Lagavulin 16Y

''The strange horse of suinabhal'' By Wiliam Black. ''I hef been in Isla more as three times or two times myself. and I hef been close to the 'Lagavulin' Distillery, and I know that it is the clear watter of the spring that will make the 'Lagavulin' Whisky just as fine as new milk'' Many believe that this is one of the oldest distillery sites is Scotland. In 1816 local farmer and disiller John Hohnston founded the first legal distillery here at Lagavulin (pronounced Laga-voolin, after the Gaelic Laggan Mhouillin, ''the hollow where the mill is''.) Today, the four onion-shaped stills at Lagavulin are neatly tucked into a whitewashed jumble of buildings by the sea on Islay's (pronounced Eye-La) rocky southern shore, quarded by the imposing ruin of Dunyvaig Castle. There's nothing hurried about life on Islay or about dark, intense Lagavulin, which receives the slowest distillation of any Islay malt, then spend sixteen years in old oak casks before being bottled. Pungent and potent, this the great Islay malt. With richly peaty, deep, smoky flavours, it has an intense, long, ambrosial finish. Lagavulin is the majestic Islay destination on a journey around Scotlan's six malt whisky making regions. Loch water rushing over rocky falls, barley malted over moorland peat. Slow distillation and long maturation in oak casks: all help us to shape Lavulin's robust and smuky charcater, ''Time'', say the islanders. Takes out the fire but leaves in the warmth.