Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
peaty whisky an especially deep, rounded
flavor. Up the coast another mile or so,
19th-century
Ardbeg
(Ardbeg;
&
44/1496/
302-244;
www.ardbeg.com) went out of
business in the 1980s but was revived in
1997 by Glenmorangie, which painstakingly
replicated and restored old stills, copper-
topped kilns, and mash tuns to produce a
classic peaty Islay malt.
Deep in the crook of Loch Indaal on the
west coast of Islay,
Bowmore Distillery
(School St., Bowmore;
&
44/1496/810-
671;
www.morrisonbowmore.com) is the
island's oldest, founded in 1779; here you'll
see one of the country's last old-fashioned
malting floors, where a malt man gently
hand-turns the malting barley with a
wooden shovel. That malt gives Bowmore a
hint of toffee beneath the peatiness; it's
also distilled to be lighter than Laphroaig or
Lagavulin. Across the loch, small privately
owned
Bruichladdich
(
&
44/1496/850-
190;
www.bruichladdich.com) is another
revived artisanal 19th-century distillery.
With its old-fashioned narrow-necked cop-
per still out front, this feisty newcomer
makes a clearer and more delicate malt,
using unpeated barley and clear spring
water. On the northwest coast, also visit
Bunnahabhain
(5km/3 miles north of
Port Askaig;
&
44/1496/840-646;
www.
bunnahabhain.com), known for its gentle
Islay malt.
(
Islay Airport, Port Ellen (11km/
6
3
/
4
miles).
Ferry:
Port Ellen or Port Askaig (2 hr. from
West Tarbert, Kintyre, via MacBrayne
steamers;
&
44/1880/730-253;
www.
calmac.co.uk).
L
$$$
Harbour Inn,
The Square,
Bowmore (
&
44/1496/810-330;
www.
harbour-inn.com). $$
Bridgend Hotel,
Bridgend (
&
44/1496/810-212;
www.
bridgend-hotel.com).
Distilleries
411
Talisker Distillery
The King O' Drinks
Isle of Skye, Scotland
As Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote:
“The king o' drinks, as I conceive it, Tal-
isker, Islay or Glenlivit . . .” He wasn't spe-
cific about which Islay malt he was talking
about, and probably only threw in Glen-
livet for the rhyme. But Talisker—yes,
there's a whisky a Scotsman like Steven-
son was bound to be partial to.
While the Isle of Islay is peppered with
distilleries, there's only one on the mag-
nificent Isle of Skye, which lies farther up
Scotland's west coast. The largest of the
Inner Hebrides, since 1995 Skye has finally
been connected to the mainland by bridge.
Whether or not this improves life on Skye
is a hotly contested issue, but it certainly
makes it easier for visitors to wend their
way up the island's rugged seaward coast
to the tiny town of Carbost, lying in the
shadow of the jagged black Cuillin Hills
mountain range. Here, on the shore of
Loch Harport, the Talisker Distillery has
been brewing single-malt whisky since
1830. Talisker has had its business ups
and downs ever since it first opened, and
it's now owned by the multinational con-
glomerate Diageo (which also owns Johnny
Walker blended whisky—a brand that
includes a strain of Talisker to give the
blend a bracing shot of peat). Throughout
all its changes in ownership, however, the
whisky has remained superlative.
Talisker draws the water for its whisky
from peaty springs that rise up in nearby
Hawks Hill (look for peregrines circling
overhead). The result is a uniquely smoky,
