Laphroig IMO is the strongest smelling and most distinctive of all the Islay malts - smells of TCP (a clinical cleaner found in the UK), still love the stuff though. My father told me he was once given a bottle by a work colleague and threw it away because he thought it was "off" - it smelt so unlike any other whisky he'd ever had, he can't abide Islay malts!

The Port Ellen I have was bought for me by Mrs Kettering Northants JP as a special gift, she went into a whisky specialist and said she wanted a bloody good Islay Malt that you don't see in pubs and restaurants, and they suggested the Port Ellen. It cost a small fortune and we were scared to open it. We eventually opened it with a colleague of mine who is a real whisky enthusiast - we found it to be the smoothest islay malt we have tasted, quite light and very easy to drink undiluted.

When I was last in Sydney we went for a drink in the Hotel bar at The Sir Stamford at Circular Quay, (if there was ever a room that was designed for drinking expensive single malts it's here - think gentleman's club) - spotted Lagavulin on the whisky menu, and tried to order it. We were told they were out of it and it was very unlikley we would find much of it in Australia as a container holding heaven knows how many bottles had "fallen overboard" from the cargo ship bringing it to Australia, reminds me of the 1949 film Whisky Galore!