THE EARLY DAYS
Originally constructed by the Harvey Brothers in 1881, Bruichladdich Distillery has always been primarily a whisky distillery. It was considered avant garde at the time - purpose-built around a central courtyard and using new methods and materials such as concrete, they also exploited the slope on which the distillery sits to create a gravity feed, reducing the need for pumps.
GETTING STARTED IN WHISKY
The distillery had a chequered history throughout the 1900s, with ownership changing hands multiple times and various breaks in distillation, some of which lasted several years. It was eventually mothballed in 1994 but then in 2000, a group of private investors led by Mark Reynier and Simon Coughlin acquired Bruichladdich and breathed life into the distillery again. They brought in Jim McEwan and, over the following months, worked hard to restore the plant to full working order. Whisky distillation began again in 2001 and we class this as the "renaissance" of Bruichladdich Distillery as we know it today.
EXPANDING INTO GIN
For the restoration of Bruichladdich Distillery, a lot of second-hand distilling equipment was acquired from Dumbarton Distillery on the mainland which had been mothballed for many years. Amongst this equipment was a 1959 Lomond still which lay in the warehouses of the distillery for several years before Jim McEwan had the idea to create a gin from Islay. The Lomond still was modified to be able to accommodate gin distillation and was affectionately named 'Ugly Betty'. The first drops of gin flowed from the still in 2010.
EXPANDING GLOBALLY
In 2012, Bruichladdich Distillery was acquired by Rémy Cointreau which helped introduce The Botanist to new countries around the world. Today, it can be found from the UK to the USA, Australia to Japan and many more places in between. Despite this growth, the brand remains true to its foundations: Jim McEwan handed the reins over to Adam Hannett in 2016, who is now the Master Distiller and oversees the creation of The Botanist today. The same recipe is still used, with two professional foragers, Kate Hannett and James Donaldson, responsible for sourcing these important components.
Originally constructed by the Harvey Brothers in 1881, Bruichladdich Distillery has always been primarily a whisky distillery. It was considered avant garde at the time - purpose-built around a central courtyard and using new methods and materials such as concrete, they also exploited the slope on which the distillery sits to create a gravity feed, reducing the need for pumps.
The distillery had a chequered history throughout the 1900s, with ownership changing hands multiple times and various breaks in distillation, some of which lasted several years. It was eventually mothballed in 1994 but then in 2000, a group of private investors led by Mark Reynier and Simon Coughlin acquired Bruichladdich and breathed life into the distillery again. They brought in Jim McEwan and, over the following months, worked hard to restore the plant to full working order. Whisky distillation began again in 2001 and we class this as the "renaissance" of Bruichladdich Distillery as we know it today.
For the restoration of Bruichladdich Distillery, a lot of second-hand distilling equipment was acquired from Dumbarton Distillery on the mainland which had been mothballed for many years. Amongst this equipment was a 1959 Lomond still which lay in the warehouses of the distillery for several years before Jim McEwan had the idea to create a gin from Islay. The Lomond still was modified to be able to accommodate gin distillation and was affectionately named 'Ugly Betty'. The first drops of gin flowed from the still in 2010.
In 2012, Bruichladdich Distillery was acquired by Rémy Cointreau which helped introduce The Botanist to new countries around the world. Today, it can be found from the UK to the USA, Australia to Japan and many more places in between. Despite this growth, the brand remains true to its foundations: Jim McEwan handed the reins over to Adam Hannett in 2016, who is now the Master Distiller and oversees the creation of The Botanist today. The same recipe is still used, with two professional foragers, Kate Hannett and James Donaldson, responsible for sourcing these important components.
