After Glasgow, and Clydeside Distillery, my next Scotland stop was the Isle of Arran. It is often referred to as Scotland in Miniature, because of its mix of nature, history and varied landscapes. It is also a great whisky destination with two distilleries reachable by car from the port of Brodick. Today I will share my experience of the Lagg Distillery tour, the newest of the two. But no worries, Lochranza (home of Arran whisky) will be next. But before going into the distillery tour, let me get a little thing off my chest.
Arran and the nonsensical whisky regions of Scotland
There is one aspect of Scottish Whisky which I give zero fucks about. It’s not the constant song and dance about whatever source of water distilleries use to make their whisky. That’s up there. Even tap water is great in Scotland, so all their water is, not surprisingly, great. No, there is something that I think is worse. It is the outdated, fully arbitrary and, frankly, confusion-inducing Whisky Regions. And no place symbolises this more than the Isle of Arran.
Besides the trite and worn-out point about the Island deserving to be recognised as a separate region, this one island is split in two. The division follows the mainland faultline which divides Highlands and Lowlands. As chance would happen Arran has two distilleries, Lochranza in the North, and Lagg in the South. Well, maybe they make typical Highland and Lowland whiskies, so no harm, right? The heck they do!
Lochranza was built to produce Speyside-style whisky, so imitating a region on the other side of Scotland. To be fair, I would argue that the whisky made here today has its unique style. Inspired by Speyside maybe but recognisable as its own thing. More on that in my next post anyway.
Today’s distillery tour, Lagg, is as far as a typical light and fruity Lowland whisky as you could imagine. Even just under 5 years into its production life, its rich, oily and heavily peated whisky is turning whisky geek’s heads. And, definitely mine. This is one of the new distilleries I am most excited about.
Lagg’s history
Arran’s history is steeped in illegal distilling, probably even after the 1823 Excise Act, which essentially defined legal distillation in Scotland as we know it today. The original Lagg distillery operating from 1825 until 1837 or 1840, was the only legal distillery until Arran opened in 1995.
Today’s Lagg was built between 2017 and 2019. The first spirit was distilled on the 19th of March of 2019 – incidentally the same day my birthday falls on. The distillery was built to expand production, moving the distillation of peated spirit to Lagg. It also allowed the creation of additional barrel storage space for ageing.
This deliberate decision on the whisky style has also impacted how the distillery equipment has been designed, as I’ll describe in a moment. Whisky-making equipment aside, Lagg is a unique distillery from an architectural point of view. Its silhouette is designed to look like the outline of Arran as seen from Ailsa Craig. (For the curling fans, this is the island south of Arran famous for being the source of most competition-grade curling stones.) The roof is covered in vegetation which changes colour with the season.
The production space is a wide, open-space area looking out on a barley field (check the rumours box!) and the Irish Sea to the south. The feel of the place is uniquely peaceful and spacious. It is even more so compared to most distilleries where space is at a premium. The area around the distillery is planted with apple trees. These are used to make an artisanal cider which was, unfortunately, sold out already.
The Lagg Distillery tour
On the day of the tour, I was on my own. This might have affected the level at which the tour was pitched. As soon as I started asking some geeky questions my guide did away with the usual generic tour info and shared a lot of technical information. I was very grateful for the chat. Your experience may be different, especially if you end up part of a larger group with a less “nerdy” audience.
As many distilleries nowadays Lagg does not malt its barley. Rather it buys in malted barley from Montrose, Scotland, peated at 50 ppm. They also use a small part of Arran barley and were just about to mash some heavily peated barley – see the rumours section below. Mashing is done with three water additions in a semi-lauter mash tun at 65, 80 and finally 90 degrees C, the latter being the sparge, reused for the next cycle of mashing at 65 C.
Fermentation takes place in 4 Douglas fir washbacks and goes on between 60 and 105 hours. The two stills used are both quite stumpy, designed to produce a heavier and richer spirit. The wash still is the more “chunky’ of the two with a squat onion shape. The spirit still, while still squat, has a slightly more usual lantern shape.
The final spirit cuts are between 63 and 73% abv. This is then diluted to 63.5% before being filled into casks warehoused on site. I had the chance to try some of the new make from the still as the first cut was made, so around 73%. It was very different from the final new make. While still rich, it had almost no peat, being instead very fruity and bright.
Some Lagg rumours
During my tour of Lagg Distillery, I was lucky enough to learn some of what is in store for the future.
Lagg is currently producing a small part of its spirit with local Arran barley. This barley has been peated to 90 ppm, vs the usual 50 ppm used in standard production, and will likely see the light as a special small batch edition (a 5-year-old maybe).
While I toured the distillery, I also got the opportunity (thanks to the extremely kind staff) to munch on some mainland heavily peated barley (110 ppm) going into production the following week. It was almost mindboggling how much this barley tasted of smoked bacon crisps! Apparently this will also end up another future heavily peated special.
Finally not a rumour but a reminder. The existence of Lagg has meant that Arran’s Machrie Moor peated whisky is no longer been produced and will soon be discontinued – if you are a fan you might want to stock up.
The Lagg Distillery tour tasting
The tasting at the end of the tour included 4 samples: some new make, the Kilmory and Corriecravie official bottlings and the hand-fill special available at the time of my visit, which was an ex-Lochranza cask finished Lagg. Having bought both official bottlings as they were released for the first time in 2023, I was keen to check if I could notice any change in the most recent bottling.
Since I was driving I had the opportunity to take these away as driver drams and spend a little more time taking my notes.
Here goes:
New make spirit 63.5%
I am generally not someone who notices huge differences in new make but Lagg’s is one of the few that made me stand up to attention. The oiliness and richness that will end up in the whisky are clear from the get-go.
On the nose, after the intense wood smoke and smoky bacon notes, I smelled aniseed, red apple, unripe pear, heather and cocoa butter. On the palate, it is unsurprisingly hot, it is mouthcoating. The taste is very smoky, with pear schnapps, caramel sweetness and a slightly bitter note on the finish.
Lagg Kilmory 46%
Aged 3 years in first fill Bourbon. Certainly youthful but in a good way. For both Kilmory and Corriecravie I could not detect huge differences vs the first batch I have, which is an encouraging early sign of batch consistency.
The colour is a pale, almost greenish-yellow. Very unusual. On the nose the smoky wood peat immediately hits strong. Once I got accustomed to that I started noticing more vanilla, lime peel, green apples, trailing into almond butter, and a dash of mild white pepper. On the palate, it has a rich mouthfeel with a good dose of youthful chilli spice. The taste is orchard fruit – pear and apple – woody and floral smoke, aniseed, and again some almonds, plain untoasted ones this time. The finish is medium in length, again a bit hot, with pear, wood smoke and some trailing maritime salinity.
Lagg Corriecravie 55%
3 years in first fill Bourbon + 6 months in Oloroso (90% first fill, 10% second fill). By the way, my guide shared that starting next year this proportion will change to 80% first fill and 20% second fill to add a little more “mild sherry notes” to the mix. Here the extra 6 months in active sherry casks manage to tame down the youthful notes. This is a smoky and BBQ sauce doused meat plus chocolate dram.
The rich amber colour points to some very active Sherry casks and that is immediately clear on the nose. I got aromas of smoked chocolate, dates, a hint of tamarind, cardamom, cloves, beef jerky, and star anise. It does still show some youthful heat, yet less than the Kilmory does. On the palate, it is oily and slightly tannic, a bit hot. It tastes of pear, treacle, wood smoke, ash, date syrup, cardamom and cloves, and a touch of dark chocolate. The finish is long, with new-makey notes of pear schnapps, hot chilli, then toffee, baking spice and woodsmoke,
Finally I got to try the fill your own on offer
Lagg Distillery exclusive hand-fill 61.1%
Cask LG 20/2186 Ex Lochranza Cask. As the “20” indicates, this is a cask filled in 2020 so either 4 years old or approaching that age. This is an ex-wine cask although no further information was available. It definitely gave those vibes but I couldn’t put my finger down if it was a dry red wine (likely Amarone considering Lochranza’s production) or a fortified one (Port)
The red wine cask use results in a dark reddish amber colour. The nose was quite unusual. At first, it comes across as musty and ashy. Then it starts becoming more fruity, mostly red dried fruits (strawberry, cranberry), with some aniseed, black pepper, vanilla, pear and apple, and slightly perfumey. On the palate this was the least youthful of the three whiskies tasted. It was oily, with peat, grenadine syrup and vanilla aromas.
The medium-long finish had more of a spice kick (white pepper and cinnamon), with red fruit, vanilla syrup, and woody peat to close.
Overall, the impression I got from the samples is of a distillery posed for a successful and exciting future. Sure, the whisky is young and it shows. Yet it still manages to be captivating. Lagg is definitely on my to-watch list. And as far as distillery tour tastings go, Lagg certainly provided a great overview of what they offer today.
The Lagg Distillery Shop
As the pics above show, as you would expect, the shop offers wall-to-wall Lagg, including a fully Tokaji-cask matured special edition created to celebrate Lagg’s victory as Distillery of the Year at the 2023 Scottish Whisky Awards. After the staff was kind enough to give me a wee taste at the distillery bar, that’s what I decided to take home.
Besides Lagg’s, the shop carries some of their sister distillery Arran branded whisky. Interestingly, they had the Arran Music Festival exclusive and someMachrie Moor bottlings which were sold out at Lochranza, when I visited the next day. On top of the whisky you will find loads of branded glassware and clothing plus some other products made on Arran, from biscuits to candles and more.
Is it worth it?
The distillery would be worth a visit just for the architecture. Tasting the whisky, assuming you are a peat lover clearly, will impress you and excite you for what the future holds for Lagg. But ultimately, the success of a distillery visit depends on its people. The friendly, knowledgeable, passionate and kind staff at Lagg made this a special experience. If you are on Arran, take the time to go to Lagg and do the distillery tour.
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