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Hand-dipped. One at a time. Every time.
Welcome to Laphroaig.
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Willem Dafoe & Sarah Dowling on the Making of a Laphroaig Like No Other
An Exclusive Look Behind Willem by Willem
Step behind the scenes of Willem by Willem with exclusive access created for Friends of Laphroaig.
Watch Willem Dafoe and Sarah Dowling discuss the making of the limited edition, explore behind-the-scenes moments from the collaboration, and discover imagery from the April 2026 London media preview, where the whisky was first shared with press.
A Whisky Selected Without Notes
What happens when one of cinema’s most distinctive actors meets one of Islay’s most distinctive single malts? Sarah Dowling and Willem Dafoe sit down to discuss the creative process behind Willem by Willem, from blind selection and sensory memory to the challenge of creating a whisky that remains unmistakably Laphroaig, while leaving room for personal interpretation.
A Creative Conversation in Flavour
For Sarah Dowling, the collaboration was an invitation to explore whisky beyond technical description. For Willem Dafoe, it was a chance to respond to flavour as an actor might respond to a role: through feeling, memory, and discovery.
Their conversations helped guide a whisky that is layered, expressive, and deliberately open to interpretation. It is Laphroaig through and through but with a character that asks each drinker to decide what they taste, what they feel, and what they remember.
Filmed exclusively for Friends
In this exclusive conversation, Sarah and Willem explore the making of a whisky chosen not through conventional tasting notes, but through instinct, memory, curiosity, and feeling. Finished in Oloroso sherry casks, this rare release brings together Laphroaig’s unmistakable Islay character with a creative spirit that invites every drinker to find their own words.
Willem by Willem: the preview
A First Pour in London
To mark the launch of Willem by Willem, Laphroaig hosted an intimate media preview in London in April 2026.
The event introduced press to a limited-edition 14 Year Old Islay single malt selected by Willem Dafoe in collaboration with Sarah Dowling. The whisky was chosen without conventional tasting notes, guided instead by instinct, sensation, and curiosity.
A whisky selected by Willem Dafoe
Guided by instinct
That idea shaped the entire preview. Rather than telling guests exactly what to taste, Laphroaig invited them to encounter the whisky on their own terms as a bold, complex, Oloroso sherry cask finished expression that is unmistakably Laphroaig, but never predictable.
