Part of the triumvirate of heavily-peated southern Islay malts, alongside LVMH's Ardbeg and Beam Global's Laphroaig, Lagavulin was officially founded in 1816 by John Johnston (although illicit distillation is said to have been carried out on the site since the mid-eighhteenth centrury) and has been the Islay representative of Diageo's Classic Malt selection since 1987. The histories of Lagavulin and Laphroaig have been closely tied together, with Laphroaig said to have been founded by the son of the founder of Lagavulin.
