Batch 1 is 100% matured in Bourbon Barrels for 36 months and was produced using Concerto barley and water from our borehole. We used peat from North East Scotland and the peating level is 50PPM. It is non chill filtered with no additional colouring and is bottled at 50% abv. This Batch is a limited release of 10,000 bottles worldwide.
We are delighted to present to you our plans for three Lagg Single Malt Inaugural Releases which are being released one batch after the other starting with Batch 1 next month, August 2022. Our whole team is tremendously excited to take this next very big step in our whisky adventure at the south end of the Isle of Arran. We are proud to share with you the fruits of the past few years of care and attention that Distillery Manager Graham Omand and his team have poured into making our Lagg Single Malt the robust, complex and earthy 'west-coast' style that we hope you'll get to know and love.
Our Lagg Distillery and its magnificent visitor centre was completed in 2019. Since day 1 our distilling team led by Graham Omand have worked to create a heavily peated, modern and characterful Single Malt Scotch Whisky. For the Inaugural Releases, the team used Concerto malted barley, water from our borehole and peat from Aberdeenshire which gives the perfect gentle, aromatic, woody smoke to the spirit of Lagg.
The primary purpose at Lagg is to produce a top quality peated Single Malt Scotch Whisky. Whilst doing so, we are committing to support local projects that are focused on preserving peatlands for the good of the planet. Peatlands are highly efficient, compact carbon sinks. Although they cover only 3% of the global land surface, they store nearly 550 billion tonnes of carbon –which is as much carbon as in all terrestrial biomass and twice as much as in all the world’s forests. Despite the power that they hold, peatlands are still under threat globally from drainage for agriculture, forestry, and resource extraction. This destruction is accelerating global warming. Only by restoring these peatlands to health, by rewetting and rewilding the bogs and removing the incumbent agricultural and forestry projects, will the carbon stay locked in the ground where it’s meant to be.
Graham Omand, Lagg Distillery Manager, worked as a stillman at our Lochranza Distillery at the north end of Arran for several years learning from his uncle, former Lochranza Master Distiller James MacTaggart. There he built the knowledge and experience he would need to oversee Lagg Distillery’s construction and lead a brand-new team down south. Graham is very much looking forward to adding his own interpretation and style to the spirit to ensure it is of the highest possible quality.
Colour: Very pale – white wine/pale straw
Nose: Medium intensity. A hit of earthy peat with slight medicinal note in the background there too. A sweetness; caramels, vanilla tablet. Alongside the peat there is also a slight herbaceous note there too. Can’t quite pin what it is exactly – like walking in an herb garden?
Palate: Very mouthfilling, quite thick texture. The sweetness on the nose is sill there, but more butterscotch and malted biscuit. Vanilla tablet notes and there is also now a minerality to it.
Finish: Medium-Long and very full. Nice warming peat that lingers but a bit more of that medicinal note is prominent.
Comment: With water, a burst of the sweetness on the nose and then less of the vanilla but more mineral and herby notes. After some time much more of that rock pool-y bit salinity is present. Sweet, with earthy peat but that interesting minerality and herby element in the background.
