Happy Christmas (from Laphroaig)

I guess many of you have already faced certain kind of corporate "Happy Christmas" letters. Usually they are just rubbish. But here is one which a friend of mine considers to be an exceptional one - and so do I. Maybe it is because of the tone, maybe it is because of the wonderful product it represents.
So let me join this wonderful greeting and say Happy Christmas to you!

Dear Martin
I hope my Christmas letter and e-card (see below) finds you well and of good cheer! Winter came early to our Island this year with huge storms pounding your distillery day after day. No need to worry though, our outer sea walls are over 4 foot thick. Indeed the footings of No.1 warehouse even pre-date the distillery as it stands on what was originally Donald Johnston's cattle stables. This is an interesting point of history. For those of you who don't know, one of the reasons that the original farm distilled whisky was because it was a cattle farm. During the summer barley was grown to feed the cattle over the winter. When there was surplus stocks of barley, the Johnston brothers had two choices – throw it away or distil the barley. Fortunately for us they chose the latter route. Indeed this is why we do not know the exact date that distilling commenced on their farm as in those days it was all done illegally! If you have bought a bottle of our Quarter Cask, you will have read that the little barrels first used in those far off days were considered very useful in transporting the spirit by pack horse (at night when the customs man was asleep!) 2006 has been one of our busiest years ever. We are now distilling to our maximum capacity – literally 24 hours a day, 7 days a week such is your thirst for the unique flavour of Laphroaig. Of course the spirit we are making will not be drunk for many a long year but, even now, Laphroaig is in short supply so we have to consider the future requirements as best we can. With all this activity we have to replace our stills from time to time (the copper walls become so thin they cannot be patched anymore). This was one of those years with still no. 3 being replaced. As always we use Forsyth's of Rothes who have been building and repairing our stills as long as anyone can remember. They use all the traditional methods (like us) and faithfully replicate the exact shape of it's 'father' so there are no changes at all to the spirit it makes, which is the way we want it. It was also in many ways our best year. The San Francisco World Spirit Competition is considered by many to be one of the most prestigious and hardest fought competitions in the world. In 2006 we swept the board! Not only did we win 'double gold' for our 10 year old, cask strength, quarter cask and 15 year old but our 30 year old won 'Best Whisky of show' and – wait for it – your distillery was named 'Distiller of the year'! So if you need an extra reason to raise your glass – now you have it! Nearer to home we had a very successful Feis Isle. May I thank all of you who wrote in saying how much you enjoyed our special distillery bottling – it was good wasn't it! (Robert and I selected two top barrels from 1994 which we hand bottled here at the distillery). I know that literally thousands of you were disappointed not to be able to get a bottle and I will ask Robert to choose extra barrels of his selection for next year. At the time of writing I have no idea what we will be choosing. The only guarantee is you know it will be worth the wait! This year's Feis Isle gave us the first opportunity to meet our second guide dog that you made possible. You may remember we asked you to name him and the result was 'Smokey'. Smokey is a black Labrador (Froaig is a golden) he was only 8 weeks old and had just met his trainers. We looked after him for a day when his trainers went walking on the paps of Jura (this is far too tough for an 8 week puppy). I must say he was very well behaved. We have shot a little video of him which we will be putting up on your website . Talking of charities, 2007 is going to be a very special year for Laphroaig. I am sure you are as proud as we are sponsoring 2 guide dogs for the blind. However, we always secretly wanted to do something for our Island community up here on Islay. This opportunity has just come up and, if it's ok with you, we will now be contributing to helping our local community at Port Ellen. They have long needed an all weather sports pitch. Our local school has been leading the way in this fundraising effort as the pitch will be on their grounds. It will make a real difference to the lives of everybody up here and we hope it can be built over the next year. So, if anyone fancies starting a 'Friends of Laphroaig football team' now's your chance. Any ideas for a name? When I have some pictures of the plan I will post them on the website. 2007 is going to be special in other (whisky) ways, but I m not allowed to talk about that yet! However, as always you will be the first to know whatever it may be, so keep a close eye on your Emails from me!That just leaves me the pleasant task of wishing you a very happy Christmas and a great Hogmanay. As always, we at the distillery will be raising a glass of our finest to you.Please click on the link below for your personalised Friends of Laphroaig Christmas card and do feel free to send your own version to your friends.

Slainthe Mathe
John Campbell