Lady Caroline Mactaggart – wife of the Bruichladdich Chairman – cut the first turf of the new Port Charlotte Distillery Project in an emotional ceremony on 27th May 2007.

The new distillery is to be built within existing warehouse buildings on the site of the original distillery that ceased production in 1929.

Sir John Mactaggart, made a speech covering the history of the company since it reopened the Bruichladdich Distillery six years earlier in May 2001.

He then raised the Port Charlotte Distillery standard, a highly charged moment, as Canadian pipers from the Royal Edmonton Regiment played.

The ceremony, witnessed by 500 locals and visitors, marked the official beginning of the two year project expected to open on the same day in 2009.

Jim McEwan, production director and Master Distiller, commented:

“this is an exciting and emotional moment for us all; the official start of a new project, our new dream. Through hard work and inspiration we have been able to bring back one distillery from the dead; now we have the honour and privilege to bring a second one back to life.”

In recent years Islay has seen a resurgence of economic activity, led by the distilling sector with 8 distilleries now in full production producing 100,000 barrels of spirit a year.

To celebrate the moment, the distillery have made available a single cask of heavily peated Port Charlotte single malt - distilled at Bruichladdich in 2001.

The “First Cut” valinch is reserved exclusively to visitors to the Bruichladdich Distillery on the Isle of Islay, and are filled in person by hand at a cost of £55.
The day’s celebratory mood continued with an open day, part of “Feis Ile” the island’s week long whisky and music festival attended by whisky fans from all over the world.

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The lads from Whisky Grotto have reported some great news:

An Islay whisky is the only UK spirit ever to be awarded a maximum 3 star rating by a judging panel of Europe’s finest chefs.

At a black tie dinner held in Brussels, The Superior Taste Award was awarded to the Bruichladdich 12 year old Single Malt by the International Taste & Quality Institute.

Over 600 products were tested by Europe’s best chefs and sommeliers internationally recognized by world renowned culinary guides such as the Michelin and Gault et Millau.

Unusually, this award is based on a detailed sensory evaluation of the different organoleptic criteria of the product in a blind tasting assessment by professional tasters.

Winning a 92% rating, the whisky was judged on it’s intrinsic quality, intensity of flavour, purity and the ‘hedonistic feeling of pleasure’ given to the consumer.

Andrew Gray, Bruichladdich Sales Director commented:

“We are obviously very pleased to be the only whisky ever to be awarded the maximum Three Stars.
There are of course many awards - and we win more than our fair share of them - but these are serious people who know a thing or two about quality.
Their judges appreciated the natural flavours of Bruichladdich - acknowledged as the purest in Scotland - which come from slow distillation and natural bottling.
Uniquely, from barley to bottle, we do everything at the distillery. With Islay’s pure spring water, rejecting chill-filtration and colouring – this is as natural as it gets. This is exactly what Bruichladdich is all about. £27 buys you pure hedonism.”

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The famous whisky island of Islay is running on vapours. And not the spirit kind. Irregular oil supplies are putting whisky distilling at risk.

The island’s oil supply has run out three times this year and it’s nothing to do with the Middle East. The island’s 8 distillers are dependant on oil delivered by sea for their stills.

The cause is a piece of well-meaning European legislation that requires that enlarged, double skin tankers are used exclusively by 2008 to prevent spillage of oil at sea.

In 2006 Argyll & Bute Council spent £3m altering their existing pier at Bruichladdich - despite local fears that the proposed design was not fit for purpose.

Ignoring marine consultant advice, the council claimed health and safety reasons for steamrolling through the design, threatening no distilling and old folk with no heating.

The pier has been dogged by problems since conception including the cash-strapped council (more…)

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