single malt Scotch whisky and it uses barley grown on site at Rockside Farm and malted at the distillery, as well as malt from the Port Ellen maltings and releases separate bottlings depending on the source of the grain.

Finlaggan is a historic site on Eilean Mòr in Loch Finlaggan. The Loch, the island, and Finlaggan Castle lie around two kilometres to the northwest of Ballygrant on Islay. The Finlaggan Trust maintains the site and also refurbished a derelict cottage that has been converted into a comprehensive museum. The centre contains numerous artefacts discovered during archaeological excavations: from a sheep wool quilted aketon, worn under armour, to an ancient cross related to the lords.

Caol Ila is the largest of the eight working distilleries on the island of Islay. In 1986, the distillery became part of the United Distillers conglomerate, leading to the first “semi-official” bottling range in 1989, Flora & Fauna.

Laphroaig Distillery is beautifully situated in the south of Islay and is one of the three "Kildalton Distilleries". Laphroaig is considered one of the most strongly flavored of all scotch whiskies, and is generally aged to 10 years. The distillery and brand are owned and operated by Beam Suntory, the American subsidiary of Japan's Suntory Holdings.

The Lagavulin distillery on Islay is home to perhaps one of Scotland's most famous Whiskies. It can be found sitting quietly in its small and beautiful bay, within view of the Dunyvaig Castle ruins. Lagavulin is known for its producer's use of a slow distillation speed and pear shaped pot stills. The two wash stills have a capacity of 11,000 litres and the two spirit stills of 12,500 litres each.

Ardbeg is one of the most famous distilleries on the Isle of Islay. The distillery is owned by Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, and produces a heavily peated Islay whisky. The distillery uses malted barley sourced from the maltings in Port Ellen. Compared to other Islay Malts Ardbeg doesn’t focus on the sea and salt tastes. They rather focus on aromas of spices, malt or sweet tones like vanilla and chocolate.