First Growth Whisky

The Auld Alliance is alive and well as Bruichladdich release a series of whiskies influenced by France’s greatest chateaux of all time.

The famous 1855 Classification of Bordeaux rated chateaux into 5 groups according to quality and price of their wines. The First Growths were the best.

Today these legendary estates use casks coopered from the finest French oak, 150 to 200 year old trees from the forests of Tronçais, Allier and Vosges.

Louis XIV's finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, 1669 expanded and improved quality of France's forests with premium quality oak for a new navy.

3,400 oak trees (75 acres of forest) were needed for one 74 gun ship-of-the-line. In 1803 Napoleon banned all tree felling without authority. In 1806 every tree felled must be more than 150 years old and replaced by a new oak tree.

25% of France is forested - twice the total of 1806 - and one third is oak. France is the third most forested EU country after Sweden and Finland.

Each forest produces wood with its own distinct characteristics. Wine producers select wood from different forests for the effect on their wine.

Costing up to four times more than an American oak equivalent, the flavour-rich oak staves are weathered outside for 4 years for extra finesse.

Mark Reynier, who used be in the wine trade, worked on this project with Jim who as well as a distiller, used to be a cooper. The quality of oak caused great excitement.

It’s simple: if you want the world’s best casks you have to go to the best sources. Only the top domains can unstintingly afford barrels of this quality.

They ruthlessly cull them from their cellars after only 18 months, before the oak gets tired; it is their fastidious attention to detail that is our gain.

Well maintained, still fresh, and loaded with flavours these casks are skillfully used by Jim to impart some of their refined character to his maturing whisky.

“If you put identical whisky into similar casks, that had the same type of wine in them, you would sort of expect a pretty similar result - right?

“Wrong. We were both astounded. Though it is very subtle indeed, each chateau’s basic character comes through. So we’ve kept them as 6 separate bottlings.

It sounds pretentious but it’s as if a hint of the wines’ mystical terroir, hidden within the finesse of the oak, has been sought out by our spirit.

The unusual concept should appeal to both whisky and wine fans alike - especially those who like to compare and contrast between different bottlings.

We’re actually responsible for this cask quality in more ways than you think. Because if it wasn’t for continual war between England and France, and her need to build naval ships, both Colbert and then Napoleon, would never have planted these exceptional oak trees in the first place!

The First Growth series comprises of 6 limited edition Cuvées - labelled A to F. Each is a 16 year old Bruichladdich, American oak matured, with an additional cask evolution in French oak casks from each of the 1855 first growth chateaux, including Sauternes. Pomerol was not classified in 1855, but based on the original criteria would be today. A Pomerol estate is thus included in the series.