Called “the Queen of the Hebrides”, Islay occupies a unique place in the world of whisky; its twenty-five miles supports seven active distilleries (and once boasted twenty-one). Islay’s natural resources, fertile soil, extensive peat bogs and soft peaty water mixed with sea spray, are combined with traditional distilling processes to produce easily distinguishable whiskies. The distilleries in the South of the island produce the most strongly flavoured phenolic whiskies in Scotland, like Ardbeg, Lagavulin and Laphroaig, while those in the North tend to have a lighter character, like Bowmore, Bruichladdich and Caol Ila.