October 2015 – The Islands Region

The Scottish coast is surrounded by many whisky-producing islands, or isles. On the west coast, there is an abundance of island distilleries where the isles of Mull, Skye, Arran and Jura reside, while on the north coast, the isle of Orkney is home to two distilleries. Of course, the most important island from a whisky point of view is Islay, but this one is considered as a production area on its own and we’ll be exploring that region in November!

The whiskies produced on the Islands are extremely varied and have few similarities, though they can often be distinguished from other whisky regions by generally having a smokier flavour with peaty undertones. With the exception of Orkney, each island has one distillery. There is another island that most people never hear of, and that’s the isle of Lewis, which is home to the Abhainn Dearg distillery. They’re a very small producer and their scotches are hard to come by and typically pricey; sadly we couldn’t secure one for this month’s flight.