Minimum Pricing Threat to Whyte & Mackay

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:38:55 +0000

Whyte & Mackay fear losing 300 more jobs if minimum pricing is adopted, including 100 jobs at their distilleries, and claim their business would be at risk.

In a submission to Holyrood’s health committee, the company threatened: “Whyte & Mackay, a company established in 1844, would essentially cease to exist in anything but name only.”

Their concern is that minimum pricing of alcohol would take away the price advantage that obscure own-label blended whiskies currently have over well-known branded versions.

Read full article (The Herald)

New: Spot the Pot Hole

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:20:28 +0000

As of today one can explore Islay"s pot holes from your own computer.

Google Maps' Street View now (Thursday 11th March) includes Islay. Google Maps allows users to observe the country from a satellite view; Pot Hole View allows a user to descend from satellite to ground level to observe the locality in detail. By entering Bruichladdich in to the Google map search ...

...and dragging the little orange man to Bruichladdich, you can get Pot Hole level views of the roads, distillery and the coastline. Using the compass, one can rotate one's view and increase the camera angle. Move the man further along the road by double clicking on the shadowed circle. Unfortunately the little man does not have any tools with him to fill in holes.

The general satellite images of Islay are still terribly poor quality, rendering the zoom feature redundant. www.bing.com/maps has better coverage of Islay (but not Bruichladdich). One would have thought it was easier to implement decent satellite images from space before actually getting the detailed road coverage, but there you are.

There is a prize for the spotter of the biggest pothole.

Reasons to be Cheerful

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:05:11 +0000

The recent Whisky Magazine (a spin off from Whisky Live) published a fortune-telling glimpse into the future by sage Dave Broom.

"Yes I know it is a damned foolhardy thing to do, but what the hell, I'm here to be shot at", he bravely declares with a welcome, new found, devil-may-care, (new year's) resolution.

He forecasts development on a number of whisky issues such as minimum pricing, multi-vintages, take-overs and mergers, wood quality, non chill-filtering at 46%, creeping homogenisation, craft distilling, and the rise of specialists.

Readers of this blog didn't need his crystal ball.

Islay’s Character

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:38:49 +0000

The Boy Wonder is at it again with the attributes of his new multi-vintage single malt:

"(it) is a bit more sweet spice added to the peat-fires, fudge, burnt sugar and treacle flavours emerge along with a touch of the seaweed and brine that is characteristic of Islay malts."

Well, at least the ones that are actually aged on the island.

Warehouse Building

Tue, 9 Mar 2010 08:26:31 +0000

For months we have been excavating a very large hole.

Thousands of tons of rock, sand, gravel and clay of the 'bruichladdich' have been dug up and removed. Recently, five lorry loads of girders and building materials have been delivered.

Finally, the construction starts.

As sales increase, this high-spec warehouse building will provide us with the much-needed quality space for our continually expanding bottling operations - storage of dry goods, bottled stocks etc. - allowing us to increase the efficiency of our operations.

Earthquake Proof

Mon, 8 Mar 2010 13:15:00 +0000

The terrible earthquake in Chile registered a massive 8.8 on the Richter scale ranking it the fifth worst since 1900.

News has reached us that amongst the widespread, tragic devastation was a whisky bar in Santiago that was totally flattened. Needless to say the total destruction included every single bottle in the collection; every one except the Bruichladdich Fifteen.

The bar, when it is reopened, is to be named after this lucky Laddie.

Bruichladdich - made of sterner stuff.

Renegade Rum Success

Fri, 5 Mar 2010 09:47:45 +0000

The Renegade Rum Company is our dipping of the toe in the (Caribbean) water.

The "Highest Recommendation" was awarded by US spirits writer Paul Pacult to two Renegade Rums: Black Rock Distillery 2000 and the Barbados Rum 6 year old. The latter was praised: "One of the finest rums I have ever sampled"

A further five bottlings were awarded "Highly Recommended" status: the Westerhall Distillery 1996, Enmore 1988, Hampden Distillery 1992 and 2000, and the Jamaica 5yo

In the US these are distributed by Wyatt Zier: 'Ron Zier'

Web Cam Installation

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:08:39 +0000

Now the electrical rewiring works have concluded, Michael is going to rewire the web cams in both the mash and still houses this week.

The idea is to retain the close up spirit safe camera; install a new 'long range' view above the new quarter deck platform looking back in to the still house; remove the filling store camera (since casks are now filled up at the Vatican instead) and install it in the tun room for the first time; and reposition the mash tun camera.

Any specific requests for web cam placement do please let Michael in the IT dept. know.

Nuremberg with Kilts

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:38:44 +0000

In Ian Pattison's excellent BBC comedy about Glasgow reprobate Rab C Nesbitt, the Govan sage last night compared Burns' Night Suppers to Nuremberg in kilts.

"It's when large clumps of middle class businessmen gather to celebrate the work of a working class poet, who if alive today, they would bankrupt by repossessing his sub prime farm in Ayrshire".

Wonderous Winter Weather

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:46:41 +0000

The winter weather continues to confound the usual state of affairs.

Instead of the incessant series of twenty five or so Atlantic gales that usually starts from December 1st through to April 1st, we have had calm, still, clear glorious weather.

The intensity of the winds means folk batten down the hatches for the duration of the winter - but not this year. While the rest of the UK was under snow, Islay basked under bright snow-free sunshine; and it still is. OK the temperature is unusually low for Islay, even going below zero at night which is rare for the mild climate we experience here. For God's sake I actually had to use a de-icer on my windscreen this morning.

And yet we are on the 56 parallel. The first habitation you would come to if you travelled west of Islay on the same latitude is Cartright, Labrador. Keep going and you come to Hudson Bay, Polar Bear Provincial Park and the Alaska peninsula. Then the Bering sea, and eventually Moscow.

New Warehouse

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:59:16 +0000

Visitors will have noticed the rather large hole in the ground above the bottling hall, in the very slope that gives the distillery it's name.

Now that the drainage is complete, having levelled the site, created a new road access and shored up the bank, the £600,000 new building can begin.

Still House Web Cams

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:21:08 +0000

With the Still House works coming to an end, new cabling will be required to get the Still House & Mash House web cams working again.

We hope to have this done shortly.

2010 Distilling Season

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:54:24 +0000

The 2010 distilling season kicks off with the Organic 2009 harvest.

The barley is being milled for mashing tomorrow and distillation on Monday

We have been very impressed indeed with the 2009 harvest's spirit, which is a pleasant surprise bearing in mind the very wet August. However, there had been a very dry and sunny May, June and July which helped - and a window of two glorious weeks at the beginning of September that saved the day.

It will be good to be up and running again after all the works and repairs.

Milling Restarts

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:57:13 +0000

At last, the mill house is a rollin' and a grindin' away again to its rhythmic tune.

We carry out out our repairs and renovations every January, having shut down for Christmas and New Year, leaving the rest of the year clear to distil away to our heart's content with out interruption.

Puritan Propoganda

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:49:33 +0000

Tim Collard, writing in the Telegraph, suggests that the units of alcohol is mere puritan propaganda.

Publishing units on labels is not going to change anyone's drinking habits; if anything, it will be like a badge of honour to the the serious abuser one would have thought.

In pubs etc. the measure has been strictly controlled by law for a century. If the consumer cannot judge for himself that he has drunk too much alcohol for his own good - then the publican by law must refuse to serve him.

For off license sales, the strength of alcohol is indicated on the bottle by Alcohol By Volume - a much simpler system than the old proof: at 40% ABV what is difficult to understand? 40 % alcohol - 60% water. What one pours for oneself is another matter. At home is rarely a recognisable unit measure. What next? The government making it law to use optic measures in the home?