Day Nine (Friday)
Thursday night, looking at the weather forecast for Friday, Katy and I were trying to figure out the best game plan for Friday. Knowing that we had two tastings back-to-back, the best scenario would have a driver drop us off at first and then pick us and take us the second and then pick us up to take us back to Port Ellen. The most straightforward plan would have to walk the three miles to Argbeg, walk to the second, and then walk back to Port Ellen, but that plan was the least favorite because of the weather forecast of rain and wind. So the final option was to drive, and one not fully participate in the tasting. Because we couldn’t hire a driver, we went with the last option; And it worked out fine.
We started the day off as we have most days, just relaxing, reading, writing, and slowly drinking coffee. No rush at all. We only had three things were on our schedule for the day; Argbeg at noon, Lagavulin at three, and dinner at 8:40. So with plenty of time, we walked to our go-to place for a full Scottish breakfast at 10 am. God greeted us at our front door with a fantastic rainbow.
With Laphroaig sitting the bar very high, we were excited to see how Ardbeg and Lagavulin will compare. First up is Ardbeg; Since we drove, Katy decided that I could taste and that she would do the driving – I love that woman! Unlike Laphroaig, Ardbeg doesn’t provide any samples to go. You can only sample on-site. They do this because folks were selling the samples for big dollars, and they didn’t like that. Laphroaig mentioned that some sold theirs for big dollars and embraced it. These tastings are not cheap, and your sort of paying for it anyways. We did not pay for Katy to sample. However, she got to sip on some and experience most of the tasting. Once again, the 90 minutes flew by. We got to experience six different scotch. The fourth sample was from a 33-year-old single sherry cast. Only 415 bottles were produced, distilled in 1975 and bottled in 2008. That is the best alcohol that my lips have ever touched. I like these intimate tastings because you are free to ask questions and even re-sample if necessary. I felt it necessary to try that sample for a second time. As we were walking out, the group thanked me for having to re-sample the 33-year-old scotch.
Lagavulin tasting was much different than the other two because it was in a meeting room, and every sample was ready. Though I wasn’t a fan of their selection, the discussion and education were maybe the best. The good news here is that Katy got a bottle for her samples to take home, and we all got a 250 ml bottle of a single cast 9-year-old. As I mentioned, I wasn’t a fan of their selection for this tasting, but this 9-year-old is very good. It’s smooth and behaves like a 20+-year-old scotch. It’s not that I didn’t like their scotch; Laphroaig and Ardbeg provided samples that you can’t find anywhere else.
We safely made it back to Port Ellen, and though the weather changes every few minutes, we could have done the walk without getting too wet. Changing the topic from scotch to food, I’ve had some incredible scallops in my day, but the scallops on Islay are hands down the best!
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