I have a good story about Laphroaig and a bad story. I’ll begin with the good story. I’m a Friend of Laphroaig dating back to about 2004. Back in those days I was new to Scotch. I went to my local retailer and said, “I’m looking for a Scotch, I don’t know what I want but I think I want something smokey.” The merchant personally liked sweeter Scotches and tried to steer me toward the highlands. Sticking to my very limited knowledge, which consisted of a single Classic Malts tasting where Talisker stood out, I kept asking for something from an island. The retailer had a Laphroaig and an Ardbeg. Rather than deciding, I purchased both. And to this day, these are my ‘go-to’ Scotches.
Laphroaig Good Story
Once you become a Friend of Laphroaig, you receive a square foot of land for which Laphroaig pays you rent of one 10ml bottle of Laphroaig when you visit the distillery. Additionally, the gift shop has a library where you can research your plot of land, sign in, borrow some boots, grab a flag and go visit your land. It’s a pretty neat idea. Conspiracy Theory suggests that there is a land dispute and Laphroaig took action by deeding off thousands of square feet of the disputed land so that legally it would be almost impossible for any single entity to take possession. Regardless, it’s a brilliant way to create a loyalty program, give them benefits and endear them to the brand. I learned that the same neck collars which promote the Friends of Laphroaig on their retail bottles can be collected for points toward merchandise in the gift shop.
The shop has a small tasting bar with comfortable seating and snacks. At first we didn’t understand the selection opportunities. But soon realized that Laphroaig offered a flight of their popular bottlings and a flight of rare bottles. After you finish your free welcome dram, you can purchase more tastings. I recommend a flight of the rare expressions because this is most likely the only place to taste these together without spending serious money.
The location of the distillery is beautiful, as is the case with many of the Islay coastal distilleries. Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg all have huge white buildings facing the water with their name, larger than life, painted on them. When visiting, these walls are a natural Instagram photo opportunity. When we arrived, the weather was perfect. I mean that. I was sunny, cool and no winds.
We went outside for photos and a flight. When we were finished, we stayed outside sitting along the Laphroaig Wall for the entire afternoon. We made friends with some Brits, Leslie and Allen, who were van-camping. They asked and were given permission to stay in the Laphroaig parking lot overnight. Allen was an avid Laphroaig enthusiast who purchased a 10 yr old bottle and promptly shared it with us. Leslie had some homemade Scotch Eggs, which she shared with us. For my part, I carried big bars of Swiss Chocolate, Cailler is my favorite brand for chocolate bars. I highly recommend bringing a food gift to share with vacation friends and good tour guides. They share so much with us, we should share back.
The experience was as relaxed and stress free as can be asked. A really good memory for me.
Laphroaig Bad 2018
I’d prefer not to share negative experiences because they tend to be unique and personal to the people involved. Unfortunately, I’ve come to the conclusion that Laphroaig’s problems are systemic to the organization. We did not have our Bowmore Tour to compare the two distilleries under the same owner. I hope Bowmore does not suffer from the same issues as Laphroaig. Given what I’m about to share, and it breaks my heart, I think it’s the organizational culture more than one brand.
Laphroaig, as I’ve expressed, is a highlight for me. I was supposed to visit Islay in 2018 and had prepared that trip around the full-day Laphroaig Water to Whisky Tour. This is an expensive tour which requires advanced payment. I registered and paid. I did not receive a confirmation email. No big deal, I checked my spam folders and then emailed them using the website. No response.
Fearing that the heart of my trip may not occur, I tried to book again but my day of choice was no longer available. So I booked again for the next day. In my second booking, I left a message explaining that this may be a double booking and not to hold both days. I got an automated response for the second booking. And again, emailed through the website to make sure I did not have 2 sets of bookings. No response. Ok, surely, they would see my name day after day. As a last resort, when I’m ‘feet-on-the-ground’ we’ll resolve this in person.
And then my entire Scotland trip was cancelled due to a family death. I notified Laphroaig through their website to cancel everything. No response. At this point, I should say that I’m communicating with hotels, distilleries, hostels, restaurants and airlines. I’m a detail person, I have notes about when and whom I talk with someone, I have receipts, and everything is printed in a folder with hand-written comments. Most everyone is responding quickly, expressing sympathies and giving me their cancellation terms. In all, the cancellation, due to the timing, cost me many thousands of dollars. I’m vigilant about any refunds. Laphroaig was the only – THE ONLY – unresponsive organization in the mix.
I’m not a random tourist and I know the brand ambassadors in the States. I made printouts of my credit card debits and forwarded my story to the local brand ambassador. He responded with two specific names and their emails. I emailed them. No response.
Laphroaig Bad 2019
Fast forward to summer of 2019. I’m planning the trip being described. Again, I reach out to my two specific contacts and I got an email failure for one. I also tried the emails from the website and got an email failure for one and no response from the other. That’s 4 email attempts. I only got a response from one of my personal contact. My email contained the correspondence with the brand manager and my request to meet her when I arrived. Her response to my personal email was, “I’m so happy you are visiting our distillery. If you are interested in a tour, follow the link below.”
I thought to myself, “Really? You didn’t even read my email.”
Obviously, I’m not going to book another tour. Instead, I’m going to show-up and see what happens.
When I show up, I ask for my contact person and we were told she was finishing a tour. I asked for my Friends of Laphroaig ID number while I wait. I was told that they do not have that information due to their privacy policy, that I would need to go through the website. This exercise I’ve done many times over the 15 years since signing up to be a Friend, I’ve never received any response. Sound familiar? None-the-less, I filled out the website form requesting my Friend of Laphroaig ID.
About 30 minutes later, after my contact has had some time to decompress from her tour, I introduce myself and ask if she recalls my emails from the week before. She did not but she opened her computer and performed a ‘whole-company’ search for my email. She did not find any of my emails except for the Friends of Laphroaig ID request I submitted half an hour earlier. I asked if she was the person who handled the Friends of Laphroaig requests. She said she was not. Which means, Laphroaig’s data is in fact open to employees and the data privacy line I was fed was worthless. Did I mention that my day job is Cybersecurity? So, I’m a technical person, I specifically understand privacy issues as part of my normal profession and the Laphroaig staff is feeding me crap.
I continued to share my story from the year before and handed over the printouts of all my communication attempts over the last year which included copies of my credit card debits. She responded saying, I will give you a credit and proceeded to refund over $500 back to my credit card. I offered copies of my paperwork and she declined saying it was not necessary. Now 3 months later, I’m still waiting for my refund. I wish I had better news about Laphroaig. I certainly hope these problems are systemic to the administration only and not the production crew. We’ll find out in about 10 years I guess.
A few DAYS after our visit, I received a reply from my request for my Friends of Laphroaig ID. It went something like this, “I’m so happy you are interested in becoming a Friend of Laphroaig, please click on the link below and provide us with your information.” Not good and I don’t recommend the Laphroaig Tours. I understand the few distilleries that require advanced payment but I can’t recommend taking a tour when advanced payment is required.
Laphroaig is not a Friend
Laphroaig is not a friend to me and I am no longer a Friend of Laphroaig. All I can do is penalize them for several years by not buying their product, and make posts such as this to help others understand that the management of Laphroaig is pretty terrible.