Whiskey
A
native son of Islay, the small island with such a remarkable
concentration of legendary single malt distilleries that’s
located off the west coast of Scotland in the
Hebrides.
57-year-old McEwan’s life
has centered on this single malt island culture going back
to the days he started out as a cooper’s apprentice, at age
15, at Bowmore, and began working up the ladder to become
one of the most colorful and prominent Islay single malt
traveling ambassadors known to consumers around the world.
No one better deserves to be called Islay’s spiritual
leader, and no one has been better at instilling a more
picturesque or compelling sense of place about single malt
traditions and the people behind the whisky. Furthermore, no
one seems to be able to capture the imagination of a
consumer audience or spellbind a gathering of listeners
quite the way Jim does.
His anecdotes, Scottish
dialect, and turns of phrase are priceless. He’ll explain
that his wife can tell how many drams of whisky he’s
consumed by the color of his nose. He has countless stories
and toasts at the ready for all occasions, like this McEwan
classic: “There’s many good reasons for drinking, and one
has just entered me head. If a man cannah drink while he’s
living, how the hell can he drink when he’s dead?” And when
he gets into describing a whisky, it’s often with lilting
Scottish imagery: “The flavors in this one soar like
seabirds before a storm; just loaded with Islay character,
with wet seaweed, fishing nets and peat reek on the nose.” .
. . “This one is matured in a seaside warehouse where, at
high tide, the Atlantic laps against its walls and seeps
through the floors, imparting a special character to the
whisky.” . . . “This one’s a real heavyweight, bursting with
power, that cannot even try to sit down. A caber-tossing
giant if I ever saw one.” And, although these descriptions
may be directed at a specific whisky and product line that
McEwan is admiring at the time, what his underlying theme is
always about is his beloved home of Islay as a whole, and
its continuing central position of being at the heart of
Scotland’s single malt industry, as well as the place where
the buzz and real excitement about the scotch category
always seems to be going on.
It’s been said that what
McEwan doesn’t know about scotch whisky could fit on the
back of a postage stamp. After 38 years of distinguished
service with the Bowmore organization, during which the
distillery received countless international recognitions for
product quality, industry enterprise, and many “Distiller of
the Year” awards to Jim, himself, it was generally assumed
that McEwan would be staying put for the rest of his career
and be retiring with a handsome pension. But, then, in an
abrupt and dramatic change that took place in the year 2OOO,
McEwan quite unexpectedly left Bowmore to become a founder
shareholder of a bold new venture. This was the resurrection
of the proud old Islay distillery, Bruichladdich (meaning
“hill on the shore” in Gaelic), which had gone silent and
was presumed dead since 1993. But, now, after nearly a
decade of persistence, the distillery and a huge stock of
7OOO casks dating back to 1964, had finally been purchased
for 7.5 million pounds by three Murray McDavid bottling
company executive-owners – Mark Reynier, Simon Coughlin.
Gordon Wright and a carefully-selected group of 35 private
shareholders provided the equity capital, almost half of it
coming from Islay connections.
Thus, the original 1881
Bruichladdich Distillery Company Ltd. was revived and
reformed as a genuinely 1OO% privately financed company with
no corporations or cross shareholdings or venture
capitalists involved. The business philosophy was simple and
clearly understood. The company goal was entirely long term
in nature. This was to be a proudly independent and fiercely
private Scottish company, incorporated, capitalized,
financed, and managed in Scotland. And who better to entrust
the long term success of this reborn distillery to than
Islay’s own celebrity master blender-distiller, James
McEwan?
Recently, I had the
opportunity to spend an evening with Jim to discuss what he
has been able to do in the four years since taking on this
unprecedented new challenge in his life. Not surprisingly,
it seems to be another tale of mounting achievements,
passion and commitment that have marked his whole career.
And, once again, the long term benefactor may well be the
people and the welfare of Islay’s
community-at-large.
ROBERT
BRADFORD Last time
we got together, in the late ‘9Os, was when you were still
going strong with Bowmore and traveling the world as sort of
an Islay single malt whisky educator and brand ambassador.
What particularly influenced your decision to leave all that
success behind so late in your career and take on this
rather daunting Bruichladdich challenge – starting from
scratch?
JIM
McEWAN In the year
2OOO, the opportunity came up for me when some investors
planning to buy Bruichladdich approached me about joining
them as a distiller. My initial thought was “Jim, this has
got to be crazy!” I’d been with Bowmore for 38 years,
starting with them when I was still in my teens, and, after
another two years, in 2OO2, I’d be able to walk away with my
full pension. But I’d also been on the road for many, many
years, traveling the world as a brand ambassador, and I had
to consider what kind of a rare opportunity Bruichladdich
represented. It was an old rundown distillery on Islay. It
was in poor condition, hadn’t operated in almost 1O years,
and would need revitalizing from the ground up. But it would
also mean me getting back and becoming fully involved again
on Islay for the first time in a very long while.
RB
It sounds as if quite a bit of personal sentiments and
emotions played a big part in your thinking.
JM
This is very true. Basically my heart ruled my head when I
made my decision, because I guess the big thing for me was
asking the question that many of us ask ourselves at some
point in the course of our careers: “Can you still do it?”
And I had to wonder if I could still make a distinctive
single malt that could take its place in the time-honored
lineup of Islay’s great single malt whisky achievements,
using an old beat-up distillery as a starting point and
bringing it back to life? This was my chance to find out,
and, for me, it represented a challenge of a lifetime. The
chance to be totally in charge of bringing a new Islay
whisky into the world was too much of a temptation. Consider
that during the course of my career, I’d seen something like
45 distilleries in Scotland completely shut down and die.
Here was a chance to bring one back to life, particularly on
my native Islay. There was just no question that I had to
take it on.
RB
What were some of your initial priorities?
JM
First, I started to rehire many of the veteran Bruichladdich
production work force, like the mashmen and stillmen who’d
been let go almost 1O years before. Then, of course, I had a
lot of good stocks-in-cask to get started with, which were
inherited with the purchase of the distillery. Right away, I
was able to begin selecting different casks for different
bottlings. We took a pledge not to do artificial coloring
and no chilled filtration. We would keep the distillery
itself in the exact same situation as a Victorian
distillery. We would not introduce any computers, and would
make whisky in precisely the same way it had been made since
1881.
So, I started fitting
together and blending some of these select casks for 1O- and
15-year-old bottlings. We also added more limited bottlings
of a 17- and 2O-year-old to our regular lineup – all at
86-proof. In addition, we released a series of rare vintage
and limited editions, several at cask strength, and what was
especially gratifying was that we began receiving top
critical acclaim, internationally, within our first year of
the new startup operation. We were named Distillery of the
Year in 2OO1, and again in 2OO3 and 2OO4, by Malt Advocate
magazine in the US. Whisky Magazine gave us their “Innovator
of the Year” award in 2OO4. I myself was honored with a
“Distiller of the Year” recognition. So, already, we have
become well-known as this resurrected Victorian Era
distillery that uses Islay’s tallest-necked stills for
producing a lighter cleaner style of Islay single malt
whisky. And, in this increasingly corporate-owned world of
scotch whisky production, we’re able to market ourselves as
the independent Scottish company owned by real people, not
anonymous corporate conglomerates.
RB
Obviously, local ownership and control is a very sensitive
issue for many Scots.
JM
You’ve got that right. It had always been a frustration of
mine that we distillers on Islay have been producing these
fantastic whiskies from Ardbeg, Laphroaig, Lagavulin,
Bowmore, etc., but all of it was all shipped over to the
Scottish mainland for bottling. So, basically, what we were
doing was making all this great whisky, nourishing it for 2O
odd years, but then relinquishing control and giving it away
to somebody else to bottle, thus helping employment in
Glasgow and Edinburgh. I wanted these bottling jobs to stay
on Islay, so why not bottle our own whiskies on our own home
turf?
So, now, we’ve rebuilt an
old warehouse into a bottling hall. Significantly, this
marks the first time in history that any Islay whisky had
ever been bottled on Islay. In addition, Bruichladdich still
owns its same source of natural spring water on Islay that
was always used in the whisky to bring the alcohol down to a
86-proof bottling strength for most of our products. And
we’re using that same water source again, along with an
Islay-grown organic barley, which kind of completes our
picture of a genuine all-Islay-produced single malt that’s
made in Islay, matured in Islay, bottled in Islay, and
exported from Islay.
Another thing important to
me on the employment side, along with the rehiring of former
production workers, was to create a situation where we could
put to use quite a number of disabled people. And we now
have many jobs for them at the distillery which gives me a
special kind of satisfaction. Providing jobs is one of my
key objectives, and I’m pleased to say that, where most
distilleries have around 1O full-time employees, we
presently now have 34. Everything is done by us in our own
house, including all the distilling and bottling, the
shipping, the invoicing, you name it. I can’t tell you how
satisfying it’s been for me to be able to keep all these
jobs functioning within our company right at home – and
think of the contribution it makes to Islay’s economy.
RB
Aside from your achievements as a master distiller, you are
particularly noted as a worldwide single malt scotch
educator, and I’ve heard some things about a school program
you’ve started up.
JM
Yes, this was still another thing I always wanted to do on
Islay. So, I’ve now founded the Bruichladdich Academy of
Islay Single Malt, which opened in April last year. We are
taking about six students for a week of course studies. It’s
a week-long program where students come and stay with us at
the distillery, living in accommodations we provide. Our
objective is to run these programs about 3O weeks a year.
The cost is 13OO pounds a week, and it’s a hands-on
whisky-making course, where you may spend one day with the
mashing, another with distilling and considerable amounts of
time evaluating casks in our cellars. There are about six
different basic lesson elements, but the most important one
to learn is “What does a cask have to tell you?” So, by the
time you’ve completed our week of studies, you come away
with an intensive, enlightened hands-on familiarity with
every part of the hand-crafted master distilling process
that goes into creating a great Islay single malt whisky.
And you will truly understand what cask aging is all
about.
Already, the Academy has
been getting some enthusiastic attention. As of last
September, we’ve had about 5O whisky aficionados and single
malt fanatics from all over the world coming in for this
program. Word-of-mouth popularity has been spreading. And
this, of course, has been creating still more jobs for
Islay’s economy, like the staff the Academy employs for
cooking, cleaning and other hospitality functions. It also
means that every Saturday morning, when the small aircraft
or ferry leaves Islay with our class graduates, another six
ambassadors for Islay take off around the world. And just
think, with 3O class sessions a year, it means that 18O
people will be circulating in different international
consumer markets with a deep first-hand understanding of
what Islay single malts and Islay heritage is all about.
Also, for our own Bruichladdich interests, there just
couldn’t be a better way to market the brand in an up-close
and personal way.
RB
So far, the whole story sounds like a chapter out of “Mr.
Blanding Builds His Dream House”. Have there been any real
disappointments or frustrations, yet.
JM
The truth is there really haven’t. We’ve gotten off to an
extremely encouraging start.
And what I’m additionally
hoping to do within the next couple of years is open malt
barns at the distillery, giving Bruichladdich a true floor
malting facility all its own. There are only five
floor-malting resources in all of Scotland, Islay’s Bowmore
being one of them. But Bowmore produces only about 3O% of
the malted barley that they need. Our malt barns will give
us 1OO% of what Bruichladdich requires. Anyway, right now,
you’ll find me running around, wearing many hats.
RB
You’ve often admitted you get extremely emotional when it
comes to whisky making, and that, over the years, you’ve
sometimes regarded a product like a dear friend or a living
member of your family. Do you find this holding true in all
that you’re doing today?
JM
Yes. In fact even moreso. I think whisky is something you
always have to feel a real passion about, if you’re going to
achieve any success. And there have been more than a few
intense emotional moments since this new Bruichladdich
venture began, like seeing the very first new whisky coming
down the line from this long dead distillery, or like
watching these disabled people we’ve created jobs for
bottling whisky for the first time. A lot of the guys could
hardly speak, and some of them were crying.
For me, maybe the most
profound emotional experience was the opening of a very rare
and precious 4O-year-old cask from the original
Bruichladdich stocks we inherited. Just think about it. This
whisky had been filled into a fresh American oak bourbon
cask at Bruichladdich on October 22, 1964, the very same
year I was starting my training as an apprentice cooper at
Bowmore, less than a mile away across the waters of Loch
Indaal on the shores of Islay. Then its long career journey
began, as did mine. So, I was thinking to myself about my
own 4O-odd years of development during this same span of
time, all the highs and lows of life. “What’s been happening
to you, Jim?” I had to ask myself. And then I had to reflect
on all that’s been happening in the history of the world,
and the horrors and difficulties we’ve had to live through
during these last four decades.
You just feel compelled to
think of a whisky like this in human terms, not as a
commodity. So, I found myself regarding this cask as an old
distinguished friend, noting, with a soft laugh, that, as
I’ve gotten heavier over all these years, this cask has
gotten lighter, or, as the whisky has become more golden in
color, I’ve become more grey. Certainly, the two of us have
travelled far, maturing, growing mellower with the passing
years, losing those rough edges, breathing Islay
air.
And, on the day we opened
this cask, I had this feeling of genuine overwhelming
sentiment, that was shared by the others at the distillery
who were present. It was a moment of pure poetic
significance, and I found myself almost talking to the cask,
expressing thoughts like, “The men who made you (whether
still here or in a Better Place) can take great pride in
their work on that damp autumnal day, all those years ago.
You have continued to mature undisturbed, and have become
the oldest vintage in our cellars, now a truly sovereign
Bruichladdich spirit. It’s been a pleasure sharing these 4O
years with you.”
When the cask was finally
opened, there wasn’t a sound heard from anyone. The hair
just stood up on our arms. I mean this whisky had been lying
in the dark all this time, and it was now seeing light for
the first time. Can you imagine what it must be like to be
coming out of darkness like this from an oceanside dungeon,
and now being free and able to fly? All I can say is what a
privilege it was for me to be the one who could set it
free.
Originally, in 1964, there
were a total of three casks of this exquisite spirit that
were filled. But a cask loses 2% of its volume each year
through “angel’s share” evaporation. So, after 4O years,
that’s an 8O% loss of original content. People talk about
the high price of rare products like this, but sometimes
lose sight of the huge loss of the product before the
bottling takes place. You might expect a whiskey of this
great age to be a bit tired and going downhill. Not this
one. It’s has a beautiful fresh sweetness, with an elegant
oak texture on it. And because the Bruichladdich style has
always been noted for a lovely fruity character, without the
iodiny components of some other heavier popular Islays, you
taste here a combination of ripe fruit flavors like kiwi,
lichee, melon, lemon, and grapefruit, all wrapped up in this
honeyed envelope of mellow oak. And add to this some hints
and flavors of the salt sea ocean coming in there, and
everything becoming more and more concentrated and
compressed over all these years. You really have to give any
tasting of this about one minute for every year just to
fully open up.
Master distillers like to
see themselves as educators, and it’s educating consumers
about single malts that I’ve been trying to do with people
my entire career, more than anything else. But it’s hard to
describe adequately to anyone what it’s like experiencing
something like this. You think of this whiskey locked up all
these years, just waiting for a place in the sun. Now, it’s
free at last, coming alive as you warm it in your hand. Here
it is opening up, flourishing in the glass, and, boom!, the
whole thing just erupts with all the beautiful flavors and
textures. There’s nothing that can compare to this in my
entire master distilling experience.
We were able to get 5OO
bottles from this final remaining cask, and released them to
an extremely limited marketplace last year at about $15OO a
bottle US retail. Many of them have now been sold or are
spoken for, but I think you might still be able to place a
single bottle order with a top bottle shop retailer or on
our Bruichladdich website. It’s obviously more than worth
the price. But what you have to realize is that when this is
gone, it’s gone forever. And, also, when you look into the
glass of something this old and rare, what you want to look
at is a lot more than the flavors to truly appreciate it.
The heart of the experience is all about looking for the men
who made it, because the spirit in the glass is a true
reflection of the warm and generous character of the mashmen
and the stillmen and all the skill elements that produced
such a masterpiece. You can really feel the presence of the
ghosts of these master craftsmen who were responsible. This,
I keep telling people, is the most important ingredient in
any great whisky. It’s not the water or the barley or the
cask or the malt, but the people who made it. These are the
guys who were there night after night, beside potstills,
gently distilling what you’re holding in your glass. So,
it’s nothing to do with ownership or management.
Management’s all gone home by 5pm. I’m talking about the
guys who are on around-the-clock, 24 hours-a-day, nurturing
the product along, bringing it to life.
RB
Well, you clearly have had an important influance on the
entire Islay industry.
JM
Let’s hope so. Islay continues to be the real heart of the
single malt growth industry, and all Islay distilleries are
doing well, I’m so very happy to emphasize. We’re all part
of a whole on this little island. Laphroaig is doing
fantastic. Lagavulin is in short supply around the world.
Ardbeg continues to be a rising international star with a
beautifully-made, heavily peated Islay style, and a brand
name that’s on everyone’s lips. Bowmore continues to produce
great whiskies. Bunnahabhain, under new ownership, will be
doing extremely well, and has some fantastic old vintages
that are coming onto market. And then you have Coal Ila,
which used to be mainly used as a blended single malt in
Johnnie Walker’s and stuff like that. Now it’s being bottled
more as a full, richly-peated single malt unto itself, and
it’s really flying. So, Islay is just on fire right now,
with an amazing seven distilleries doing very, very well,
and the wave is still rising with thousands of scotch-loving
travellers coming to visit as if to a single malt whisky
shrine.
The wonder of it all is
that Islay is such a comparatively tiny island region,
geographically speaking. It’s the southernmost isle of the
Inner Hebrides and is only slightly over 600 square
kilometers in size. But we represent one of the most
extraordinarily diverse and productive spirits-producing
culture in the world. One reason is that Islay is the most
fertile island in Scotland. Most of Scotland’s islands are
hard rock and heather. Islay is blessed with fertile soil,
enormous peat bog resources, and ideal barley-growing
conditions. And, for many years now, ambassadors like myself
have been out there educating the world about peated whisky
styles and smoky flavors. There was a time when few people
liked these whisky components, but now everybody loves them.
And I don’t see it ever going back. So, I’m very very happy
about what I see for Islay distilleries in years up
ahead.
RB
Let’s talk about your own lines of special bottlings and how
you got involved with that.
JM
These are Murray McDavid bottlings. You have to remember
that the three people who put together this small consortium
that purchased Bruichladdich, were the guys who owned and
operated Murray McDavid, which is a small independent
bottling company. So, after investors were in place and the
deal was completed, Murray McDavid became partners with the
Bruichladdich company.
The Murray McDavid end of
the business is all about bottling up whiskies from around
Scotland under the independent Murray McDavid label. The
whiskies can be from any distillery, but what I do for them
is try and buy old and rare whiskies which go out under the
Murray McDavid Mission Series. We also have a second line of
younger Murray McDavid 12-year-old whiskies, also from all
parts of Scotland. This is a good business, all of which
helps support our new Bruichladdich ventures. And, again, as
with our Bruichladdich whiskies, we are very strict about
not chill-filtering or adding color to any Murray McDavid
bottlings.
One of the advantages of my
having been in this business for these last 4O-odd years, is
having created a great many close friendships and
relationships in the industry with people who are very
supportive towards what the Bruichladdich enterprise is
trying to do today. So, it’s not been too difficult for me
to find good casks and get good buys from the whisky
brokers. Indeed, I also have my own line of whisky out as
part of the Bruichladdich portfolio. It’s something called
Jim McEwan’s Celtic Heartlands, and this is truly high-end
stuff that comes in exceptionally elegant packaging. These
are real collector items like, for example, a 1968 Bowmore,
a 1967 Highland Park, and splendid old and rare Macallans
and Glenlivets. So, altogether, we’ve got a nice portfolio
of young and old single malts that represent all of
Scotland, and, whenever I can, I’m always trying to discover
that occasional cask or two from very rare closed
distilleries like Speyside’s legendary old Dallas Dhu or a
Glenugie from the Eastern Highlands.
My customers for coveted
items like these are the real single malt aficionados who
want to experience these older whiskies at a comparatively
reasonable price. You’ve got to remember that these are all
bottlings of only one or two casks. When you buy a regular
line, you probably need a couple of hundred casks to make up
a bottling. But the selection standards for these rare,
small batch bottlings are a lot more stringent. Quite
simply, if any cask is even slightly flawed, I won’t touch
it. As anyone well versed in scotch production quickly
learns early on in this business, every cask has its own
personality. It’s one thing if you’re vatting together maybe
a couple of hundred casks for a bottling and the specific
cask characteristics are not be quite so significant. But,
when you’re producing something from one of two barrels,
these individualities mean everything.
RB
You’ve been long regarded as an innovator in the scotch
industry for all your portfolio developments at Bowmore, and
have received Whisky Magazine’s coveted “Innovator of the
Year” distinction on several occasions. What kinds of
innovations are you particularly interested in
currently?
JM
One of the things that particularly interests me as a
blender today is the creative use of all these woods and
finishes. It’s just so much fun to experiment with.We’re
into an area now that uses fine wine casks. Of course,
there’s always been a tendency for scotch to use sherry
butts for finishing. But Bowmore and Glenmorangie, in
particular, have done very well pioneering various wine cask
finishes in recent years. And, today, here at Bruichladdich,
we’ve been doing some interesting things, too. For instance,
one of our current Bruichladdich releases is called
“Flirtation”. This is a Second Edition 2O-year-old whisky
that’s a followup to our award-winning First Edition
“Twenty” released in September 2OO1, which was an
exceptional bottling that quickly sold out in 2OO2 after
winning several Gold medals and awards. We had to wait about
two years for our stocks to mature before being able to
reintroduce a second special edition “Twenty” to our range.
And in order not to exploit the First Edition’s reputation,
we decided to do something different, because being
independent we’re free to make that kind of
decision.
So, after 1O4O weeks of
maturing in refill bourbon casks, we transferred this spirit
for our Second Edition “Twenty” release into sweet, spicy
Mourvedre wine casks for a brief six-week spell. As a wine,
Mourvedre is rich and velvety, smooth, medium-bodied, and
has a rich red color with hints of berry fruit, black plum,
leather, herbs, peppercorn, and black truffles. And we felt
a six-week finishing touch would be just the right amount of
time to add a nuance of this appealing wine character, but
which would not change the spirit in any way.
What we got was this
exciting and attractive little note of strawberry jam and
cranberry flavor right in the front of the palate. But what
we didn’t expect was the utterly exotic rose blush hue that
the spirit picked up after this fleeting mourvedre cask
contact. This was a completely unintentional bonus, a total
surprise. And the name “Flirtation” is just a bit of
marketing fun, you know. The whole idea is about a brief
affair between a young 2O-year-old Scot and a seductive
French maid. And every time this Scottish lad thinks about
it, his color grows bright pink, as reflected in the color
of his whisky. One of our advertising tag lines is “When was
the last time you had a flirtation with a
2O-year-old?”
This is what I mean about
having some creative fun with all this. And it’s very
appealing to consumers. But don’t for a minute think this is
simply a frivolous marketing gimmick. Quite to the contrary.
This is a serious innovative 2O-year-old single malt whisky
expression that retails in the US for about $125. And the
whole underlying idea is all about just to trying things and
seeing how they might come out. We’re currently looking at
even more exotic wine cask possibilities like Château
d’Yquems and all that stuff. I mean why not be brave and try
some new things? Afterall, you’d get pretty fed up eating
the same food all the time. Besides, consumers today are
showing increasing fascination with this kind of
experimentation with single malts.
Another of our special
whiskies I’ve been working on is an attempt to go back in
time, trying to recreate Bruichladdich whisky the way it was
in 1881 when it was peated. Back in 1881, Bruichladdich was
made from peated barley, as most pot still whiskies were at
the time. But few alive today have ever tasted it, since
most of the stock was used for blending and rarely produced
as a separate single malt bottling. Now, we’ve produced a
whisky that recaptures essences of this historic taste in a
new release we’re calling Bruichladdich’s 3D (The Peat
Proposal). We produced it, using those maturing stocks
acquired with the distillery purchase that date back to
1964. We selected three separate ages of whiskies, each
selected from a different degree of peated barley. The first
was five parts per million, the second 25 parts per million,
and the third component is actually a new, young fiesty and
fiery whiskey I produced in 2OO1 that contains 4O parts per
million. Each comes from a different era of ownership, while
matured in 3 very different warehouses, in three contrasting
types of oak casks, and in 3 separate locations on the
Rhinns of Islay. But all the whisky was distilled by the
same men using the same old Victorian machinery, including
the exceptionally tall and narrow stills that provide the
hallmark elegant and floral Bruichladdich style.
So, this final blending has
pleasing notes of apple fruit and a smoky peat bouquet, but
without the stronger medicinal qualities of some of the
heavier Islay styles. Our objective has been to create a
genuinely new Islay whisky experience from an old
traditional Bruichladdich taste. The result is you can now
have a peated Bruichladdich, whereas some folks used to say
that Bruichladdich wasn’t peated enough to be a true Islay
whisky. Believe me, you won’t say that about this one. What
I particularly love about it is the way the young
heavy-peated component comes at you like a calf that’s been
locked up in a barn all winter and comes flying right out
there in the spring. But, just behind, come these older
vintages that slow the whole thing down. It’s just a
wonderful sipping experience.
RB
In general, how would you summarize your objectives for the
immediate future?
JM
I will continue to bring out new and exciting variations of
Bruichladdich styles, as well as continuing my search for
other rare whiskies around Scotland. Whatever I do will
always be small batch. I shall be making three styles of
whiskies at the Bruichladdich distllery, the first being the
lightly-peated Bruichladdich lineup. I’m also making a
heavily-peated 4O parts per million whisky style called Port
Charlotte that will be ready in five or six years time. And
a third style I’m doing is called Actomore, which, at 😯
parts per million, is going to be a true peaty giant. All to
say, that with these three different Islay styles, the
future at Bruichladdich looks very bright. We’ll also be
expanding our Academy curriculum and our educational website
initiatives on the internet. Today, our Bruichladdich
website has become the largest and most comprehensive of all
scotch producers. We have even included detailed on-line
scotch tastings. And our next immediate project is getting
our own malt barns up and running. Come to think of it,
there’s so much exciting stuff going on right now I just
wish I was 3O years younger.
RB
Any final thoughts?
JM
One of the greatest mentors and inspirations in my early
years at Bowmore was the great veteran cooper, Davey Bell,
who finally died recently at the ripe old age of 93. For
many years, I was a cooper’s apprentice under Davey, and we
would have these long meaningful conversations during
tea-breaks. More than anything, Old Davey turned out to be a
pure philosopher. And his main message was about purposes in
life. He was always asking about for what purpose were we
here in this world, because there was a purpose for each and
every one of us. But, he always added, very few of us ever
realize what that purpose is. Ideally, we should all leave a
footprint in the snow, he said. That way someone else can
make a jump on it. I can only hope that what I’m doing with
Bruichladdich, today, is my footprint in the snow. I just
hope and pray it is.
