Rockside is a big farm near the west coast of the Rhinns of Islay.  Mark and Rohaise French grow malting barley for Bruichladdich in addition to attending to their herd of Angus beef cattle and running Rockside Trekking Centre.  Mark planted his barley early this year, taking advantage of a spell of very dry weather in March and April to plough the ground and get his seed in.

There are a lot of risks associated with early sowing on Islay.  Huge flocks of wild geese spend the winter here, only leaving at the end of April for their breeding grounds in Greenland, high above the Arctic Circle.  They are very adept at digging the seed up as soon as it is in and can do significant damage.  The seed might germinate quickly, and then be nipped by a late frost, or heavy rain can puddle the ground, drowning the young shoots.

Those sun-soaked early April days now seem a long way off, because the weather then became very difficult.  Lots of rain, and unusually low temperatures for the time of year.  There was some goose damage, but the early sowing seems to have paid off.

Read more >

Many thanks to Dr. Peter Martin, Director at the Agronomy Institute, Orkney College (University of the Highlands & Islands) for sending us this photo of bere barley being planted for us at Watersfield Farm on 5th April.

Read more >

Mark French of Rockside Farm is pictured sowing a variety of malting barley called ‘Concerto’ in the big ‘Minister's Field yesterday under a mackerel sky.  Mark has chosen to sow early this year, taking advantage of the extended period of dry weather – but that sky tells of a change to come.

Read more >

This picture shows men unloading sacks of barley destined for Loch Indaal Distillery from a small 'flitboat' on to horse drawn carts just off Port Charlotte beach. The photo was probably taken very early in the twentieth century. Barley was imported for malting at the Islay whisky distilleries from the mainland in flat bottomed coal fired steam ships called 'puffers', one of which can be seen standing off.

The manual labour involved in moving the barley must have been considerable.

Researchers are to test a theory that ancient cereal varieties of the Vikings may have reduced the risk of heart attacks.

Nutrition experts at Aberdeen University, working with The Agronomy Institute in Orkney, want  to prove that ancient varieties  were more beneficial to human health than modern crops grown elsewhere in the UK.

Read more >

Straight from the still, at zero age, even in this nascent state before the whisky has had a chance to mature, whiskies distilled from different barley varieties are identifiable one from the other.

Just as an eau-de-vie distilled from Framboise differs from one distilled from Poire, so do spirits produced from various barleys.

Read more >

We have a passionate belief in barley – the raw material from which all single malt is made.

For many whisky producers barley is merely a commodity product, to be bought from wherever happens to be supplying the cheapest tonnage at the time – be that England, Poland or Lithuania.

For Bruichladdich it is a living, fundamental expression of the land, of the terroir in which it’s grown. Simply put, barley grown free from artificial stimulants and dependancy on pharmaceuticals, better reflects the microclimate from which it takes its nourishment.

Whisky distilled from organically grown barley just seems to have more definition, purity and intensity. It accentuates the barley taste.

This is how farming and whisky production used to be a century ago, before two world wars created the need for super-efficient farming and utterly maximised yields – achieved through the chemical treatment of land and crop: volume at the expense of flavour.

Certainly, organic grapes do not automatically make superior wine; the winemaker must play his part too. And it is the same for whisky.

We lay down casks of Bruichladdich distilled from organic barley - grown not just on individual farms, but individual fields. A fascinating exploration of the influence of terroir on finished spirit.

It’s hardly industrial distilling, but we believe it’s important – land and dram reunited.

Bruichladdich, in keeping with 99.5% of distilleries, has not malted barley on site for around 65 years.

In the post war years distilling capacity could be increased by ‘farming out’ the malting to professionals and using the the labour and time gained to distil more.

Read more >

It was always our original intention to distil three different versions of Bruichladdich.

With Bruichladdich whisky being traditionally unpeated, we set out to distil two other whiskies at differing levels of peatiness.  Port Charlotte was the first of these, heavily peated at 40 ppm, making it one of the most peaty single malts from Islay.

This begged the question, posed late one evening at the Port Charlotte pub: if at 40 ppm the elegance, finesse and purity of Bruichladdich spirit still shines through, what would happen if we upped the peat even further? In fact, just how far could we go?

Read more >

The 2012 ploughing has now largely been completed by the Islay farmers who are growing barley for Bruichladdich this year. There is still lots to do however and some of the fields are being prepared before being sown with seed.

Read more >