Twelfth distillery on Islay
Another new distillery on Islay has been talked about for several years now. In the fall of 2019, The Islay Boys Ltd., founded by two island entrepreneurs, Donald MacKenzie and Mackay Smith, has announced plans to launch a facility that will be both a kraft brewery, rum and gin production facility, and whiskey distillery. Today we know that they not only obtained the necessary permits, but also gained a strategic partner, Ian Macleod Distillers, owner of Glengoyne, Tamdhu and the Rosebank, which is currently being rebuilt. But one step at a time.
In 2016, two Islay businessmen, Donald MacKenzie and Mackay Smith, set up the company The Islay Boys Ltd., engaged in independent bottling of Scotch whisky. It is to them that we owe the brands Flatnöse, Bårelegs and Picti. In 2018, the "Boys of Islay" bought the island's only brewery, located in Bridgend Islay Ales. The beer produced there has undergone a major facelift - both in terms of bottle content and the names and graphic design of the packaging - thanks to which it has gained a new market impetus and has begun to gain a growing number of admirers.
Big changes announced in October 2019 for the company led by MacKenzie and Smith. Beer production was to be moved from Islay Square in Bridgend to a newly built facility in Glenegedale on Laggan Bay in the southwestern part of the island, right next to Glenegedale Airport. Production of Islay's first rum, as well as gin and whisky, was to begin at the same facility, all of which would take the name Laggan Bay Brewery & Distillery. The company was to be assisted in the launch of whisky production by Jim McEwan himself, who had left the Bruichladdich distillery a few years earlier and retired. On the brewing side, Scott Williams of the William Bros brewery was to become an advisor to the company. The whisky brands Flatnöse, Bårelegs and Picti were to be expanded with another line, this time at the premium level.
The new plant was to triple the brewery's capacity - the previous production of four barrels per month was to rise to twelve. Beer matured in whisky barrels announced. The new distillery would feature two copper alembics with capacities of 5,000 and 7,500. liters (that is, small), which were to enable the production of 150,000. liters of pure alcohol per year for whisky. By comparison, this is a marginally higher yield than Wolfburn, ranked eighth from last in the ranking of Scotland's largest whisky makers. The whisky was to have Islay's signature smoky, peaty character. At this stage, no information was specified about the target character of the whisky, the choice of barrels, or possible experiments. In addition, a column apparatus was to appear in the plant, used for the production of rum and gin. The master distiller was to become Donald MacKenzie, who learned the art of distilling from Jim McEwan himself.
The new plant was planned to open before the Fèis Ìle festival in 2021. In addition to the relevant permits, all that was missing was financing for the project, for which the two enterprising Islay residents looked hard.
The issue has gone quiet, and when it comes to whisky on Islay, the world has focused more on the work to restart Port Ellen, or Elixir Distillers' plans to build and operate the Portintruan distillery on the south coast of the island, between Port Ellen and Laphroaig. Islay rums have also been discontinued now.
Meanwhile, it was almost a month ago, on July 7, 2022, that The Oban Times newspaper reported that The Islay Boys Ltd had obtained the. building permits for a distillery and brewery in Glenegedale. Argyll and Bute Council, the local government body that deals with such matters, has given a favorable opinion to an application by Islay businessmen. Still, there was a shortage of money.
On Saturday, July 30, 2022, Gordon Dundas, the company's Global Brand Ambassador, announced the matter on his Facebook profile Ian Macleod Distillers, which, on this occasion, first appeared in press reports regarding the Laggan Bay Brewery & Distillery, as a strategic partner.
We don't know to what extent the plans announced in fall 2019 will be retained, we don't know if Jim McEwan's involvement in the Laggan Bay Brewery & Distillery project is still planned, and we don't know what the new brewery and distillery buildings will look like. Finally, I do not know when the construction work is expected to begin and, more importantly, to be completed. A lot has changed on Islay since then. Although Jim McEwan's involvement in the Ardnahoe project may stand in the way of his participation in the Laggan Bay project. We know that the new plant will be built on a plot of about two acres, less than a mile from Laggan Bay beach. We will track the rest for you as events unfold.
Laggan Bay Brewery & Distillery will be the twelfth Scotch whisky maker on Islay, an island famous for whisky with a decidedly maritime and smoky character. The local liquor owes it to the use of local peat in abundant quantities during the drying of barley malt. The result is a challenging whisky with smoky, iodine, medicinal, asphalt notes. The island currently operates Ardbeg, Ardnahoe, Caol Ila, Bowmore, Bruichladdich, Bunnahabhain, Kilchoman, Lagavulin and Laphroaig. Under construction are Port Ellen and Portintruan. For the record, it should be mentioned that two of the distilleries operating on the island produce primarily non-peat whiskeys, although liquors more typical of the island have been gaining prominence in their offerings for some time now. They are Bruichladdich and Bunnahabhain. Caol Ila and Ardbeg have also released editions of whisky devoid of Islay's characteristic peat smoke influence.
In 2014, plans emerged to build a distillery on the farm Gartbreck, however, as a result of disagreements between the partners, which became notorious in mid-2017, this project should probably be let go. The aforementioned article in The Oban Times from early July 2022 also notes the submission of a planning application to Argyll And Bute Council for yet another distillery, the thirteenth on Islay. We are talking about Ili, referring to the island's oldest name, which would be built on the Gearach farm west of Port Charlotte. It looks like as many as 13 distilleries will soon be operating on Scotland's most famous island.
[01.08.2022 / Photo: Rajmund Matuszkiewicz]