Aug. 15, 2024

Laphroaig Cairdeas!

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History of distillery
- Founded by Donlad and Alexander Johnston in 1815
  - As far as I can tell not related to John Johnston who founded lagavulin
  - Started as cattle farmers growing barley for the cattle
  - Excess barley used to make whisky, which became more profitable than the cattle
- Near the Kilbride stream, their water source which has a peaty flavor
- 1836, donald buys out his brother, but passes away in 1847
- In the 19th century most whiskey was blended, and Laphroaig was used by the mackie family for lagavulin, so much so that they had a hard time keeping up their own production
- 1907, Mackie tries to block up the kilbride to sabotage them after not being able to take so much for his production
- 1908, laphroigs head brewer is taken by lagavulin, who made a replica of Laphroaig to try to make his own for lagavulin, this was Malt mill
  - Never really worked
- 1921 the last of the johnston family to take ownership, Ian Hunter, take over
  - A bit of a maverick
- 1923 the distillery doubled in size
  - Ian also added windows to the malting floor, were he would put fans to bring in the sea air, adding a salty, sea like quality to the malt
- 1935 Bessie Williamson comes to the distillery for the summer to work, she never leaves
  - Becomes the protege for Ian
  - Ian passes in 1954 and she takes over
- Around this time they start aging in ex-Bourbon barrels
- 1954-67 the distillery is sold off to Seager Evens and Co. to help the distillery expand out
- 1994
  - Then Prince Charles gave the distillery his Royal Warrant
  - They are the only Scottish Distillery to get this
- Friends of laphroaig was started as well in 1994
  - Becoming a member bought you a square foot of land on Islay, and as rent for the property, you were rewarded a dram a year
- 2006, john Campbell takes over as distillery manager
- 2022 Barry MacAffer becomes distillery manager, with the blessing of John Campbell
The bottle
- In 2004, a special release was sent out just to those that were part of Friends of laphroaig, called Cairdeas, a gaelic word meaning friendship
- 2008 this became a yearly bottling