Laphroaig, is a Gaelic term meaning "the beautiful hollow over the broad valley," meaning Islay, the motherland of peaty scotch whiskey, whose velvety smoky sensation helps make it truly unique. The distillery was founded in 1815, and despite its centuries-long history and multiple changes in ownership, the Laphroaigh distillery has never abandoned the production system desired by tradition. In fact, we are talking about one of the few Scottish distilleries that produces on the floor part of its malted barley requirements and is the only one that still extracts the peat by hand, without "squeezing" it with the use of machinery, but preserving it with all its precious vegetable oils. Water also plays a starring role: rainwater, before gushing out, seeps through layers of peat until it finds the hard rock. This natural process makes it a unique and essential ingredient. As for distillation, we find a battery of as many as seven stills in the plant, three wash stills for the first distillation, and four spirit stills for the second. This forces the distillery manager to put the newly obtained distillate into a blending tank to keep its character constant. Ex-bourbon, Maker's Mark and Jim Beam, and Quarter Cask barrels are used for aging. Once the barrel aging is complete, the product is brought to the optimum gravity for bottling.