Our third and final Fèis Ìle competition is the big one – a chance to not only win a full 50cl bottle of Caol Ila from That Boutique-y Whisky Company, but to be immortalised on their next cultish comic book style-label: a Laphroaig single malt!

We’ve heard on the grapevine that a Dr. E. Brown of Hill Valley sent out 12 messages in bottles, which are due to wash up on the shores of Islay in just a couple of days! Some crazy stuff on that grapevine, I can tell ya!

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Following on from Competition 1, it’s time to offer a little more detail on the second competition we’re running whilst on Islay. Let me introduce you to ‘Peaty’, our bold and feisty little friend. He’s also a toy dog.

Peaty’s hero is Shortie, the Ardbeg distillery dog, but he loves all Islay whisky equally and when we take him to visit the distilleries he often doesn’t want to leave! If you find him on your travels between 24th May and 2nd June, we’re offering a reward for his safe return to the Malt Mobile – a full 50cl bottle of our brand new That Boutique-y Whisky Company Caol Ila, worth £54.95! One good deed deserves another, after all.

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In just 7 days time a crack team of MoMers (MoMists? MoMians? Something that sounds less like a cult?) will be setting off in the direction of the Fèis Ìle whisky festival on Islay!

Excitingly, as mentioned in our earlier Islay blog post, we will be running 3 Competitions while we are out there! The time has now come to break it down even further with a little more detail on each competition starting with numero uno...

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We’ve been back for a couple of weeks now and we’re slowly beginning to feel human again after the rigours of our ten days on Islay.

This year’s Feis Ile was quite an experience, from the fabulous food at the Lagavulin dinner to partying with the Balvenie boys, Cask Strength, et al in our very own hot tub.

Since we’ve been back, we’ve also been enjoying the entries to our competition, some of which I have peppered throughout this post.

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We've lost Gareth. Poor chap had to leave on a jet plane early this morning and miss this day of wonderful days…drumroll please…

Ardbeg Day! Yes, my malty children, it was the day of Ardbeg, and after a long and luxurious lie in, we were fed a lovely fry up by Mr Ben and then lickety-split, back in the Malt Mobile to rush across the island and not miss all the festivities.

For on this day, Ardbeg held their very own Islay-lympics complete with discus throwing and sheep tossing. We began the day with a nip of the Feis Ile special bottling from Ardbeg, the aptly named: Arbeg Day (Release the Peat!).

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Thursday was Jura Day. It started far too early for any of our liking, and lack of sleep is beginning to play heavily on people’s sanity; that and the midges.

We left in a hurry to catch the ferry at 8.30am, at the other side of the Island. You know, over there. 

It is not a long journey. In fact we reached Jura in about 4 and-a-half minutes, the malt mobile rolling off the boat and onto the rugged shore.Force of habit made us reach for the sat nav, to aid us in our navigation of the Island’s one, single track road. We were going the right way. 

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I’ll begin from the end and work backwards today as Balvenie has done a number on my brain and it’s the only way I can recollect the events preceding this moment.

I recall at half past six this morning, I watched as the Balvenie brand ambassadors drove away with the Malt Mobile. I apparently did not protest enough at the claim that ‘Ben said it was ok.’

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I woke up, and removed myself from bed with the cautiousness of a man who has just undergone complicated surgery.

Unbelievable. Despite my memory rendering the last few hours in similar detail to a five year old’s picture of the Sistine Chapel, I was all right. Praise be indeed!

I congratulated myself on my iron constitution. Today would be a day of winding Highland roads and tight schedules. Not a day to be under the weather.

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Sadly, when we awoke on Saturday, we discovered that there had been “poorly defined ferry issues”. This meant we couldn’t attend Ardbeg’s distillery day, and instead we had to pack our things and race across the island to reach the morning boat. You can imagine our chagrin. It looked to be a great day and the weather was splendid, complete with blue skies and, for the first time in over a week, we were thrilled to see our tired bodies were casting shadows on the ground. This felt like a good omen for our Lord of the Rings-style quest home (in this case, back to the Shire). More...

Friday was Bunnahabhain’s distillery day...

As far as Islay distilleries go, Bunnahabhain is perhaps the least talked about among the Scotch cognoscenti, and whilst this is entirely unfair (due to the quality of the spirit), it is unsurprising in many ways. For a start the whisky isn’t particularly peaty, nor is not subject to any wild experimentation during production or maturation, and overall, well, it’s decidedly gentle. More...