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From peaty whiskies such as Ardbeg and Caol Ila, to lighter drams from Bunnahanhain, Islay has something for all whisky tastes including the range of Fèis Ìle 2025 Festival bottlings
Fèis Ìle is Islay’s renowned whisky, culture and music festival, and runs this year from the 23 May until 31 May.
Each of the nine Islay distilleries have their own festival day which can include tours, tastings and live music.
Here we take a look at what festival bottlings are on offer and how you can snap up a bottle.
This year, Lagavulin is inviting fans to discover new depths of flavour with Lagavulin Fèis Ìle 2025 15 Year-Old.
Finished in Moscatel de Málaga casks, this expression showcases a masterful balance of sweet and spicy notes while retaining Lagavulin’s distinctive smokiness.
This rich and complex bottling offers aromas of salted toffee, and ripe berries, interwoven with maritime medicinal undertones.
The palate is luxuriously smooth and creamy, harmonising flavours of sweetness, salt, spice, and smoke. It culminates in a long, drying finish with that lingering fragrant Lagavulin smoke and a captivating note of Sichuan pepper spice.
Lagavulin Fèis Ìle 2025 15 Year-Old is bottled at 55.7% ABV, with an RRSP of £240, available to be purchased from the distillery and malts.com. There will be a total of 1,596 bottles.
In a bold new move, Caol Ila is introducing an exciting new dimension of flavour with Caol Ila Fèis Ìle 2025 8 Year-Old.
This whisky has been matured in a unique combination of refill casks and Pedro Ximénez /Oloroso-seasoned casks, before being finished in new Colombian Oak casks.
The result is a burst of bold yet harmonious flavours. As whisky expert Charles MacLean puts it, “even at reduced strength, the taste is intense!”. T
his release explores Caol Ila’s waxy character, delivering an intensely smooth, oily texture and a richer, unexpectedly sweet profile emerging from the Colombian Oak cask finish. The whisky’s complex smoke is amplified by layers of spice notes and peppery warmth.
Caol Ila Fèis Ìle 2025 8 Year-Old is bottled at 55.8% ABV, with an RRSP of £110, available to be purchased from the distillery and malts.com. There will be a total of 1,476 bottles.
Laphroaig will welcome Friends of Laphroaig and whisky lovers from around the world to the distillery on Tuesday 27 May for Laphroaig Open Day.
Guests can expect a full day of festivities that capture the spirit of the distillery and its island home – from traditional music and dancing to the warmth of peat fires and the unmistakable aroma of Laphroaig’s signature smoky whisky.
Laphroaig will mark Fèis Ìle 2025 with its latest Càirdeas expression, Lore Cask Strength – a bold, richly layered single malt that completes our series of cask strength versions of well-known Laphroaig whiskies.
With Càirdeas meaning ‘friendship’ in Gaelic, this release allows Friends of Laphroaig to discover exciting expressions matured in creative casks, and new twists to the iconic Islay Single Malt.
Crafted as a marriage of five of Laphroaig’s favourite cask types - including ex-Bourbon, Oloroso sherry, European oak, and quarter casks - this expression is non-chill filtered and bottled at natural cask strength, delivering the distillery’s most intense flavour profile yet.
On the nose, the whisky is sweet, herbal and boldly peaty, with a fruity expression opening with aromas of apricot, peaches in syrup, lemon cream, coconut and vanilla fudge.
The palate delivers an explosion of peat and salty sea spray, followed by lemon zest, salted limes, caramel, and herbal notes of mint and tea leaves. Delicate spices like cumin, cloves and ginger emerge, leading to a long, citrus-sweet finish with an enduring phenolic character that defines Laphroaig.
Laphroaig Càirdeas Lore Cask Strength SRP is £89 and is on sale exclusively from the distillery shop from Saturday 24 May.
Bowmore will open the gates to Islay’s oldest licensed distillery on Wednesday 28th May for Bowmore Open Day.
Set against the stunning backdrop of Loch Indaal, the distillery will come alive with exclusive tastings and experiences, each designed to showcase the craftsmanship behind their whisky.
To celebrate this year’s festival, Bowmore is proud to unveil an exclusive Fèis Ìle release – a 100% floor-malted single cask bottling. The Bowmore Fèis Ìle 2025 exclusive embodies Bowmore’s commitment to quality, innovation and its time-honoured whisky-making tradition.
Crafted with intent, and filled entirely by hand in the No. 1 Vaults, this captivating single malt reflects Bowmore’s long-standing artisanal philosophy. On the nose, it is intense and spicy with blackcurrant, liquorice root, leather, and peat smoke.
The palate is sweet and oily, with floral notes, charred orange rind, black cherry, with a long, lingering, almost chewy finish.
Bowmore Fèis Ìle 2025 exclusive SRP is £120 and is on sale from the Bowmore distillery from Wednesday 28 May.
Jura Whisky is selling a new single cask release to celebrate this year’s Fèis Ìle Festival.
On 30 May Jura will be welcoming whisky lovers to its beachside distillery, with tours of the distillery on offer as well as tastings, live music, cocktails and boat tours exploring Jura’s beautiful coastline.
To mark the 2025 festival, a very special expression will be released limited to just 300 bottles, exclusively available to the whisky-lovers who visit Jura in-person during Fèis Ìle.
Joe Ricketts, whisky maker, explained: “For this year’s Fèis Ìle single cask release we’ve revisited a standout 2007 vintage parcel. In 2022 the whisky making and distillery teams selected #1892, a bold, rich oloroso butt which explored a different side to Jura’s distillery character.
“With an additional three years maturation, #1895 builds on the complexity of our 2022 Fèis Ìle release, with notes of crystallised citrus, prune and hazelnut together with hints of polished leather and dark chocolate from its full-course Sherry maturation.”
This whisky is available exclusively at the Jura distillery between 23 May and 31 May 2025 with an RSP of £135.
Marking 25 years of the Ardbeg Committee, this year’s festivities on Saturday 31 May are, the team say, set to be out of this world.
At the distillery and across the globe, Ardbeg will transport smoky malt lovers’ taste-buds to a fruity new dimension, with Ardbeg Smokiverse, the limited edition whisky released for the festival.
This limited edition will be the Islay distillery’s first whisky crafted from a high-gravity mash, resulting in a distinctly vibrant, tropical and fruity spirit.
This unconventional “high-gravity” mash magnified the intensity of flavour-active compounds known as acetate esters, leading to a fruitier, more tropical spirit.
Aged in bourbon casks, this Ardbeg whisky unveils layers of muscovado sugar, ripe barley, and toasted sourdough bread, all culminating in a burst of ripe tropical fruits and sweet peat.
Ardbeg Smokiverse will be available to buy worldwide from Ardbeg Embassies, whisky specialists, online retailers, the Distillery Visitor Centre on Islay, and on Ardbeg.com from 28 May.
