Well, at least if you’re reading this it has done!

We would have to confess, it’s been an epic task

– distilling (sorry) everything we are, everything we do, everything we believe into one definitive statement. You will be the judge of how well we’ve done. Inevitably we thought it would be easy and, inevitably, we were wrong. We all know what we’re about and, deep in our hearts, we all know why we’re here, what drives us and what we aspire to – but it was incredibly difficult to get that down into words and images – there are so many dimensions to the Bruichladdich philosophy and to our continuing exploration of what true, natural, artisanal whisky can be.

So we’ve set out to make this site our statement of intent for the future as much as a summation of our history to date. We have strong beliefs (we are often criticised for them) and principles; we are independent, so that we can follow our own path; and we reject the commercial demands and industrial processes of the mainstream industry. “Scotch” is now a global industry and has attracted the interest of some of the biggest commercial businesses on the planet. The “mythology” of Scotch whisky is now a Disney-like phenomenon – invented, reinvented, packaged and sold like... well, like Scotch mist.

Authenticity, provenance and terroir are of prime importance to us, and in this site we try to explain why. Often this means going back to a time before industrialisation changed a life-affirming spirit into a commodity, and our work with our partner farmers – both on Islay and the mainland – and with organic barley is a convincing statement that our forefathers had considerable wisdom that we – their more “sophisticated” descendants – have lost. Going back to the roots (quite literally) of distilling and farming have been fascinating and the proof, we argue, is in the bottle and the glass.

And passionate as we are about our work, with this site we’ve also strived to communicate a sense of place – the remarkable place and community to which we are fortunate to belong – the Rhinns of Islay; the far western tip of this little rock, thrust out into the teeth of the Atlantic – Oirthir Gadheal, the Coast of the Gaels. And our thanks go to our photographer, Roddy Mackay, who has done such a great job of capturing the spirit of the place and the folk.

Lastly, we’ve tried to make some sense out of our eccentric and erratic product range! We often are criticised, probably rightly, for the lack of continuity and coherence in our range. For curious individual products that appear like comets in the night sky, burn brightly then disappear forever. Yes, we appreciate that this can be frustrating but what a wealth of treasure it has revealed! We are curious individuals (some, like Jim, more curious than others) and we can’t leave well enough alone; we simply can’t stop ourselves asking “What if?”. We are trying to impose discipline on ourselves, to rationalise our range and to make it more comprehensible; but we will always allow ourselves the freedom and flexibility to follow the distilling Muse wherever she may lead us. So many drams, so little time.

So, it’s all there in this site – we hope you enjoy it!

Thanks to everyone who has stood by us in the many months it’s taken us to get the site up and running. Slainte.