Some testing

I need to check how to take a photo on the iPad, then add it to a new post on the blog. If this works then we should see a photo of a bottle of Kilchoman. And, handily, the carton has a map showing Islay.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Let's get started...

Hello everyone, and welcome to my new blog. First, I should make it clear that I have not undergone a serious personality change and suddenly decided to become a shameless self-publicist. There is one reason for starting this blog, and one alone; that is, to share my Islay whisky experience with you all.

Yes, it's only 3 weeks until I start the journey North to my spirit-ual home (geddit?) that is Islay.

Islay is one of the Inner Hebrides islands off the west coast of Scotland, with lots of scenery and history and wildlife and stuff. That's all very well, but the reason I like it is because it has no less than 8 whisky distilleries.

Alexis and I visited Islay on one of our whisky-flavoured Caterham trips around Scotland. We had a wonderful if rather short stay on the island, visited a distillery or two and stayed in a rather nice B&B.

As my whisky hobby has matured (geddit again?) I have found out that one of the distilleries, Kilchoman, runs what it calls 'Experiences', where you can join the artisans for a few days and actually get involved in the actual making of the actual whisky (exciting isn't it?!).

During my 50th birthday celebrations, Alexis twisted the arms of many of our honoured guests and somehow managed to get them to donate enormous sums of money to fund this experience (yes, I have to pay the distillery for the privilege of working there).

This blog will be the story of that trip... so stay tuned for the next episode.