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Islay Festival (Feis Ile) 2006

Another cracking day in Laddie Land! The best festival day yet took place in glorious Islay sunshine as usual.

An air display by the Bruichladdich Drambusters in their Yak aircraft over Lochindaal provided a fitting start to the day.

Chairman Sir John Mactaggart gave the speech of welcome to the 1000 strong crowd of mainly islanders and whisky fans all out to enjoy the special Islay  "Craic" - that magic atmosphere of social conviviality.

In his speech the Chairman welcomed the guests of honour:

The Mayor of Islay (Peru) Senor Miguel Roman and his colleague Victor Garcia-Belaunde.

Who had flown 7300 miles from Peru, via four flights, to join the festivities.

Lieutenant-Commander John Law of the Royal Navy's Northern Diving Group - responsible for bomb disposal - was thanked for his donation for display purposes of a WWII type mine (deactivated we are assured).

The new £350,000 bottling Line capable of handling 2000 bottles an hour was officially opened. The all singing, all dancing Italian design is required to handle the increased demand for Bruichladdich and our sister company Murray Caved. The original line has been retained to provide additional capacity.

These developments, and other major improvements, were funded from a doubling of company profits.

The Mayor replied that he very much enjoyed his visit to Islay Scotland, finding the people he encountered equally warm as those of Peru.

Production Director Jim McEwan gave a vintage performance in his emotionally charged Masterclass - including a homage to distillery manager Duncan McGillivray, with the presentation of the Golden Spanner in gratitude for his 'beyond the call' attitude and prestigiously hard work.

Norma Munro, Robin Laing and Dougald Gillespie played a selection of songs including "Bruichladdich" (the Coast of Heaven) and "We Can't Let Al Quaeda Get their Hands on This" (the WMD song).

Whiskies tasted included the astonishing X4 - PERILOUS WHISKY - A legendary quadruple distillation - usquebaugh-baul which after only a couple of months has taken on an amazing - and to be frank - unexpectedly good character.

Back in the courtyard the manic pipes and drums of Celtic Spirit provided a good deal of inspiration while Maverick Angels were performing their cool mix of snappy traditional Celtic music.

The Courtyard Ceilidh (party) was fuelled by delicious cocktails from Germany's Gault & Millau Barman of 2006 Ewald Stromer. The Laddie-rinha was particularly popular - a celebration of the two Islays - based on Laddie Rocks and Peru's Pisco.

Islay Ales launched the "Worts n' Ale" 1800 bottles of the first Islay ale to be brewed with single malt whisky wort to a thumping 9% alcohol. This no doubt contributed to the reeling - the fairly loose interpretation of the Gay Gordon and Dashing White Sergeant.

The Spot the Barley game set the test of asking participants to guess the origin of barley for 4 different new spirits - 100% of those who took part were able to detect the differences by nosing alone.

The Malt Bar featured a large number of the previous bottlings of Bruichladdich and Murray McDavid allowing the serious whisky fans the chance to compare and contrast.

Three excellent Valinches - single cask Bruichladdichs - were inaugurated: The Drambusters, Mayor of Islay, and Cotes Du Rhinns.

Thanks go to all who helped out making sure a good time was had by all. Make sure you book your accommodation now to so you can join us next year on Sunday 27th May for Islay's best festival day.