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Distilling Policy
Team
The distilling team is headed by Jim McEwan, with Distillery Manager Duncan
McGillivray, Peter McDermid, The Budgie, Neil MacTaggart and Allan Logan – at
24, the youngest Stillman in Scotland.
Water
Three water sources are used: For mashing, our own loch in the hills behind the
distillery - a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest. From here it is
fed to the distillery by a dedicated pipeline to holding reservoirs beside the
still house. For condensing, the Bruichladdich Burn is used. For bottling, a
special spring near by.
Stills
These unusually tall and narrow-necked Bruichladdich stills provide the
Bruichladdich hallmark signature: elegant, floral attractive spirit that is
literally more ‘refined’ owing to the height the vapour has to travel before
condensing. The spirit is exceptionally good to taste young - and marries well
with bourbon cask maturation.
Trickle Distillation
As an independent distillery we do not distil for blending. We are not obliged
to run the distillery at maximum capacity allowing more time and space to distil
slowly and carefully - Trickle Distillation. We operate a five ton mash, five
days a week, using premium quality raw ingredients, a variety of types of barley
and peating levels, from specific farms. Only the very best spirit possible is
retained, we take an extremely precise ‘middle cut’ that averages at 71%
alcohol.
Filling Strength
In the last thirty years, the policy throughout Scotland has been to reduce the
strength prior to cask filling to an industry standard 63%. At Bruichladdich, in
keeping with our traditional methods of production, we fill at the full natural
Spirit Safe strength of 71%.
Premium Cask
Full term aging is in primarily Fresh Bourbon or American Oak (Quercus Alba)
from exclusively Buffalo Trace Distillery in Kentucky - our preferred choice for
the type of spirit we make. We also lay down Fresh Sherry casks and an exotic
mix of European Oak casks (Quercus Robar) Rum, Madeira, Port, Banyuls,
Riveslates, Maury, Amarone, Quarts de Chaume, Sauternes, Barsac etc… to provide
variety for future bottlings.
Warehousing
Our whiskies benefit from the Islay atmosphere. Bruichladdich alone matures all
its whisky on the island in one of our 17 warehouses. Sadly, most whisky
distilled on Islay is stored on the mainland for convenience, far from the
seaside, salty, briny influences of Islay's Atlantic shores. Port Charlotte is
stored in the old distillery of Port Charlotte two miles away.
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