A variety of Islay links in May 2023

Islay Links

Over the last week or so I had a look through a large number of Islay related links which had accumulated in my newsreader. Many of them weren’t of much use, like many dozens of whiskies offers on shop pages or people and businesses named after Islay. But a few were more interesting, so here’s a collection of 12 of them:

  1. Rosemary Fletcher of Persabus writes Island Voices: From a new farm house porch to a Celtic cross in The Scottish Farmer
  2. A long running saga receives (another) mention in the Press & Journal: Royal Mail says ‘sorry’ for Dingwall and Islay delivery failures
  3. This one might need a follow up and listen, but in an article about an upcoming album release show by Tim Monger it says “He said it ties together a list of niche themes — from cranberry bogs and distilleries on the Scottish island of Islay to the flightless woodhens of New Zealand.” Oh, and his dog is named, you guessed it, Islay
  4. Any Leice photographers among my readers (I’m more of a Nikon person)? You might like Isle of Islay – A Wild Goose Chase! on the Leica Nature Blog
  5. Having skipped all the Islay whisky shop pages I decided to keep one of a beer aged in old Islay casks: Amity releases first two beers in new barrel-aged series. Just be aware it’s quite pricey…
  6. It’s quite far away, but I found the combination of the two neighbouring islands in an address in Canada quite interesting. If you’re looking for a house in Saskatchewan then 205 Islay STREET. Colonsay, SK might be of interest?
  7. I pretty confident I’ve mentioned the mobile cinema (aka Screen Machine) on this blog at some point. What I didn’t know was that its first visit to Islay 25 years ago wasn’t a success as an article From the Northern Times 25, 50 and 100 years ago mentions
  8. I would expect it is well out of the price range of almost all if not all of my readers, but as some of you might know Islay is the birth place of the Land Rover and they have just release an Islay inspired special edition: This £230k+ Defender Works V8 is inspired by a Scottish island
  9. I believe work is well under way by now (the article is from early April), but the Press & Journal writes Islay Airport gets £5 million runway upgrade
  10. I’m not sure if there will be other return visitors (I unfortunately won’t be able to be there, I took some pictures during the first edition), but Parkland County angler Jason Doucette to compete in Commonwealth Fly Fishing Championships means a return to Islay for him, as he already competed in the 2009 edition
  11. Impressive: Exhibition of Islay RNLI crew portraits raises over £9,000
  12. Some news about a wind farm off Islay: Site Investigations Start for 2 GW Offshore Wind Project in Scotland

I think I’ll leave it at that and hope you found some of the links interesting. Maybe leave a comment which link you found most interesting?

Nice Islay wildlife road trip video

Islay on Video

Haven’t posted much here this year and the last post so far this year was the traditional April Fools joke. Time to change that and get going again a bit more. How about a nice Islay video with some nice wildlife shots? Some good views in this one, especially towards the end, so make sure you watch it all:

Islay | 5 Minute Road Trips EPISODE 5

Billy Heaney visits Cornabus Farm and a variety of other places on Islay’s south coast as well as on the Rhinns of Islay, spotting a good mix of wildlife, in particular birds. And as I said, the best of his spots is at the end of the video.

IslayBletherAI launches today

Islay News

Over the last year or so there has been a lot of talk about Chatbots, Artificial Intelligence and related topics. Back in December I had a chat about Islay with ChatGPT, I’m hoping to run a similar test with Google Bard soon. But that will have to wait, as today sees the launch of something much more exciting, to which I had exclusive preview access: IslayBletherAI

I was given the opportunity to have a chat with the IslayBletherAI for a few minutes, here is the transcript of our chat:

Armin: Hi IslayBletherAI, let’s have a blether

Ashley: Hi Armin, my name is Ashley, not IslayBletherAI. I’m a wee language model trained by IslayAI using the powerful 10 Terabyte P.E.A.T. (Petaflop Excentric Algorithmic Triangulation) method to teach me everything about Islay there is to know and blether about it for hours on end.

Armin: OK, Ashley, sorry for that. Let’s talk about Islay then

Ashley: That sounds grand, I can talk about Islay for hours, you know?

Armin: So why is Islay so great?

Ashley: Because it is. Not sure I understand your question? Islay is just great. That’s all there is to know. Actually, no, there’s waaaaay more and I could talk for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours…

Armin: Unfortunately I’ve only been given a few minutes, so let’s talk about something else. What is your favourite Islay whisky?

Ashley: Well, as I’m an Artificial Islaytelligence bot I unfortunately don’t have any taste buds yet, so I can’t really taste it for the time being and develop a preference. But I can tell you one thing: They are the best. There’s no other whisky in the world that comes even close to an Islay dram!

Armin: Fair enough. How about the best Islay beach?

Ashley: Now you’re putting me on the spot. I’m reluctant to take sides here while at the same time my developers have taught me to adapt and to please the person I’m chatting with, so I’m going to say Kilchoman beach. How about that?

Armin: You’ve certainly done your homework, I’m impressed! Sadly we’re running out of time, so one last question: What is the meaning of life?

Ashley: Huh? I’m only trained to talk about Islay, not philosophy, but I’m going to give it a try anyway: If you haven’t visited Islay at least once in your life, your life has no meaning.

Armin: Thank you very much for your time Ashley, it was a pleasure chatting with you.

IslayBletherAI

So there you have it, that was my first chat with IslayBletherAI, the first AI chatbot exclusively designed to talk about Islay. I think the first steps are promising, once taste bot sensors are added to the technology and it can actually taste and judge any whisky it is being offered it will get even better. That might help some whisky bloggers as they can just let the AI write their whisky reviews for them.

I’ve been told public access will be made available later today, I will aim to share the link to the public beta of IslayBletherAI (or Ashley, as it prefers to be called) with you as soon as possible. Will you be testing and using it?

Old tunes, pictures and film by Ionad Chaluim Chille Ìle – Islay Gaelic Centre

Islay on Video

Some Islay history from the YouTube channel of the Ionad Chaluim Chille Ìle – Islay Gaelic Centre today. Some old Gaelic tunes sung by a variety of people from Islay, combined with pictures and film footage from around the time the recordings were made, during a Ceilidh in Bowmore in 1967. I hope you enjoy them:

Islay Ceilidh 1967 – Marion MacArthur
Islay Ceilidh 1967 – Lily MacLean
Islay Ceilidh 1967 – Robert Forrest
Islay Ceilidh 1967 – Cam Shaw
Islay Ceilidh 1967 – Tom and Cath Crawford

The original recordings were loaned to Gaelic Centre by Etta Shaw, the Gaelic Centre then digitised them and added the pictures and film footage from the time. Great work by everyone involved!

New Islay video: Waterfalls at Kilchiaran

Islay on Video

I’ve had a few rather busy weeks in the day job, so haven’t got around posting here since New Year’s Day. But today I had a day off and used the opportunity to quickly edit a short Islay video. This video is kind of a first for me, as it’s my first vertical video apart from the Islay Shorts clips I’ve uploaded. But then I thought waterfalls filmed on a mobile phone really fit the vertical format:

Waterfalls at Kilchiaran, Isle of Islay

I hope you like the video, the footage is just as recorded with the phone. While that means there is some slight wind noise (in particular on the fourth clip) I feel the original sound of the waterfalls works best.

While they are not very big I think these waterfalls are very nice and “videogenic” (not sure if that is a word? Is that the correct equivalent to “photogenic”?). So many of them in such a small area is quite impressive.

Neujahrskonzert, New Year’s Day brunch and Islay whisky 2023

Islay Events

Happy New Year 2023! By the time I post this the concert will be over and the food will be all gone, but it’s “same procedure as every year” (my German readers will understand, I think some others might as well now). As I’ve been doing for many years now I’ve been out for a New Year’s morning walk along the Kennet and Avon Canal, followed by Neujahrskonzert from Vienna with my New Year’s Day brunch and a dram or two of Islay single malt whisky:

Picture of my New Year's brunch and Islay whisky 2023
New Year’s brunch and Islay whisky 2023

The Islay whisky of course is the Laddie Origins I opened yesterday. The food was similar to previous offerings, scrambled eggs with roasted garlic pepper and spring onions, smoked salmon, sausages and homemade poppy seed rolls.

My sister Imke and her horse Brioso kind of joined in (can you spot them?), they and a few human and equine friends “celebrated” the New Year last night.

The Neujahrskonzert was beautiful as always, if you missed it I think you can watch/listen again on iPlayer/BBC Sounds. Some great music finishing with the traditional Blue Danube and Radetzky March.

I’m off for a nap now after all that food and drink, then (hoping it stays dry) out for an afternoon walk. If all goes to plan with a New Year’s Day pint in a pub on the way.

New Year’s 2022/2023 Islay single malt whisky

Islay Whisky News & Links

So there we are, 2022 is coming to an end, 2023 will come in shortly. Time for a last pick of Islay single malt whisky for this festive season. Decided to go with something special, something I hadn’t really expected to own and drink. After all there are only 3,000 bottles of it. Below is my very own bottle of it:

Picture of a bottle and a dram of the Bruichladdich Laddie Origins Fèis Ìle 2021 Islay single malt whisky
Bruichladdich Laddie Origins Fèis Ìle 2021 Islay single malt whisky

This is my bottle of the Bruichladdich Laddie Origins Fèis Ìle 2021. It is bottle 2,669 of 3,000 bottles produced.

If you think back this was during the Covid pandemic (not something we like to think back to, but still), when Fèis Ìle was a virtual festival. Around that time Bruichladdich had a monthly ballot to buy a bottle of their “valinch single cask” (as nobody could visit the distillery to fill a bottle). I had entered the ballot every month, but hadn’t been successful once. So when they opened a ballot for the festival I submitted my entry without much hope, thinking this will be majorly oversubscribed and I don’t stand a chance.

And yet to my surprise a few weeks later an email arrived in my inbox that my submission had been successful and I was a winner. Soon after the bottle arrived and 18 months later I’ve now decided to open it.

I’m enjoying a few drams of it tonight (and it is indeed a lovely dram I think, a worthy festival bottling) and will enjoy a few more tomorrow on New Year’s Day. Regular readers of this blog will know my routine for New Year’s Day: A walk along the canal in the morning. Then the New Year’s Day concert from Vienna while enjoying a nice brunch with scrambled eggs, sausages, smoked salmon and of course the already mentioned few drams. Another walk in the afternoon to a local pub for a New Year’s pint.

And on that note I’m signing off for today and this year, good night, see you in the new year!

Christmas Day Islay Single Malt Whisky 2022 (and a new Islay video)

Islay on Video

This post left me with a decision to make, which category to pick? Same as the two previous posts it mentions an Islay whisky, in addition it also features a new Islay video (even though you need to read all the way to the end to find it). In the end I decided to go with the Islay video option. So what have I been up to on Christmas Day?

Picture of a bottle and a dram of Laphroaig Càirdeas 2022 Warehouse 1 Islay single malt whisky
Laphroaig Càirdeas 2022 Warehouse 1 Islay single malt whisky

Well, less than I had originally planned. I stayed up later last night than I had originally planned, leading to me sleeping in this morning. When I finally got up it rained quite heavily, so in the end I decided to skip my walk today and just take it easy at home. I relaxed, ate a lot of chocolate, Lebkuchen and food like that. Also some Chipolata sausages and rolls baked yesterday. And tea. And hot chocolate.

For my tea I has some nice beef steaks with garlic butter as planned. With them I enjoyed a bottle of the Innis & Gunn Laphroaig Islay whisky cask real ale (something I thought I had blogged about already, but it seems I haven’t). Followed by some chocolate cheesecake.

Then of course there’s today’s Islay whisky. I decided to go with the distillery I was tending towards when thinking about it last night and picked the Laphroaig Càirdeas 2022 Warehouse 1 as my Christmas Day Islay single malt. As regular readers might remember Laphroaig was my first love and remains one of my go to Islay whiskies. It doesn’t disappoint and for me it’s a great choice as my Christmas Day dram.

But there’s still a new Islay video to come. The footage as such is a bit older, from November 2015 to be precise, but at the same time it also reminded me of my most recent Islay visit in November 2022. While I had sunny spell there was also plenty rain and wind, which this video is about:

November Rain and Wind on Kilchoman Beach, Isle of Islay

I recommend to watch it in full screen on a larger display/monitor, you’ll get to see much more of the rain coming down on the beach. In the second part of the video you get to see the beach on the move, I hope the footage gives a feel of a windy day on Kilchoman beach.

That’s all for today. Not sure yet what I’ll do tomorrow, but if the weather is nice I’m hoping to get out somewhere in West Berkshire or north Hampshire. There will probably also be a Boxing Day Islay single malt whisky (after the fish I’ve got on the menu for tea tomorrow).

Christmas Eve Islay Single Malt Whisky 2022

Islay Whisky News & Links

As mentioned in last night’s post about my Pre Christmas Eve Islay Single Malt Whisky 2022 I’m aiming to enjoy this long Christmas weekend, among other things with some good food and drink. I had outlined my plans for today, although it turned out they changed a bit as the day went on. Not that it mattered as most of what I had planned did still happen, just a bit different.

Picture of a bottle and a dram of Kilchoman Limited Casado Edition Islay Single Malt Whisky
Kilchoman Limited Casado Edition Islay Single Malt Whisky

I did get up reasonably early as planned to get ready for my walk along the Kennet and Avon Canal. Just as I was getting out of bed I received a message from my sister to take my headphones with me on my walk. Turned out she was back home earlier than expected and we were able to have our call while I was walking, something we’ve done several times before. While the weather wasn’t as good as I had hoped it was still a very nice walk, some low mist rising from the fields and the canal, providing a nice and calm atmosphere. I walked 8.37 miles in 2h 13m 07s according to my fitness tracker, all the time talking with my sister.

After returning home I enjoyed a relaxing breakfast (fruit bread, tea, chocolate porridge) before getting under the shower. This was followed by a bit of relaxing, surfing the interwebs before starting my baking and enjoying a good lunch of cheese, bread, grapes and red wine. For the baking I started with some rolls and then made two wholemeal breads, one with hemp hearts and one with almonds. While the baking was moving along I also enjoyed another hot chocolate with rum with some dark chocolate Lebkuchen later during the afternoon.

For my tea I enjoyed the Wagyu burger on the freshly baked rolls as planned, washed down with the Fynes Ales Superior Pale Ale. Both were delicious as expected. After some chocolate cheesecake it was time to move on to the real topic of this post and the star of the evening:

For tonight’s Islay whisky I picked the Kilchoman distillery Limited Casado Edition, which I had picked up at the distillery during my recent visit in November 2022:

Casado (Portuguese for marriage) is matured in fresh bourbon barrels for 6 years before 38 casks were married together for 2 years in two 6,000 litre Portuguese red wine vats.

https://www.kilchomandistillery.com/our-whisky/ (limited edition 2022 archive)

I decided to buy it without tasting it, mainly because I had very much enjoyed wine cask editions from several other Islay distilleries before. It turned out a risk well worth taking for me. I’m no whisky expert and won’t bother with from me pointless tasting notes, all I can say is that I very much like it. That’s all that matters to me.

For tomorrow I have no major plans just yet. I will go out for a walk along the canal at some point in the morning. After that I’m thinking of a nice brunch of some sort. Then some relaxing and if I can get my act together possibly some video editing and in best case publishing, so you’ve got something to watch on your new gadgets if you get any. But no promises. And in the evening I’m planning to have some nice beef steaks with garlic butter. Followed by a Christmas Day Islay whisky. Again I haven’t decided yet which one. but there’s a good chance it will be from my favourite distillery on the south coast. Regular readers will know what that means.

Pre Christmas Eve Islay Single Malt Whisky 2022

Islay Whisky News & Links

After a long busy year I’m aiming to really enjoy the long Christmas weekend. I started the weekend with an afternoon off work, which I used to blog about a chat about Islay with ChatGPT, a nice walk in the afternoon sun along the Kennet and Avon Canal and a nice hot chocolate with rum (unfortunately no Islay rum, haven’t got any of that yet) with some dark chocolate Lebkuchen.

Picture of a bottle and a dram of Port Charlotte Islay Barley 2012 Islay single malt whisky
Port Charlotte Islay Barley 2012 Islay single malt whisky

The evening started with my favourite pizza (Stromboli sourdough Pizza) with a nice pale ale (Crazy Haze from Stewart Brewing). Then it was time for some nice Islay whisky:

For this evening I picked the Port Charlotte Islay Barley 2012 (sorry, no link to it, as I can’t find it on the Bruichladdich website. Can only find the 2013 version). As usual a very nice dram, very enjoyable. With them I had something smoky, the Tesco Finest Hickory Smoked Nut Selection. Thought that was an interesting combination.

Soon I’ll be off to be bed to get some sleep to be fit for my plans tomorrow:

In the morning I’m planning a long walk along the Kennet and Avon canal, depending on how nice (or not) the weather is I’m thinking of at least 3.5 miles, possibly 4-5 miles, going west (meaning a total of 7-10). Around lunchtime I’ll speak with my sister for an hour or so via Skype (yes, we’re still using Skype). Then it will be time for some baking in the afternoon, rolls and bread. For Christmas Eve I’ll have Wagyu burgers and a bottle of Fyne Ales Superior. The evening will then be finished with a Christmas Eve Islay single malt. I haven’t decided yet which one, so you’ll have to come back tomorrow to see what I picked.