How misprint accidentally sexed up whisky’s labelling

IT’S a tiny oversight that might seem easy to overlook.

But a typographical gaffe by a whisky maker means its new limitededition dram has been labelled ‘Islay Sex’ instead of ‘Islay Festival’.

Kilchoman Distillery, based on the Hebridean island, has endured some gentle leg-pulling over the Gaelic slip on its 12-year-old single malt.

The £108 bottles, which mark the annual Islay Festival, have been labelled Feis Ile, pictured.

However, Gaelic speakers took to social media to point out a missing accent on the ‘e’ in Fèis altered its meaning from ‘festival’ to ‘sex’.

Posting on Twitter, Graham Hazelton told the distillery: ‘That doesn’t mean what you think it means.’ Gaelic singer Arthur Cormack asked: ‘You’ve managed to bottle sexual intercourse?’

Meanwhile, Annchris Maclean, who teaches Gaelic, wrote: ‘I got tired of pointing out to numerous distilleries during fèis week that they needed the accent and why.’ Kilchoman Distillery responded that it has been creating exclusive drams for the festival for 11 years. A spokesman said: ‘It’s surprising we’ve not been told about it prior to now. Any future ones we do, we will put the accents on.’

However, whisky fans have eagerly snapped up the tipple, with the entire production run of 2,630 bottles selling out in four minutes.

Kilchoman was the first distillery to be built on Islay in more than 124 years. It was founded in 2005 by Anthony Wills.