A new website about Islay Whisky and its eight distilleries emerged lately and is called Islay Taste Map. The initiative comes from Bowmore Distillery, the oldest distillery on the island, and Martine Nouet, a French journalist and whisky writer who now lives on Islay at Nerabus. Martine has a talent for combining whisky with food and also with music, which she showed at the Cantilena Festival prelude.

The new website has information about the eight distilleries on the island (Ardbeg, Bruichladdich, Bunnahabhain, Caol Ila, Kilchoman, Lagavulin, Laphroaig and Bowmore) and each distillery has its own bar which displays the amount of key elements used, the key elements are Air, Water, Earth and Fire. It doesn't come as a surprise that whisky from Ardbeg (10 yr old) consists for 65% of Earth and Fire while Bowmore whisky (12 yr old) is influenced for 65% by Water and Air due to its location near the sea, and Bunnahabhain (12 yr old) is influenced for 65% by Earth alone.

Each distillery also has a general description as well as tasting notes written down in a quite unique way. Here is an example of the tasting notes of a Bunnahabhain 12 year old whisky: Outdoors: A walk on the moor on a rainy day. Indoors: a Christmas cake. Character: Earthy. Or what to think of a Caol Ila 12 yr old: Outdoors: Walking into a boat garage sheltering freshly tarred boats. Indoors: Nibbling green olives in a conservatory, with the window opened on a flowery garden by the sea. Character: Tarry.

The Key Elements of the eight Islay Single Malt Whiskies

If you require a portable version of the site to carry with you or for easy printing, you can download the Islay Taste Map PDF in the download section.

Tag: whisky distilleries taste map