Both Alistair and Judy are off to Gasgow today. Alistair for a Western Ferries board meeting. He is the chairman of that ferry company. His son Gordon is the CEO. Alistair had set us up with an appointment for a tour at the Bowmore Distillery at 10 am. The four of us walked directly across the one lane street to the visitor’s center. Alistair had set us up so we were to leave the public tour near the end and meet with Alina’s son, the associate distillery manager, David Turner. Alina is the Rosses’ housekeeper. It is all in the family here in Islay.

The public tour does not get into the cask room where the whisky is matured in barrels. We met David outside the door to that warehouse and went in as the rest of the tour was led off by the guide to have a dram of Bowmore whisky. It is so nice to be treated special.

First we sampled a 64% alcohol whisky with no color since it was drawn straight from the stills – called low wine. That is 128 proof moonshine. It burned anything it touched and it touched my lips, tongue, throat and empty stomach – more than once to be sure. One big ouch all the way down followed by another. I am such an idiot. To our surprise and amazement, David pulled the corks from several maturing casks and used a “villein “ to withdraw the raw maturing whisky. He took the product from the tube, the wine thief as we would call it, and poured it into glasses. The second and third were more mature whisy and in different types of casks – one was bourbon (Jim Beam used the barrel first) and the other a sherry cask form Spain used for that purpose first. Both had been matured for 15 years. We were to sample the real stuff! Although we only had a few sips, this was powerful cask-strength nectar and when we left, Allan and I both had a little buzz going. As we left, David was pouring the remains in the glasses back into the casks. Never waste a drop. I appreciated that. It was impossible to drink all he poured and still live to see the next distillery.

One good distillery deserves another so off we went to Ardbeg for lunch at their restaurant. Then we went to Lagavulin, then to Laphroaig. Laphroaig is one of my least favorite single malts using much too much peat in the distillation process. We weren’t planning on tasting after lunch but just buying the etched logo glass at each distillery. The young woman serving at Laphroaig asked me if I liked their product when I walked into the gift shop/tasting room. I honestly said no as it had too much peat for me, unbalancing the flavors and aroma. She pulled out their 15-year-old bottle and poured a fair dram for Allan and me. It was much better than the cheaper 10 year old. Then she gave us both a sleeve of their logoed golf balls when I mentioned we played at the Machrie yesterday. Now I like Laphroaig (the expensive 15 year old) but only because of this very cute ambassador for their whisky.

The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the town of Bowmore. Ann and Marian served Pasta carbonara at our house for dinner. At Ardbeg we had baguette sandwiches that turned out to be gigantic: Allan and I had a baguette of shrimp in Marie Rose sauce, excellent. Marian had a Herbie baguette: ham and cheese, just as good. Ann had a cheese and tomato toastie. To wash it down, Allan and I tried a new experience, Islay ale. Again very nice.