Andy Devaney
Hackstons is bringing the soul of Islay to Knightsbridge for one tightly curated evening, and not the sort where people drift about clutching tasting cards and pretending to detect seaweed. This is a smaller, sharper affair: 12 guests, six exceptional single malts and an island story that has been shaping Scotch whisky for centuries.
Set for Thursday 30 April at the Hackstons flagship store, the event marks the first major whisky date on the retailer’s calendar. It is built around Islay, that rugged Hebridean outpost whose influence on Scotch is wildly disproportionate to its size. The island has a habit of producing whisky with the kind of personality that walks into a room before the glass does.
For Hackstons, the evening is about more than pouring fine drams. It is about slowing things down and giving one of whisky’s most storied regions the sort of close attention it deserves.
Why Islay still casts such a long shadow
Islay has long held a near-mythic place in whisky culture, partly because of its landscape and partly because of the liquid that landscape has shaped.
This is an island of windswept coastlines, peat-rich earth and distilleries that carry themselves with the confidence of old sea captains. Salt air, damp ground and Atlantic weather have all left their fingerprints on the spirit. The result is a style of whisky that can be smoky, medicinal, briny, floral, oily, elegant or unexpectedly delicate, sometimes all in the same evening.
That complexity matters because Islay is often flattened into cliché. Mention the island and many people think only of smoke, as though every bottle arrives trailing bonfire ash and hospital corridors. The truth is both richer and more interesting. Islay can roar, certainly, but it can also murmur. Beneath the peat lies nuance, texture and a surprising range of styles.
That broader story is what this Hackston’s experience appears designed to tell.
A tasting built on rarity, story and scale
The evening begins with an Ardbeg 10 Year Old highball, a bright and contemporary opening that eases guests into Islay’s unmistakable identity without throwing them straight into the deep end wearing concrete boots.
From there, the tasting moves through six single malts chosen to show the breadth of the island rather than simply its loudest characteristics.
There is Bruichladdich Bere Barley 2013, rooted in heritage barley and the idea of terroir, a whisky that brings farming, place and philosophy into the conversation. Then comes Laphroaig 18 Year Old, an expression that balances maturity, sweetness and maritime peat with the sort of calm assurance only time can provide.
The line-up also includes Ardnahoe Inaugural Release 5 Year Old, a bottle that carries special significance as the first release from Islay’s newest distillery in nearly two decades. It gives the evening a useful sense of movement, a reminder that Islay is not merely preserving history but still adding to it.
Then the tasting shifts into rarer air.
Lagavulin Islay Jazz Festival 2015 is one of those bottles that tends to make enthusiasts lean forward a little. Bowmore 21 Year Old Château Lagrange French Oak Barriques offers a more polished sort of intrigue, pairing Islay spirit with Bordeaux wine casks in a marriage that sounds bold and, in the right hands, deeply rewarding. Both bottles cost £330 each.
The final flourish is Bunnahabhain 35 Year Old (1989), a refined expression that offers an altogether quieter kind of authority. Retailing at £750 a bottle, it brings gravitas to the line-up while showing guests that Islay is not defined solely by force. Sometimes the island’s greatest trick is restraint.
An intimate evening by design
The most telling detail may be the guest list. Just 12 places are available.
That cap gives the evening its shape. In a crowded room, rare whisky can become background decoration. In a smaller setting, each dram gets its own breathing room. So does the conversation around it.
Hackstons has been building a reputation around premium drinks retail, fine wine, whisky, spirits and tangible asset ownership, but this event is less about commerce than curation. The aim appears to be immersion: giving guests enough context, atmosphere and expert guidance to understand not just what they are tasting, but why it matters.
That is where Jeffrey Lau’s role becomes central. A guided tasting rises or falls on the quality of the storytelling around the glass. Facts alone are dry things. Good hosting links flavour to landscape, distillery style to history, and bottle choice to a wider cultural thread. Done well, guests leave with more than tasting notes. They leave with perspective.
More than smoke in a glass
One of the stronger ideas behind the event is its effort to widen the lens on Islay.
Throughout the evening, guests will be taken through the island’s history and culture, from old peat-cutting traditions used to dry malted barley to stories of illicit distillation and the rise of its iconic distilleries. That matters because whisky at this level is never just about liquid. It is about method, geography, stubbornness, weather, people and time.
And in Islay’s case, time is practically another ingredient.
The island has built its global standing not through volume but identity. Despite its small population, it has exerted a remarkable pull on whisky lovers around the world, inspiring devotion, tribalism and the occasional sermon from someone who has had two drams and found religion. Hackstons is leaning into that fascination and, wisely, not reducing it to theatre.
Instead, this looks like an evening intended to reveal Islay in full: smoky when it wants to be, elegant when it chooses, and always rooted in place.
Why Knightsbridge makes sense
There is something deliciously improbable about Islay turning up in Knightsbridge.
One is all polished glass, tidy tailoring and London luxury. The other is weather-beaten, peat-dark and shaped by sea air. Yet that tension is part of the appeal. Great whisky has always travelled well, carrying its landscape into rooms far removed from where it was born.
Hackstons has clearly understood that luxury consumers increasingly want more than a premium product on a shelf. They want access, intimacy and a stronger sense of narrative. The modern connoisseur does not merely buy bottles. They want to understand provenance, hear the story behind the cask and feel as though they have stepped slightly closer to the source.
This event speaks directly to that appetite.
A flagship moment for Hackstons
For Hackstons, the Islay tasting is also a statement of intent.
Flagship stores are often described as destinations, though many of them feel more like polished waiting rooms with good lighting. What separates a genuine destination from a nice shop is experience. This event helps position the Knightsbridge store as a place where expertise, storytelling and rarity meet in a more meaningful way.
Hackstons founder Alphie Valentine said: “We’ve created the Islay tasting as the ultimate whisky lovers’ evening, something truly intimate that captures the depth, heritage and diversity of one of the most important regions in the world. From rare drams to the stories behind them, it’s about offering an experience that goes far beyond a traditional tasting and leaves a lasting impression.”
That is an ambitious promise, but the bones of the evening support it. The line-up has substance. The guest count is deliberately restrained. The focus on history and diversity gives the experience more depth than a straightforward tasting flight.
In a city where premium events often mistake expense for meaning, that feels like a sensible distinction.
One night, one island, and a room full of attention
There are easier ways to spend an evening in London than concentrating on the spirit of a Hebridean island, but not many more rewarding ones.
Hackstons has built this event around the idea that Islay deserves more than passing admiration. It deserves context, patience and a room small enough for people to listen. For those lucky enough to secure one of the 12 places, this promises not simply a run of excellent drams, but a closer encounter with one of whisky’s most compelling places.
That, in the end, is the attraction. Not just the rarity of the bottles, but the chance to sit with them properly.
Tickets: £85 + booking fees (£7.80)
Venue: Hackstons, Knightsbridge
Booking: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/history-of-islay-premium-whisky-tasting-tickets
