Fèis Ìle Part 2 – Caol Ila, Laphroaig, Port Ellen & Ardbeg

After an amazing Fèis Ìle experience at Lagavulin and the late-night celebrations that followed we were a little hungover the following morning or “rough as toast” as one of our new colleagues put it. Fortunately, the distillery was quiet as one of the island’s distilleries, Bruchladdich, was having their open day and most of the tourists had headed there. Our job was to begin the massive task of cleaning up after the biggest party imaginable. The struggle was real, but the day was saved when one of the lead guide’s husband delivered a gratefully received homemade batch of pakora – thanks Ronnie!!

With Caol Ila’s open day two days after ours some of the Lagavulin team were enlisted to help them out as they had sent staff to help us. Nicole was a last minute ring in to help out, which was great as she had missed lots of the Lagavulin day due to being on tour.

Caol Ila day

Nicole had heaps of fun working behind the dramming bar at Caol Ila, essentially pouring free whisky all day 😊. The managers, wanting to ensure that she had a good experience would periodically bring her a cocktail while she enjoyed the tunes of another of our favourite Scottish bands, Elephant Sessions.

As with Lagavulin the day was a huge success and Nicole joined the Caol Ila team for their post-Fèis celebrations at a pizza restaurant in Bowmore called Peatzeria.

Although we had a full week of work we were were lucky enough to get a few days off to attend the festival days at Laphroaig, Port Ellen and Ardbeg.

Caol Ila Fèis Ìle release: 13yo finished in ex-Ruby Port French oak barriques, 54.5% ABV. 1404 bottles.

Laphroaig/ Port Ellen day

Thrilled to get Laphroaig/ Port Ellen day off but exhausted from burning the candle at both ends for the past few days, we spent the morning relaxing in the van - we were also not in an hurry to race out as the rain and wind outside was a whole new level of bad, even for Islay standards.

The newly reopened Port Ellen distillery’s first open day was quiet, partly because of the weather, partly because they don’t have any new whisky to drink and the old stuff is selling for £4,000 per bottle, or £200+ for a dram… yikes!!

As we work for Lagavulin and have the same parent company (Diageo) as Port Ellen and Caol Ila, we were greeted warmly and given extra free dram tokens 😊 they were serving Lagavulin and Caol Ila special release drams and we needed a little something to warm up. After an amazing vegetarian haggis sausage roll, a few drams and a friendly chat with the pizza guys we had made friends with at Lagavulin (and got free brownies from!), we headed up the road to Laphroaig.

Meeting up with Carolanne on the way the three of us braved the weather for the 4km walk to Laphroaig. I was very excited to get to Laphroaig, it being one of my favourite distilleries before coming to Islay. Unfortunately on arrival we saw that similar to Port Ellen Distillery the weather had driven most of the tourists away. The redeeming quality of the event was that the Laphroaig Fèis Ìle release whisky was great! AND we bumped into a new friend who gave us a cheeky sample of a 16yr old Laphroaig, straight from the cask for us to taste.

Nicole is getting into the local oysters in a big way. At each festival day the Islay oysters van is serving freshly chucked oysters served with a splash of whisky from whatever distillery they are at. Nicole says they are the biggest and best oysters she’s ever tasted!

Laphroig Fèis Ìle release: 10yo Laphroig + mix of two previous releases - 2019 Triple Wood and 2021 PX cask, 52.4% ABV.

Ardbeg day

Not sure how, but we managed to get Ardbeg day off work (thankyou roster gods!!). Widely renowned amongst locals as the best day of the festival, Ardbeg day is on the final day of the festival and is the biggest of all the open days as the locals attend as well as the tourists. Each year Ardbeg will choose a different theme. Locals say Ardbeg must have sold their soul to the devil as the sun is always shining on Ardbeg day 😉 and, true to form, Ardbeg day was a gorgeous sunny day.

Eager to make the most of the day we started the 6km walk up the 3 Distillery’s Path early, backpack full of single drams, tins of cocktails and Buckfast: a red wine based herbal aperitive loaded with caffeine that the youth of Scotland drink (similar to passion pop back in Aus, but with much more kick). It was a "culturally significant" thing to do 😉

This years theme for Ardbeg day was circus and it was spectacular, with a huge ‘helter skelter’ slide out the front, food (I enjoyed a haggis pizza), whisky, cocktails, and a band playing to a courtyard full of dancing and singing people, all with whiskies in hand. It was amazing to be a part of.

Bumping into numerous new friends, colleagues and people who had been on my tours earlier in the week we enjoyed the sunshine and danced the afternoon away with our cheeky drams in hand. After the festivities we followed the crowd into Port Ellen and hit up all three pubs in one night, before tucking into the van in the wee hours of the morning.

Ardbeg Fèis Ìle release: 'Spectacular', NAS combination of ex-bourbon and Port wine casks, 46% ABV.

Disclaimer: We are Diageo employees, however the opinions, stories, tasting notes and experiences shared on this website are completely our own.