About Lagavulin
(laga-VOO-lin) Lagavulin was officially founded in 1816 by John Johnston on Islay’s south coast near Port Ellen, though records suggest illicit distilling on the site as far back as the 1740s. Peter Mackie later became one of the most important figures in its history, using Lagavulin as a key part of White Horse and building the short-lived Malt Mill distillery within the grounds in 1908. Malt Mill was later absorbed back into Lagavulin, adding one of the more unusual chapters in the distillery’s history.
Few whiskies project a sense of place like Lagavulin, whose whitewashed warehouses have guarded Lagavulin Bay on Islay’s storm-lashed south coast since 1816. Fermented for an unusually long 55 hours in wooden washbacks and distilled in broad, slowly run onion-shaped stills, the spirit emerges weighty and oily, ready to marry dry kiln smoke with coastal iodine and a lingering sweetness. First-fill bourbon, refill and oloroso sherry casks slumber in seaside dunnage warehouses, trading salt-tinged Atlantic air for layers of dark fruit, liquorice and roasted coffee.
The flagship 16 Year Old, launched in 1988, remains the benchmark for richly sherried peat, while the younger 8 Year Old echoes an 1880s bottling tasted by whisky writer Alfred Barnard – all lemon zest, kiln embers and maritime salt. Each spring, the 12 Year Old Natural Cask Strength showcases Lagavulin’s muscular spirit at full throttle, and the Double-Matured Distillers Edition adds Pedro Ximénez sherry richness. Collaborative releases with actor and devoted fan Nick Offerman introduce inventive cask finishes such as Guinness stout or Caribbean rum, and the Feis Ìle festival bottlings and warehouse hand-fills provide sought-after single-cask snapshots of the distillery’s DNA. Rare Manager’s Choice, Jazz Festival and Travel-Retail exclusives complete a collector’s treasure map.
Owned today by Diageo, Lagavulin still honours its 19th-century roots: malted barley is peated to 35 ppm at Port Ellen, water flows from the Solan Loch and the famous slow secondary maturation extends flavour integration. A portion of the distillery’s output continues to enrich Johnnie Walker blends, yet its cult single-malt status has never been stronger.
