When I first meet Brian, he’s throwing a 45kg bourbon barrel around like it’s a paperweight. The Laphroaig maltman’s shoulders are as broad as one of the distillery’s door frames, and his hands are thick and heavy. I can’t help but think he would not look the slightest bit out of place on some ancient battlefield, draped in armour and waving a morning star overhead.
Instead, he wields a comically small iron key, which he uses to unlock the entrance to Laphroaig’s Warehouse No.1. Leaning his hulking frame against the sliding door, Brian thrusts it open to reveal a golden treasure; 10,000 casks of Laphroaig’s finest spirit. He silently ushers us inside, dipping his shaved head beneath the door frame as he passes through. When he does finally speak, I’m expecting a thunderous boom. Instead, however, I am greeted by a soft cadence, as warm as a glass of whisky and peppered with a faint Islay accent.
“Good weather today,” he beams. “It rained all week before you got here.”
Brian explains that he’s lived his whole life on Islay, never venturing far from the tiny island locality. We mull over pleasantries for a while until I ask him about working at Laphroaig. Without missing a beat, Brian whips out his phone and flicks through pictures before landing on one clearly taken years ago. It’s an image, Brian tells me, of his father, a former Laphroaig malt turner himself, standing in the same precise spot on the same distillery floor some 20 years before us.
I’m floored and suddenly, a strange sense of place washes over me. To Brian, this tiny island of just 8,000 inhabitants isn’t simply a spot to hang your hat, nor is this distillery merely a place to work; it’s a birthright handed down from generation to generation. And what’s more, he isn’t alone. Brian and his father come from a long line of Laphroaig men and women. In fact, if you ask global brand ambassador Teddy Joseph, that sense of identity is the very essence of the enigmatic Scotch whisky label.
“There are over 200 years of history and heritage out on the distillery floor,” Joseph tells me. “Laphroaig is born of the place, and the people who work here are very proud of the fact that they make Laphroaig. They’re upholding those traditions, they’re custodians of the brand, and you can see the pride in their eyes.”
The Pioneers
Stepping through the fabled Laphroaig walls, you really get a sense of the indelible mark left by some of the label’s most fervent taste trailblazers, none more so than brothers Donald and Alexander Johnston. The original owners of the distillery, this enterprising duo’s decision to lease 1,000 acres of land from the Laird of Islay for cattle farming set the wheels of ingenuity in motion, if not entirely by accident.
“They were growing grain and barley for feed, but they had surplus stock,” Joseph explains. “So being a pair of canny Scots, they started producing whisky, and rather quickly, they gained a great reputation for the quality of the spirit.”
Over decades, the brothers’ side venture snowballed, but when a descendant of the Johnston family, Ian Hunter, took control of the distillery in 1908, everything changed.
“A lynchpin in our history, Ian Hunter was the man responsible for overseeing the expansion of the distillery and, more importantly, for introducing bourbon barrels into the maturation process. Before that, like most distillers, we had a lot of sherry cask maturation,” Joseph tells me. “Ian was perpetually pioneering and looking at other vessels. He formulated the iconic 10-Year-Old and it was under his stewardship that we brought out the first Laphroaig in the early 1900s.”
The Process
A visionary leader, Hunter’s creation of the Laphroaig 10-Year-Old is perhaps his most important contribution. A staple drop within the collection, the release typifies the uncompromising luxury the Islay legend has become synonymous with. A powerful expression, the 10-Year-Old is comprised of a combination of around 70 per cent first-fill bourbon barrels and 30 per cent refill. It is a formula that has remained largely unchanged for over 75 years, and for good reason.
“The aroma, the intensity on the nose; it’s unmistakable, but when you get into tasting it and feeling on your palate, all of a sudden, you get lots of vanilla coming through,” Joseph says, explaining the complex and much-loved expression. “You get all the white pepper, you get a little bit of salinity, a little bit of maritime flavours, maybe a hint of the sea seaweed. Then that smoke comes for me from the back to the front of the palette, but it’s not overpowering. It’s very well integrated.”
Known for its shrewd and distinctive peat-forward approach, the 10-Year-Old is a product very much built on tradition. However, as I learned during my time on the ground at the distillery, each bottling is worth more than the sum of its parts. As Joseph explains, bright and bold isn’t so much a tasting note as it is a testament to the distillery’s enduring legacy.
“Laphroaig is the iconic taste of Islay. When I think of Islay, I think of Laphroaig.
“I’m sure it’s the same for most people. They think of this very intense, very bold flavour. It tastes of the land. It tastes of the people that make it. It is salt and smoke with a surprising sweetness. It’s a bold taste, and that’s how I expect people to interpret it.”
With that spirit style in mind, you’d be inclined to describe Laphroaig’s all-encompassing liquid as ‘unapologetic’, but that’s a moniker that Teddy Joseph wholeheartedly rejects.
“That word seems to come up often,” he laughs. “Which is funny because the preface is that you have something to apologise for, which we don’t. We don’t need to apologise for anything. Yes, it’s intense. Yes, it’s bold, but in tasting it you realise that there is a lot going on there.”
The Laphroaig process is one that can only be described as a labour of love. Once the barley makes its way to the distillery, it is soaked for two days in water from the Kilbride Stream, then drained and moved to the malting floor. For the next seven days, the barley is periodically turned by the label’s dedicated team of maltmen, each playing an important role in the final product. However, it is a piece of Islay ingenuity that gives Laphroaig its distinctive flavour.
The Peat
For centuries, residents of Islay have resorted to burning peat as a means of keeping their homes warm during the torrid winters. Cheaper and more accessible than wood, the thick organic matter, which is comprised of an accumulation of decayed vegetation, makes for a viable fuel source, and its influence on Laphroaig cannot be understated.
The distillery’s peat is harvested straight from the in-house banks and arranged in briquettes, ready for firing. It’s a strangely manual process that feels endearingly out of place in the modern world. The peat is dug up through a delicate carved channel, removed from its muddy bog and cut to size before making its way to the kiln.
“This peat is full of heather, sphagnum moss and seaweed, and that imparts aromatics when we burn it in our kilns,” Joseph tells me. “We burn at a very slow and low temperature. What we’re doing effectively is cold smoking; producing a lot of smoke, but not very much heat. As that smoke rises, it imparts a lot of flavour.”
Over a period of around 12 hours, the cold peat smoke moves up through the kiln’s perforated drying floor to be absorbed into the damp barley. The unique cold-smoking process then leads into a slow distillation through Laphroaig’s aptly named ‘Magnificent Seven Stills’. As I quickly learned, however, had it not been for Bessie Williamson, Ian Hunter’s long-time friend turned successor, that number would have been six.
A trailblazer in her own right, Williamson is credited as being the first female distiller and owner of a whisky distillery in Scotland. Her influence not only paved the way for the distillery’s growth but also helped define the slow distillation process, which Joseph describes as the “essence of Laphroaig”.
“She oversaw the introduction of our seventh still in the late ‘60s,” Joseph explains. “I don’t think that gets shouted about enough. It’s pretty impressive, especially in a male-dominated era, in a male-dominated profession, that she took the reins.”
“Because of people like her, we take a lot of time to make sure that we capture the essence of Laphroaig through our lovely, elegant stills. All these things combine before we put them into our bourbon barrels,” he explains. “Here, in the casks is where we have that interaction with the spirit and the oak to produce the magic which is Laphroaig. Without those things, and without the people who facilitate that, we don’t have Laphroaig.”
A Taste of Things to Come
Joseph’s words ring heavy in my ears. Looking out at the distillery fields, caked in mud and subject to what I’m told is standard Islay summer weather, that strange sense of place rises up once again. What I’ve learned in my time at the distillery is that Laphroaig’s celebrated liquid, for all its success and prestige, is not the result of hyper-efficiency or mass production processes. Rather, it’s a direct reflection of the people who’ve crafted it and those who continue to do so.
Inside every bottle, whether it be the iconic 10-Year-Old, the exclusive Càirdeas or any of the label’s exquisite limited releases, you’ll find the spirit of Ian Hunter, the strength of Bessie Williamson, the influence of two enterprising brothers and yes, even a dash of warmth from Brian and his dad. But the spirit of innovation doesn’t simply stop at the bottling.
Friends of Laphroaig
Now in its 30th year, the label’s eponymous Friends of Laphroaig program remains a rare window into the wild world of Islay whisky. This deeply ingrained community offers up unprecedented access to a range of experiences and exclusive releases, but there is an unexpected benefit that even I was shocked by.
Every person who signs up for the program receives their very own square foot of land on the Laphroaig property, near the distillery’s iconic Kilbride stream. As Joseph explains, the plot is yours to keep; never resold or replicated and when the time comes, it will be waiting for you.
“When you do come and visit, you’ll be given the coordinates to where your plot is, you’ll be given a flag and some Welly boots, and we’ll take you across the road to help you plant your flag in your plot of land,” Joseph explains.
“As that is your plot of land, we’ll give you rent for that land so you’ll get a lovely dram in the distillery centre, but in addition to that, you get updates of what we’re doing at the distillery.”
“It was the first of its kind, really. We’ve got over 600,000 Friends of Laphroaig, and that’s growing all the time,” Joseph continues. “It’s just a lovely way of keeping in contact with our fans, and they’re very appreciative of that, so long may it continue!”
For a distillery with origins dating back over two centuries, pioneering processes seem to come naturally to Laphroaig. Whether introducing new barrel maturation, trailblazing a peat-forward spirit style, or forging a new frontier in Friends of Laphroaig, the legacy of Islay’s most distinctive Scotch icon is in good hands.
