Islay Overview

I've put together an image map so you can see where all of the Islay distilleries lie and find all of my Islay distillery posts more easily.

ardbeg | lagavulin | laphroaig | bruichladdich | kilchoman | bowmore | caol ila | bunnahabhain | jura

This map was produced using
http://www.image-maps.com/

Image sourced from:
http://www.islayinfo.com/map.html

Botany

Ugly Betty

Although primarily a whisky distillery, its not the only trick the Bruichladdich team have up their sleeve. The beauty pictured to the left is a gin still, which to date has been used to produce a single batch. Its a great additional revenue stream to pay for the whisky in the stores which will typically take 12 years or more until maturity.

After installation the still was charged with a tonne of juniper berries and various other botanicals (see below). Aside from a half-hour of foreshots the still kicked out a good 15 hours of spirit, which has given the distillery a good cash injection for refurbishment and experimentation.

The spirit safe

The spirit run is controlled via a spirit safe in the same way as whisky. As you can  tell from its sheen, this one is brand spanking new, whereas "Ugly Betty" was rescued from Innerleven distillery, alreadya venerable 50 years old. The team love her, despite her slowness.

The botanicals "basket"

The bulge on the lyne arm is where the botanicals sit, infusing the refluxing spirit with those volatile flavour compounds. Most mass-market gins only contain 4-10 botanicals whereas "The Botanist" contains a fantastic 31, 22 of which have been gathered from the wild on Islay!

They include: Elderflower, apple mint, wood sage, bog myrtle, sweet cicely, creeping thistle, peppermint leaf, heather flowers, meadowsweet, water mint, tansy, hawthorn flower, lemon balm, mugwort, thyme, gorse, white clover, red clover, birch leaf, sweet chamomile and lady's bedstraw. To maintain a tenuous link to beer, many of these were used in the past as gruit to flavour unhopped ales; so to revive their use in gin is to reconnect to the past of the island.

Gin!

But enough about how its made, the big question is how it tastes, no? Its all very well using all of these fantastic flavourings but does it make any difference? In a word - yes! I'd always been averse to gin suggesting it ruined the taste of tonic water. It would appear I'm averse to crap gin, and this is far from crap! A small measure in the distillery shop led me to purchase a whole bottle. I decided to go for that classic of cocktails - the martini a.k.a the botini, which i've attempted to write about below (you can tell the world of gin is new to me!)

It pours clear with no discernible colour and has an enticing freshly squeezed oranges and lemons aroma with a touch of coconut and juniper in the background. In goes the vermouth and a touch of lime zest and that coconut jumps out stronger alongside mint and other herbal smells, a veritable apothecary! The gin climbs the sides of the glass and eddies around the lime. Its extraordinarily smooth drinking, sweet and buttery up front, with a good citrus burst, warming the throat on the swallow with a pithy but sweet finish. A lovely drop.

I'm also tempted by the "skelped boti" which includes chambord and fresh ginger juice, but will save that to try another day. Here's what the Bruichladdich team think of the gin.

So thank you to the Bruichladdich team for opening my eyes to a whole new spirit! Look out for it in the shops and on the bars as i recommend trying it.

Bruichladdich- the tasting!

The first-part of the distillery tour can be found here.

From the heady smells of the still-house we head back across the central courthouse to one of the many Bruichladdich warehouses. They have further warehouses in the surrounding hills and also use the old Port Charlotte dunnage warehouses for their peatier drams. Plans to reopen Port Charlotte continue apace, with stills being rescued from the defunct Innerleuven distillery to avoid the massive expense of making new ones from scratch.

This warehouse we're shown turns out to be where the magic happens, with not only the private-owned* casks stored here, but also Jim McEwan's experimental batches, with finishes in all manner of exotic casks, including rum and wine.

Into the vatting and bottling hall then, a decidedly newer area and a first for the island. The first batches were originally bottled by hand and this kit is still used for small runs, but the star of the show is the brand spanking new bottling plant. Its able to fill extraordinary numbers of bottles a day, essential for fulfilling that new Tesco contract...

 And finally, that part you've all been waiting for - how does the whisky taste? In a word...excellent. Bloody excellent in two! Well worth the wait.

We're all offered the Laddie 10, the first core expression now the whisky is old enough to be sold as a single malt. Its light, full of subtle wood character, a wisp of smoke and almost a "session" whisky in that its very easy to forget the strength and want to drink half a bottle in one sitting! We're then get offered the run of the range, with myself and other toursters doing their best to suggest a whisky they didn't have open behind the counter and willing to hand out: we don't succeed. I try the Laddie 10, Port Charlotte and Octomore in succession. They're peated at 4,40 and 152ppm respectively and boy is there a difference! The Port Charlotte is a bonfire in your mouth, all ashes and wood smoke with none of the subtleties exhibited in the Laddie. Octomore (peatiest whisky in the world!) is a different beast entirely.  Despite its OTT peat rate** it tastes nowhere near as smoky as the Port Charlotte. This whisky alone confirms that I am no longer peat-averse and more truthfully how a peat-head.

Perhaps the star of the show for me was the Valinch. "What's that?" I hear you cry! Well cry no more as I'm about to explain. A solitary cask sits mid-wall in the shop. On request you're handed an empty bottle which you then proceed to fill yourself. The cask is a one-off, only available at the brewery and never available again. The ultimate in whisky geekery. This time around its a bourbon aged Port Charlotte and at a beastly 63.5% ABV.*** Gimmicky perhaps, but still a great experience and more importantly a good tasting whisky that I'm looking forward to receiving the bottle of for my birthday (Thanks Dad!) It seems I got one of the last as they're now onto a new cask...

If you've only time to visit one whisky distillery on Islay (very poor planning on your part!) then make it this one! The enthusiasm of Helen and helpfulness of all the staff, not to mention the generous tasters all contribute to an afternoon well spent.

*Yes, it is possible to buy a cask of whisky!

** Try getting hold of one of those Brewdog!

***More details:

PORT CHARLOTTE - PREDICTION
2002 Cask No 130, Cask Type: Bourbon/La Tour
63.5%, Release Qty: 450 Bottles, Released: December 2011

Bruichladdich

A distillery I was adamant I would visit as soon as my Islay trip was confirmed was bruichladdich. It simply ticked far too many boxes for me to be missed out on.

Situated in picturesque Bruichladich, it was rescued from oblivion by a consortium of bidders in 2001 and since then has gone from strength to strength. A tour for £5 a head is very reasonable indeed, given the number of samples offered and the fact it is redeemable against a bottle purchase. More on this later...

Arriving at the distillery the weary traveller is greeted by this retired still, with a jokingly placed pair of wellingtons serving as a warning to drinking on the job...

The visitor's car-park sits in the heart of the distillery and the tour begins and ends in the well-stocked shop (see for yourself!) We're led across the car-park and given a bit of the history by Helen, our knowledgable and enthusiastic tour guide. What follows is the most in-depth, open and enjoyable whisky distillery tour I've been on to date (and I've been on a fair few I can tell thee!). Kicking things off nicely we're told that nowhere is off limits* for us happy-snappers...this sits in stark contrast with many other distilleries where that handy catchall of "health and safety" is evoked for the dis-allowance of  photography (the flash can ignite spirit vapours in the air...allegedly).

The first site is the only working example of a Bobby grain mill in existence. Not only is it working but its in use, but unlike at Jura, Helen's voice rises above the din. The grist produced here is transported over the road to the mash-house. Bruichladdich produces three different ranges of whisky and we're able to taste the malt of two of these to compare how the peat changes the flavour. Although some barley is grown locally, its all malted at Inverness due to the high variety of peat specs required by the distillery. They'd love to reintroduce some floor malting but the old malting floor and kiln building is currently occupied the shop!

The mash tun is another antique of a golden age. It is made of wood, open to the elements and has a fixed rake, meaning sparging takes that bit longer. The final water is too low in sugar to be economical in a fermenter and so becomes the first liquor for the next mash. We get the obligatory peek into a fermenter  (also wood) and are hit by the overpowering CO2- this is a vigorous one then head into the still house.

The still house contains two each of wash and spirit stills plus a number of employees who soon evade the prying eyes invading their space. There's also another surprise in here (see right-hand side of pic for a hint) but that's for another post!

The stills are pretty tall and filled at quite a low level leading to a light spirit with plenty of finesse. The spirit safes are gleaming and the new-make is pouring through at a reassuring rate. This will be going into casks that won't be touched for at least ten years - a long capital tie up which made the extensive barrel stocks purchased with the distillery a must have.

Get a glimpse of these and the all important tasting in part  two of the tour tomorrow!

*Of course, the down-side of this is there's a large amount of distillery porn in this post!

7 Distilleries, 7 Days

www.islayinfo.com/islay_whisky_distilleries

Well it was actually 8 distilleries in four days, but that doesn't quite have the same ring to it. I've just returned from a wonderful week spent on the west coast of Scotland including a visit to the islands of Islay and Jura.

To be honest I never used to be a fan of any Islay whiskys (or so I thought) because to my palate they were all phenolic peat-bombs with not much other flavour. However through trying whisky-cask aged beers such as Brewdog's Paradox range and Black Isle's Black Islay I came to appreciate that perhaps I had been unfair to them. Indeed not all Islay whiskys are peated and Bruichladdich is now among my favourite malts.

This post is more of a summary of where I went to, a brief overview if you will and I plan to write more in depth pieces on those distilleries I toured.

On Easter Sunday my whisky week began in Oban. Unfortunately they were fully booked for tours. A disappointing start to the week exacerbated by the rain outside,

The order of the day on Tuesday was an early start and two ferries to get from the mainland to Jura. As a long time favourite tipple I was very much looking forward to this distillery and wasn't disappointed.

A ferry back to Islay brought us into Port Askaig, home of Caol Ila - unfortunately closed for rennovation until a week after-bad timing! Bunnahabhain further up the coast were on holiday too, so no visit there either I'm afraid.

Wednesday morning I awoke to find myself in Bowmore (planned) with the eponymous distillery but a stone's throw from our door. That afternoon also saw a tour of Bruichladdich and Kilchoman on the west of the island.

Thursday meant visits to the the south coast "peat monster" distilleries, Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg. Being within a few miles of each other it makes for a great walk, and the sea air certainly clears out the cobwebs!

Not a bad haul!

It wasn't just about the drinking however, I also learnt a lot more about the whisky making process, got to try wash (beer) and new make spirit and chat to like-minded people. I also returned acertain beer to its spiritual home and shared it around with anyone interested. Further postings to come!

All in all a very whisky week, but beer didn't escape completely un-noticed with beverages supped from Ayr, Islay, Oban Bay, Isle of Mull and Fyne Ales. More on these and the whiskys later. I'd definitely recommend a visit to this area of Scotland because not only is it beautiful, so are the drinks.