Our fascination with ingredients arguably started long before we re-opened the gates of Bruichladdich at the turn of the millennium. Our principle founders, in Simon Coughlin and Mark Reynier, had built up a life-long experience of dealing with fine wine, and the esoteric concept of terroir.
Having worked in an industry where each campaign, each appellation, each nuance, origin and growing condition was poured over, their entry into Scotch whisky was revelatory. The whisky world, especially at that time, was nothing like wine. It was largely designed to mass produce blended Scotch, where full tankers could be swapped with ease, and products were standardised to look and taste the same in every country for the lowest price possible.
The industry’s departure from ideals of care and connection was stark. Bruichladdich would not conform to zero-traceability or the anonymity of the growing community. We would not prioritise yield over flavour, and we would be driven by curiosity not cost.
No… conforming would never have been an option for the new-age Bruichladdich. We had to dismiss the system and reinvent our own approach to barley.
Since our first foray into barley exploration 18 short years ago, we have slowly built a fascinating catalogue of barley-forward spirits. While they mature in our warehouses, we have fallen into a rhythm of celebrating each new vintage when they are ready to be released. Our exploration of terroir in whisky is far from over, but it has begun to meander into a more holistic approach.
As we reconnected with our primary raw ingredient, we inevitably reconnected with agriculture and the challenges the farming community face, from the minutiae to the macro. With 21 Islay farmers providing barley for the distillery in 2020, we realise that the whisky industry is booming but the farming community is largely left behind.
Barley Growers
Local farms on Islay have diversified from dairy to beef and then to mixed farming, showing agility and resilience. But we are uniquely aware that working from a microcosm, on Scotland’s remote west coast, results in an added challenge to access mainland markets. The conditions of barley growing on Scotland’s west coast are far from ideal, but at least in our case, we offered a diversified a market and brought it to our local community’s doorstep. Could this be replicated into other areas, other crops even, other than barley?
Small but fruitful experiments are underway behind the scenes.
In 2017, we announced that we had grown and distilled Islay rye in partnership with Andrew Jones. The benefits are mutual. Andrew includes an extra crop in his rotation; reducing wind erosion, improving soil structure, conserving moisture and reducing run-off. He sells it directly to us and has a guaranteed market. We distil a deeply flavourful spirit of unparalleled provenance.
This approach to an Islay ecosystem, with a symbiotic relationship between agriculture and distillation, must be the future of whisky in Scotland.
Read more on revolutionary old ideas.
Connection has become a key theme throughout our exploration of barley. Connection to the raw ingredient and to a farming community has resulted in what we hope will be an optimistic future for our local ecosystem. In a dream scenario, this early prosperity would influence others within Scotland to look harder at their supply chain and spread value deeper into their own network.
Our recent small steps to become more responsible and sustainable, have made us question the real meaning behind innovation in Scotch. If we are to continue to challenge ourselves, with a restless curiosity, and adapt to today’s challenging environmental conditions, it must be with purpose and intent and benefit for those beyond ourselves. We must develop relationships that support one another if there’s to be progress and a feeling of something new. And if our small nation is to prosper, there must be an interdependency between agriculture, renewable energy and distilling.
We have big dreams for the future but our optimism stems from a journey that has been hard yet rewarding thus far.
Knowing what we know now, we are certain our barley exploration will be ongoing and infinite. More importantly, it will extend beyond the world’s most complex cereal into a more profound approach to making single malt whisky.
Revolutionary old ideas are introduced to the whisky world in this ‘Barley Exploration Series’. In a unique interpretation of barley’s intellectual potential, we presents the what, where and how of our barley growing in Scotland.
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