GREAT content Matt, thank you! Great addition to Whiskytube!! We need to get you past that magic 1k subs mark! Keep going please!!

Great video! I’m still a relative Newbie in my Islay journey, but I thought I’d take a shot at a ranking and see how my ranking changes over time. 1. Bruichladdich 2. Ardbeg 3. Laphroaig 4. Kilchoman 5. Lagavulin 6. Bunnahabhain 7. Caol Ila 8. Bowmore

Nicely done! I would have put Lagavulin above Bowmore on the list but other than that I agree. Keep up the great work!!

This is a very well-considered metric for determining favorite overall distillery ratings! I’ve been rallying various WhiskyTubers for exactly this kind of comparative comprehensive analysis for years, thx! It is valuable enough to put in written form so enthusiasts can use your descriptions of both the OB and recommendations for IB offerings! What about making that a Patreon benefit? At least a chart showing the results at the end or in the description would be great. Congrats and thanks for the intelligent and valuable contributions to the WhiskyVerse!

A great detailed review. Laphroaig is one of favorites as well.

I’ll take 3rd! 😁👍🥃 Good job all-round! 👊

Brilliant episode Matt. Wow, Bruichladdich....great offerings to say the least. Laphroaig special releases are amazing too minus a couple of disappointments.

Great work, good to see your benchmark comparison of the Islay distilleries. I am not sure how important legacy is in the overall scoring, particularly given the impact and great whisky new distilleries are now making, including Kilchoman. But as a proud Scot I get the pride and emotions that their legacy emotes. I wonder if in 10 or 20 years you do this again how their legacy scoring will have changed, or will Diageo owned distillers have destroyed theirs !!?

Awesome content. Thanks and subscribed.

Very impressive and well presented. Cheers 🥃

Enjoyed the video. I'm going over to Islay in 10 days time for a couple of nights and going to my favourite first which is Bunnahabain.

Would have been helpful to have had the score at the bottom of the screen while you talked about each distillery

Laddie is also my favorite!!! Well done sir!!❤❤❤

Super informative and helpful! Thanks

Mate, such a great list. Would love to see more of these 😮 Do you have a playlist of some sort?

Shush, don't give the big D ideas about premiumising my Caol Ila! Good video

Ryan Gauld Approves! XD You should get over to Islay for a Video someday man... You'd love it for sure!

I’m a sucker for these videos. Your top 3 is the same as mine but in a different order. I’m currently loving Bunna the most. I like to consider also where these distilleries would have placed maybe 5-10 years ago. I would bet that the Kildalton 3 would have been firmly wedged in there. How the mighty have fallen.

Great review. Greetings from New Zealand. Speyside or Highland next?

Ive been looking for the bunnahabhain cast strengh here in alberta and cant find it. Any luck finding it in bc?

In the 5 years that I have been drinking whisky Lagavulin 16 has doubled in price.

Cao Ila and Indi guys Signatory is pretty much a safe bet and a bloody good bottle 🙂

I think bunnahabhain peated whisky is so underrated, their toiteach is great and Staoisha is Laphroaig cask strength level peat. I'm really excited to crack open my feis isle bordeaux moine

Hi Matt, quite brave ranking experiment, so, kudos for that...And nice presentation of each distillery you've chosen. On my side, i did found that system interesting but also partly problematic, but i still tried to play the game myself, though struggling with some categories (I did separate the 'Indie bottling & Single Cask" category in just "I.B.s" as for me it doesn't make sense not to group the ".O.B.'s Special Releases" within the "Special Releases" category...I had also issues with the I.B. category when it meant "not enough casks sold to indies", shall we blame them score wise for that ? not sure...But yet I still tried to fit to your criterias as much as I could, but based more on my experience of tasting, as often, to rank distilleries like I did on my website (though sorry alas what is on it is not the latest version, mind you, I did change a lot, passed the 10 first ones/100, a Top 30 would have been maybe more easy?), I prefer to consider how many bottlings I tried from those distilleries & what is the satisfaction ratio + what is the current offer & is it still relevant...Also, even if for instance, we can't add Ardnahoe & the 2 or 3 new distillery projects on Islay yet on the ranking, I couldn't skip the "10th" one, which is my favorite of all distilleries, Port Ellen, currently & slowly restarting to reopen & maybe soon to get its first new run...it was complicated to select a "core range" for that one tbh...But yeah I based my choices here with the 437 different Islay whiskies tasted & Bruichladdich (81 expressions tried including PC/Oc) & Caol Ila (70) were the ones I tried the most whiskies so far... Now MY POWER RANKING (to be detailed another time as there are huge contrasts between the different criterias for many of them, some being disappointing, core range wise for me (count Bruichladdich but not PC in it, count also Bunna, etc...), other S.R. wise, others being really most of the time fantastic on indie bottlings offerings (Bunna especially, but sometimes Bowmore & Caol Ila as well), etc....(& it gets even more complicated for Bruichladdich with their 3 + different brand names ranges), so please don't draw conclusions too quickly on which are my favorite (after P.E. of course), but yeah you're gonna be surprised & disagree, it's the game, "colors & tastes vary"' 😉: PORT ELLEN (93 points) / ARDBEG (67) / BOWMORE (75) / BRUICHLADDICH (67) / BUNNAHABHAIN (72) / CAOL ILA (72) / KILCHOMAN (61) / LAGAVULIN (77) / LAPHROAIG (65)....Also, I'm jealous about that E.D. 33 yo Bowmore you have...!!! hope to try it some day....Cheers !

Great Video!!! Thx

The best is pretty subjective, for me it’s Laphroaig & Ardbeg. What’s the helmet for?

How about an integrity ranking with 50 points for % of expressions that are non chill filtered, and 50 points for % that are at or above 46% ABV.

Kilchoman Bruichladdich Ardbeg Laphroaig Lagavulin Bunnahabhain Caol ila Bowmore Ardnahoe doesn't count.

I was a bit worried when I saw the title, but pleasantly surprised upon watching. Of course, as I've never been out of stock of Laphroaig 10 since July 1982 and have been a registered Friend of Laphroaig since 1996, I would have liked to see that distillery in first place, but I'll settle for second. Also, as I preferred Bruichladdich before Mark Reynier and Jim McEwan 'ruined' it (!), I would never put that in the Top 5, but I can see why 'enthusiasts' might...

A VERY good scale + great video. __________ But, this is heavily tilted toward and scaled for GenX onward, as seen in the fun of CORE RANGE and SPECIAL Releases weighted at 30/30- - - Though many of today's distilleries are but a shadow of yester-years, much were hidden in the past, hence I would weigh LEGACY of the past 100 years (like Froaig) more heavily, and re-scale as 40/20/20/20 or so. Also, TRANSPARENCY (in the stated age) means something - such as integrity, and Laddie has few age-stated bottles ( 8-10-15-18-21 up to the end of 2010 , all for less than 100-120 $CA (OMG !) and the 40yo was 400 $CA (double-dog down OMG) ! ! ... all disappear some 10-15 years ago, despite HUGE variety ) and Kilchoman virtually had all NAS bottlings since its inception (except some early SUmmer/Autumn Vintages - what History ?? ). My suggested scale will put Laph on Top (it received Royal Warrant for its 15 by the present-day King Charles you know . . . it means a LOT in UK, you know) and move Bowmore forward and ahead of Kilchoman --- my 2 cents from Ontario. Cheers !

Bowmore above Lagavulin? Really ? Bowmore should be dead-last. :). I know, lists, subjective etc... enjoyed this vid & others anyways, keep up the great work :)

These are the peatier Scotches.

I think your hat is too big for your head.