Lagg Distillery
Lagg
Isle Of Arran
History - Over 150 years ago The Isle of Arran had a reputation for creating great whisky but in 1837 that all ended when Lagg Distillery closed for good in the south of the island. That was until indus-try legend Harold ‘Hal’ Currie had the idea that he and an architect friend could bring back this rep-utation by building a distillery in Lochranza on the Island. This was in 1991 just one year after he had retired and in 1995 the dream became a reality when spirit flowed through the stills at The Arran Distillery. Sadly the great man passed away in 2016 but witnessed the success of Arran Single Malt around the world and seeing the plans for a new distillery by the group located in Lagg, the original location for the last distillery on the island all those years ago. Lagg Distillery is overseen by ex Bowmore distillery Manager James MacTaggart who took over the reigns at Arran in 2008. Along with the company MD Euan Mitchell their plan was to dedicated the distillery to producing a heavi-ly peated style of single malt after popular demand of their Machrie Moor expression. After a 2 year build the first spirit was recorded at Lagg at 14:35 on Tuesday 19th March 2019 and filled its first cask on the 10th of April.
The Whisky – Obviously the whisky here wont be ready for quite some time. In the meantime you could do way worse than to discover their other distilleries range of single malts. I find myself sug-gesting Arran single malts a lot to people when ever the ask me about new whiskies to try. they have a diverse range and there is something for everyone, from their main single malt, Arran 10 yr old, with flavours of vanilla, spice and fresh citrus to Machrie Moor their big punchy and fruity peated single malt.
Favourite Dram - I have a few favourites in the range but if i had to choose then id go for their Am-azon Cask finish which you can pick up for around £46, its packed with flavour due to the cake and a steal at that price.
Why Visit? – The visitors centre is due to open very soon. They have great hopes for here for bringing people to the Island, they are hoping to host over 200,000 visitors by next year over both distilleries. Lagg looks fantastic and is just another reason to visit the beautiful Isle of Arran. You an expect to find the same passion and knowledge on the tour here as you will at The Arran Distillery. They have worked extremely hard to make their brands a success and you can feel that from every person that work there.
Interesting fact – Their sister distillery Arran was not an easy build. They came across many obsta-cles including, winning over the locals. However its biggest was due to nesting eagles in the hills behind the distillery which saw construction halted for quite some time. This is the reason you will see the eagle emblem on the bottles of Arran Single Malt.
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