It was great to get home on Islay after my two week tour of Australia and the Far East. I really enjoyed it. But I am now off again on a tour of Canada and America. I look forward to meeting as many Friends as I can.

The highlight in the Far East was of course the Laphroaig Live broadcast on the 6th Oct in Sydney. We had a huge global audience and as always I am surprised at how many of you stayed up to watch from all around the World. It was fantastic to meet Lin Johnston the great-great granddaughter of one of our original founders, Donald Johnston. It was also a privilege to get to open and try a very rare “antique” bottle of 10 year old that he would have recognised. In those days Laphroaig matured its whisky in a much broader range of cask types than we do today so it had a different style, but none the less instantly recognisable as a classic Laphroaig.

I appreciate that for many of you it would have been either night time or very early morning when the live broadcast went out so we have put a full recording up on the website for you to enjoy: http://www.laphroaig.com/laphroaig-live/sydney-2011.aspx .

We had many questions sent in live on the night but if you have any when you have watched the programme do please write in and I will try and answer them. You can post them on my Twitter site at www.twitter.com/laphroaigwhisky  or on the Laphroaig Facebook page at www.facebook.com/laphroaig .

The majority of questions we received this year were about our special Laphroaig BBQ sauce we had on the night with our Australian BBQ (I loved the Kangaroo!). We are endeavouring to get the sauce made commercially for you. For any of you that want to attempt it yourselves, the recipe is on the Laphroaig Live website. Personally I thought the smoky Laphroaig influence was terrific, but if you do make it, please tell me what you think.

Finally may I give a warm thanks to all the Friends of Laphroaig I met in Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam and Malaysia. You all made me feel very welcome; I hope to meet many of you in the future here in Islay when we can share stories over a dram!

Slàinte,

John Campbell
Distillery Manager, Laphroaig

For more information about becoming a Friend of Laphroaig visit www.laphroaig.com