Islay ferry problems for Fèis Ìle make it on to the BBC website

Islay Whisky News & Links

The biggest (by far) event on Islay’s annual event calendar, Fèis Ìle, has a bit of a problem: Not enough ferries to get the many visitors expected for it to the island. So far working with Calmac hasn’t brought any additional sailings for the crucial period, so they’ve gone on a publicity blitz to hopefully get things moving.

There have been reports in several of the Scottish papers (most unfortunately behind paywalls, so can’t really link to them). Now even the BBC has picked it up and made it a fairly big report:

Islay whisky festival warning over ‘inexcusable’ ferry disruption

Hopefully this will help and get things moving.

A few Islay links for mid March 2024

Islay Links

While spring is hopefully on its way today is rather grey and dull where I am at the moment, a good time to catch up on some Islay reading. So here are a few Islay related links I came across recently:

That’s all I’ve got for now, I hope you found some of the links interesting. More to come some other time.

Islay’s Loch Gruinart and Killinallan (and Lagavulin) from a drone

Islay on Video

From planes to drones with a nice video mostly showing one of Islay’s nicest beaches from the air (you also get a few impressions of Lagavulin distillery). I’ve walked this beach many times, during the Islay walking week, on my own, with my sister Imke and with my late parents. The last one means it has some special memories for me, as it was my mother’s last and my father’s only Islay visit. The beach is around Killinallan Point, stretching out to Gortantaoid. While filmed on a mostly overcast day the views are still beautiful:

Islay, Scotland | Stunning Remote Beach, by Drone

If you decide to walk here look out for the tides, it’s much easier to walk at low tide as during high tide the water can come quite close to the dunes. For a circular walk you can walk on the track to Gortantaoid and return via the beach or vice versa.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) imagines Laphroaig distillery on Islay at Hogmanay

Islay Fun

Following on from yesterday’s AI Happy Islay New Year I played a bit more with Microsoft’s Copilot / DALL·E 3 from OpenAI. The prompt was fairly vague and not much really reminded me of Islay. So I thought, let’s try to be a bit more specific and ask it to “Create a picture of Laphroaig distillery on Islay with fireworks above during a clear night with the Milky Way above”. Assuming the AI has been trained on some pictures of the real thing it should be able to create something that at least remotely resembles the real thing. Well…..

I don’t know what the AI has been trained on, but I assume it doesn’t know an awful lot how Laphroaig really looks. Some of the representations of the Milky Way look a bit odd as well. Some of the distillery buildings it created look more like a factory with up to six chimneys (but lacking any pagodas). At least all the results place it at the shore, although the lighthouses some versions get are rather odd.

Somehow I had expected a bit more, but then again I heard you have to be very specific with the wording you use. I might read up on it and try again some other time.

An AI Happy New Islay Year 2024

Islay Fun

Happy New Year 2024! Time for resolutions (including blogging here more again) and those kind of things. For various reasons I’m deviating from my usual New Year’s Day schedule today. Went for my morning walk (which I extended to a total of just over 7.5 miles) fairly late and so listened to the New Year’s Concert from Vienna using headphones while I was walking. So now over a late brunch I’m playing with some AI image generator (one of the resolutions, learn more about AI…) trying to generate some Islay themed New Year’s pictures. The text is written by me still, not an AI. Click on the pictures to view them in a full size gallery:

Some interesting results in the AI generated pictures (using Microsoft’s Copilot / DALL·E 3 from OpenAI). I asked for an Islay New Year’s day with Islay whisky, beaches, white cottages, lighthouse, Golden Eagles, whisky distillery, lighthouse and Barnacle Geese (in a few combinations). None of it really looks like Islay. The Golden Eagles look mostly like Bald Eagles. The Barnacle Geese look mostly like Canada Geese. The distillery looks weird. The whisky is generic, but that’s OK. In other words, not that much improvement to my earlier attempt.

On that note I hope you had and are having a good New Year and will be having a great 2024. Time for a New Year’s Day dram soon, I think.

A PC12 Islay single malt for Imke’s visit

Islay Whisky News & Links

After over 4 years of only speaking over the internet (Skype, Signal) due to Covid and various other reasons my sister is visiting me from Germany for the first time in a very long time. I decided that warranted opening a special bottle of Islay single malt which had been sitting on my Islay shelf for many years. As my sister doesn’t drink but still enjoys the smell of good whisky we share: She gets to nose the dram, then I get to drink it. Which one is it? This one:

Picture of a bottle of Port Charlotte PC12 Islay single malt whisky unopened and opened
A PC12 Islay single malt for Imke’s visit

It’s a Bruichladdich Port Charlotte PC12 bottle I must have bought many many many Moons ago. Unopened on the left, opened on the right. Enjoyed two very very very lovely large drams before it returned into the safety and darkness of it’s tin again.

More Islay by motorbike videos

Islay on Video

Back in May I shared some videos from a visit to Islay with a Royal Enfield Meteor 350. This time it’s a rented DL650 for a fairly short visit. Brent rode from Coupar (where he rented the bike) to Tarbert, which is where the interesting part of his videos from his motorbike tour around Scotland begins:

Motorcycling Scotland – Day 2 – Islay (via Kennacraig)

Day 3 sees him leaving Islay and he also rides past a mishap on the “Tarbert Bypass” (be careful on that road if you use it) while travelling north:

Motorcycling Scotland – Day 3 – Islay to Fort Augustus (Loch Ness) via Oban, Tyndrum, & Glencoe Mtns

I hope you enjoyed Brent’s videos, let’s see what else I’ll find over the coming weeks as people share their summer holiday videos.

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?

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!