We have made a habit of tempting fate.

On the eve of the great day, at the invitation-only Bruichladdich Soirée at Port Mor, I felt confident in the weather forecasts to predict that it would be our ninth sunny Bruichladdich day in a row. However the day started ominously grey - and that was just the looks being cast in my direction for having tempted fate. But a cool breeze failed to dampen spirits.

We have always considered our open day to be for locals primarily. This year it was noticeable that there were considerably more visitors from overseas; perhaps attracted by the recent French-made film broadcast in Germany and France; perhaps the  Whisky Coast initiative; perhaps the euro/sterling exchange rate. Either way it was encouraging to see so many new faces in the record crowd.

It was good to see friends such as  Robin Laing, as well as singing some of his clever songs, was signing his new book 'Islay Legends' - a collection of stories, annecdotes and occurrences.  Ian Macilwain signed copies of his  coffee table book 'Bottled History', a collection of  masterful photographs of secret distillery buildings, old warehouses and redundant  equipment. Interestingly, he sold more copies of the book in 2 hours here than he did all week at the Speyside festival...

The atmosphere was brilliant - both the craic and the weather - with the sun finally bursting through and basking the courtyard in it's warm rays; we had got away with it once again.