Why Islay Is Suddenly the Hottest Thing in Scotch

“It’s taken almost 10 years to get to this point,” says Scott Laing about the first bottling from his Ardnahoe whisky distillery on the Inner Hebridean island of Islay, off the west coast of Scotland. The Inaugural Release is a limited-edition five-year-old single malt and the first whisky from a new Islay distillery in 15 years.

“Control over the brand and the spirit was the next step for us,” Laing says of whisky bottlers Hunter Laing, who started making whisky about five years ago. Ardnahoe is consequently a mix of contemporary packaging — don’t expect any tartan or bagpipes — and the use of what it calls an “old-fashioned” approach to distilling, notably the use of worm-tub condensers that lend the drink a slightly oily mouthfeel. “Fans of Islay whisky tend to be more passionate about it than those of the other Scotch whisky regions, and we wanted to be part of that story,” he adds.

Islay (pronounced “eye-la”) — which is about the size of Manhattan with a population of just 3,000 — now punches above its weight, all the more so given that 30ish years ago, much of Islay’s production was considered by the industry to be an interesting ingredient with which to freshen up or add body to blends made on the mainland. Back then, the trend was for light and delicate whiskies, leaving Islay’s bold, distinctive flavors sidelined and many of its more historic names closed for years at a time — spurring the island’s depopulation — awaiting the kind of investment that would afford a revival.

That revival came with renewed interest in single malts. Now, Islay is home to some of Scotch’s most cultish whiskies, many dating to the late 1700s and early 1800s, among them Laphroaig, Bowmore, Bunnahabhain and Ardbeg (which was revived in the late ‘90s and hit the headlines in 2022 when a single cask of its 1975 offering was sold to a Hong Kong buyer for a reported $20 million). Kilchoman, which debuted in 2004, was the first distillery on the island to open in 124 years. Bruichladdich transformed in the early 2000s into a pioneering modern whisky by London wine merchant Mark Reynier and legendary master distiller Jim McEwan, who has also worked on Ardnahoe. They’re all projected to see solid growth during the coming decade. Meanwhile, the island’s annual Festival of Music and Malt has become a must-do on the whisky calendar.

“The flavor profile [of most Islay whiskies] is just so out there, with its distinctive emphasis on fruit, smokiness and peaty aroma,” Laing says. “There’s not a lot of middle ground to it, so it’s a flavor that sticks in people’s minds. Now we’re seeing a varying degree of pettiness and experimentation with cask profiles within the Islay brand. When we started selling tickets the other day for a festival bottling, it was like Taylor Swift. But we also know we’re competing with other world-famous Islay whiskies, so we have a mountain to climb.”

Indeed, Arnahoe is part of a new wave on an island long considered a place of pilgrimage for malt heads. Diageo is re-developing its “ghosted” Port Ellen distillery on Islay. Ian Macleod Distillers will do the same with its Laggan Bay Distillery (set to open next year) and Elixir Distillers, which has been bending from Islay whiskies under its Elements of Islay label since 2013, expecting to open its own Portintruan Distillery in 2025, too.

When we started selling tickets the other day for a festival bottling it was like Taylor Swift.

Scott Laing of Islay’s Ardnahoe distillery

That may still only give Islay some 14 distilleries — relative to the 60 or more in Speyside, for example — but that likely takes Islay close to capacity, given its remoteness, population, housing and infrastructure. “Besides, we wouldn’t want further expansion to mean that production here loses its island character,” Laing says.

Arguably, more government assistance is needed to help drive Islay’s whisky renaissance. But its smallness is also part of its romance, argues Oliver Chilton, head blender of Elixir Distillers. “The heritage and history of whisky-making on Islay is incredible,” he says. “And Islay whisky is on fire right now. People here talk about ‘Islay time,’ which is when everything slows down and runs at a slower pace, and that’s true of the distilling here, too. I think that focus by local people makes for a higher-quality whisky.”

“When I started, people told me only certain people like Islay whisky, the assumption being that most people don’t like it,” he adds. “But I think our exposure to bigger and different flavors through foods from around the world is related. It’s Islay whisky’s bold flavors that make it a whisky that’s easier for people to understand, and that means it’s a category with room for growth.”

It’s not just Islay that’s seeing new distilleries opening, either. Harris — another Scottish island territory in the more northerly Outer Hebrides, famous for its tweed cloth — is also garnering fresh interest. Last year saw the launch of The Hearach, a single malt named after the Gaelic word for a native of Harris, from the Isle of Harris Distillery. The distillery, which launched in 2015 making gin, was established to create long-term sustainable employment on Harris which, along with other Scottish islands, is also seeing its population facing decline. It too is sufficiently remote enough that the distillery has to buy stocks of powdered yeast because it can’t rely on a regular ferry service from the mainland.

Like Islay and Harris, there’s a ripple effect of new launches across other Hebridean islands: the North Uist Distillery, makers of Downpour gin, is now building a full-scale distillery for the launch of its Nunton Whisky, while Isle of Barra Distillery, also a gin maker, has a whisky in the pipeline, too. On the Isle of Lewis, there’s the Abhainn Dearg Distillery, which has been in operation for a decade but released the first single malt whisky from an Outer Hebridean distillery since 1829.

“I think a lot of potential whisky drinkers have been scared off by an early experience of the strong pettiness of many island whiskies, so we think what’s needed is more of a well-rounded whisky for everyone, not just established Scotch drinkers,” says Harry Wood, blender for the Isle of Harris Distillery. “And the modern whisky drinker is driving demand for new, more experimental whiskies, too. But it’s also important that [these whiskies] bring more people to the islands, that they put us on the Scotch distillery map.”