Islay

Over the past 130 years, the distillery has changed hands many times and had frequent closures, but since 2000 it has been reborn, and is yet again at the forefront of Scottish whisky distilling. The distillery was mothballed in 1995 and left dormant for the next five years. In 2000, the distillery was bought by Murray McDavid, and Islay-born Jim McEwan, formerly Bowmore manager, rebuilt and restarted the distillery. Initially mainly producing unpeated whisky, the distillery introduced two extra makes - heavily peated Port Charlotte and ridiculously smoky Octomore. The Elements range bottle each of the three separately under their own distillery symbol. Production is unashamedly old fashioned, using the original 1881 cast-iron mash tun, longer fermentation times and slow distillation to create a flavoursome spirit, harking back to the distillery's heyday. Focusing on Islay's terroir, Bruichladdich uses local barley where possible and matures all of its whisky on the island. Many islanders are also employed in the on-site bottling plant, further embedding the distillery into the local landscape. Bruichladdich's more recent history has been turbulent, with the 'proudly independent' distillery being bought by Rémy Martin and Jim McEwan retiring after 52 years (to the day) in the industry. However, with a distillery management team chosen and trained by McEwan and investment from Rémy, Bruichladdich continues to grow, showing the industry a different way of working. Opened