Product description
In 1981, Bruichladdich Distillery celebrated its 100th birthday.
It was built in 1881 by the Harvey brothers, owners of the Yoker and Dundashill distilleries (the latter was one of the largest malt distilleries at the time) using a new, revolutionary building material – cement. The plant changed owners several times, in 1968 it was purchased by Invergordon Distillers for 400 thousand pounds, which in 1975 doubled the number of stills to four. The next decade brought a huge crisis to the Scotch whisky sector, which did not spare Bruichladdich; the distillery suspended production in 1983 and used only a part of its production capacity until the end of the century. The takeover of Invergordon assets by Whyte & Mackay did not improve Bruichladdich's fortunes either, the local whisky was not appreciated by blenders, and this was crucial to survival at the time. It was only the new century and a new owner (in 2000 Murray McDavid, an independent whisky publisher, bought the distillery for £6.5 million) that changed its fortunes. A huge contribution to Bruichladdich's current position was made by Jim McEwan, a charismatic production director, who previously worked for Bowmore. In 2012 Rémy Cointreau, for just £58 million, became the distillery's new owner.
The edition presented here commemorates the first, and very difficult, century in the history of the distillery. The whisky distilled in 1966 (when Bruichladdich was still distilling in one pair of stills) spent 15 years in oak barrels, and only 2,400 crystal decanters were released on the market.