DramStoryWhere whisky adventures beginThe largest distillery on Islay spent a hundred and fifty-six years as a blender's best-kept secret, filling casks bound mostly for Johnnie Walker while barely bottling a drop under its own name — Caol Ila only released its first single malt in 2002. Spirit of Smoke gets you close to exactly what it was hiding: ninety minutes in the Maturation Warehouse (dress warm, it's chilly), where your guide draws five 15ml cask-strength drams straight from the barrel in front of you, from a youthful 15 Year Old up to a mature 21 — poured nowhere else but here. From the car park, a two-mile coastal path picks up the same view stretched out properly — Jura across the water the whole way. Finish at the Port Askaig Hotel (Old Port Bar), right beside the ferry pier — the oldest continually licensed premises on Islay, pulling pints since the sixteenth century.