Dear Friends of Laphroaig,

Eighteen years ago in May, the first ever Friend of Laphroaig stood proudly on his very own square foot of Islay. Since then, over half a million of you have claimed your land and joined him as Friends of Laphroaig.

During that time we have shared some momentous moments with our FOLs – we’ve witnessed wedding ceremonies on the plots, ashes scattered on them and we’ve even met some FOLs with Laphroaig tattoos.  It really has been a magical eighteen years.

The Friends of Laphroaig tartan

To mark such a momentous occasion, we thought it was about time that we created an official Friends of Laphroaig tartan.

Your help has been invaluable to us over the years, from shaping the new website and designing the FOL crest logo, to the creation of the much loved Quarter Cask expression. It was only natural, therefore, that you would be our first port of call when it came to designing this tartan. Who better to design the FOL tartan than an actual FOL?

We’ve created a simple and fun tartan making app to help you generate your designs. It’s quick and easy to use, you just pick your colours and band sizes and we generate the design for you right there and then. Once your tartan has been submitted it will appear in our gallery along with all of the other submissions and FOLs will be encouraged to vote for their favourite designs.

The top 20 designs will be judged by the distillery team and the overall winner will become the official FOL tartan. The winner will receive a luxurious kilt produced to their design by Gordon Covell of the Islay Woolen Mill. You may recognise Gordon’s name from our website, where we have a short video of him in action. He is also known for creating the tartans worn in films such as Braveheart, Forrest Gump and Rob Roy, so you can be assured of the finest craftsmanship.

If designing your own tartan doesn’t appeal, you can still help to determine the winner by voting for your favourite in our gallery. This will be known as our official tartan for many years to come so it is important to us that you all play a part in its creation. You have until 31st May to submit your tartan or to vote on a winner.

I’ll be raising a dram to the Friends of Laphroaig as often as I can during this birthday month; I hope that you can join me wherever you may be in the World!

To another eighteen years of FOL!

Slàinte

John Campbell
Distillery Manager, Laphroaig