Bruichladdich
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| Region: Islay | |
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| Owner | Bruichladdich Distillery Co Ltd |
| Founded | 1881 |
| Status | Operational |
| Water source | Bruichladdich loch, burn, and Octomore spring |
| Number of stills | 2 wash 2 spirit 1 Lomond |
| Capacity | 1,500,000 litres |
| Mothballed | 1907-1918, 1929-1935, 1941-1945, 1994-2000 |
| Bruichladdich (unpeated) | |
| Age(s) | 2008/2009 Core Range: Rocks, Waves, Peat, Organic 2003, 2001, 1998 Sherry Editions, 16-year-old, 18-year-old, 21-year-old. |
| Cask type(s) | American (70%), Sherry (10%) French (20%) |
| Port Charlotte (peated) | |
| Age(s) | First Cut, PC5, PC6, PC7, PC8, Multi vintage |
| Cask type(s) | American (90%), French (10%) |
| Octomore Orpheus (140 ppm), Octomore 3 (153 ppm) | |
| Age(s) | 5 years |
| Cask type(s) | American (80%), French (20%) |
Bruichladdich Distillery is a Scotch whisky distillery on the Rhinns of the isle of Islay. It is one of eight distilleries on the island, and until the recent opening of Kilchoman farm distillery, the only independent one.
It was featured in an episode of the BBC2 series Oz and James Drink to Britain, in which they were given a tour of the distillery and allowed to try some of the prized 'X4', quadruple-distilled Perilous Whisky, of which Martin Martin wrote in 1695 "the first taste affects all the members of the body; two spoonfuls of this last liquor is a sufficient dose; and if any man exceed this, it would presently stop his breath, and endanger his life. The BBC presenters used the ultra pure spirit to run a Radical racing car.[citation needed]
One interpretation of the Gaelic word Bruichladdich is "stony shore bank", referring to a post glacial raised beach, though an alternative, perhaps more pertinent translation may be "rocky lee shore". Normally pronounced brook-lad-dee, or by some Gaelic speakers as broo-ee-clah-dee (depending on accent), it incorporates a specific, localised soft pronunciation of the Gaelic ch element.
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[edit] History
Bruichladdich was built in 1881 by the Harvey brothers—William (32), John (31) and Robert (23)—on the shore of Loch Indaal, on the Rinns of Islay, the westernmost part of the island. The Harveys were a dynastic whisky family that had owned two Glasgow distilleries since 1770. Using an inheritance, the three brothers combined their talents to build a third distillery—Bruichladdich—designed by John, engineered by Robert, and financed by William and other family members. At the time, the distillery was a state-of-the-art design unlike Islay's older distilleries which had developed from old farm buildings. It was built from stone from the seashore and has a very efficient layout, built around a large, spacious courtyard.
The uniquely tall and narrow-necked stills were chosen to produce a very pure and original spirit, the opposite of the styles produced by the older farm distilleries. Bruichladdich was run by William Harvey, after a bust up with his brothers before the distillery was even completed, until a fire in 1934 and his death in 1936. Over the next forty years it subsequently changed owners several times thanks to corporate take-overs and rationalisation of the industry, narrowly avoiding closure until 1994, when it was shut down as being 'surplus to requirements'.
Fortunately it was saved, purchased by a group of private investors led by Mark Reynier of Murray McDavid on 19 December 2000. Jim McEwan, who had worked at Bowmore Distillery since the age of 15, was hired as Production Director. Between January and May 2001 the whole distillery was dismantled and reassembled, with the original Victorian décor and equipment retained. Having escaped modernisation, most of the original Harvey machinery is still in use today.
[edit] Today
The distillery still uses the original 'open' 7 tonne mashtun—the only one on the island, and one of only a handful still in existence. There are six pine wood washbacks (together, 210,000 litres). There are two wash stills (together 23,000 litres), two unusually tall (6 metre) and narrow-necked (0.9m) spirit stills (together 21,000 litres), and since 2010 the last authentic Lomond still; all are heated by steam.[1]
All barley used is exclusively Scottish, grown on 23 different farms, each kept separate from barley to barrel (and since 2010 — to bottle). Since 2004, Islay grown barley is once again used (2010: 1,000 tonnes) on 14 island farms with the rest (2010: 1,000 tonnes) coming from 8 mainland Scotland farms and one in Orkney. Organically grown Scottish barley represents between 30 and 40% of the annual requirements. Around 8 different types of barley are grown including heritage varieties such as the ancient Viking 'Bere'. Primarily, the barley used for Bruichladdich is unpeated (3 ppm) though peated versions (40 ppm) do exist under the Port Charlotte sub brand. Bruichladdich also produces 'the most heavily peated Single Malt Whisky in the world'—Octomore (at 80, 130, 141, 152 and 167 ppm).[2] Bruichladdich Distillery has the island's only bottling hall.
All bottlings are 100% natural, non chill-filtered, colouring-free, bottled at 46% or cask strength on the isle of Islay. There have been a wide number of small scale bottlings.
In production, no computers are used, apart from in the offices and to run a series of 8 webcams. These webcams were the focus of an intelligence operation by the (American) Defense Threat Reduction Agency when its antique distilling equipment was mistaken for that purportedly used for Iraq's elusive chemical weapons.[3] This story has roots in an e-mail sent by an American agent to the distillery when one of the webcams had broken.[4] A limited run of commemorative WMD bottles were released in honour of the story, while a second WMD bottling, Yellow Submarine, was issued when an Islay fisherman found a MoD submarine ROV, and a minor farcical affair ensued.[5]
Since 2009, Bruichladdich is distributed in the UK by Blavod Wines and Spirits plc and is now found in a number of leading supermarkets.[6] In 2011, the distillery started production of gin.
[edit] In Popular Culture
In the 1990 BBC television production of the political thriller House of Cards, Chief Whip Francis Urquhart offers reporter Mattie Storin a glass of Bruichladdich when she arrives for an interview. "Bruichladdich, if you know your malts."
In the 2010 film Morning Glory, Harrison Ford's character Mike Pomeroy drinks Bruichladdich. In the 2011 film Carnage, directed by Roman Polanski, the two couples share a bottle of 18 year old Bruichladdich.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Quirky new toys at Bruichladdich" Edinburgh Whisky Blog 2010-02-04 http://www.edinburghwhiskyblog.com/2010/02/04/quirky-new-toys-at-bruichladdich. Retrieved 2010-08-01
- ^ "Octomore" (pdf) Bruichladdich http://www.bruichladdich.com/trade/octomore_sellsheet.pdf. Retrieved 2010-08-01
- ^ "Bruichladdich - the Whisky of Mass Distinction?" Bruichladdich http://www.bruichladdich.com/wmd_story.htm. Retrieved 2010-08-01
- ^ "US spies mistake a wee dram for weapon of mass destruction" The Times Online 2003-09-27 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1163723.ece. Retrieved 2010-08-01
- ^ "WMD II - Yellow Submarine" Bruichladdich http://www.bruichladdich.com/wmd2_story.htm. Retrieved 2010-08-01
- ^ "Bruichladdich Whisky" Blavod http://www.blavodextreme.co.uk/brands.asp?becont_id=56. Retrieved 2010-08-01
[edit] External links
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