Bunnahabhain

Bunnahabhain is a Scottish distillery located in Port Askaig, on the Isle of Islay... Read more

Bunnahabhain is a Scottish distillery located in Port Askaig, on the Isle of Islay. Its name means "river mouth" in Gaelic... Read more

Bunnahabhain is a Scottish distillery located in Port Askaig, on the Isle of Islay. Its name means "river mouth" in Gaelic.

Bunnahabhain history

In 1879, the Robertson and Baxter Blending House and the Greenlees Brothers founded the Islay Distillery Company. They built their first distillery, Bunnahabhain, in 1883. The distillery was forced to close in 1930, having been unable to withstand the difficulties caused by the end of the First World War.

However, its owners managed to reopen it seven years later. It's a remote distillery, supplied only by the sea. Its whisky is renowned, but its capacity is unfortunately rather limited. The arrival of a road in 1960 changed all that. Bunnahabhain was finally able to achieve interesting production rates, and two new stills were installed in 1963.

This was also a turning point in the aromatic profile of her whisky, as it was also at this time that she decided to stop using peat in the malting process. The first 12-year-old single malt was released in 1979, but the whisky world was in crisis. The distillery was forced to close again in 1982.

Once again, the will of its owners enabled it to reopen in 1984. It was bought by Burn Stewart Distillers in 2003, and benefited from an initial makeover of its bottlings. The range was also extended to include an 18 and a 25-year-old.

2010 marks a return to more traditional methods. Bunnahabhain abandoned cold filtration, and its whiskies once again sported a beautiful natural color. A new makeover takes place in 2017. This is also an opportunity to introduce two new references: Stiùireadair and Toiteach A Dhà.

Production at Bunnahabhain

Most operations are still carried out by hand. Bunnahabhain whiskies are generally unpeated, with the exception of a few Mòine (Gaelic for peated) vintages. The malts used come from the Concerto variety. Source water is drawn from the River Margadale, and is piped directly to the distillery, without coming into contact with the region's peat soils.

The malt is crushed by a Porteus mill, and then fed into large 12.5-ton stainless steel and copper brewing vats. This operation takes around twelve hours.

Fermentation takes place in 6 6,500-liter Oregon pine vats. On average, fermentation lasts between 60 and 80 hours, but can last up to 100 hours. The advantage of these wooden vats is that a bacterial microsome develops in them, adding complexity to the process.

Distillation takes place in two pairs of wash stills and spirit stills. These are large stills with long swan necks, which produce fairly light distillates. Only the heart of the distillate is kept, while the heads and tails are passed on to the next distillation stage.

Ian Macmillan is the company's master blender. He carries out an initial reduction of the "new make" (whisky coming out of the still) in vats, using spring water. In his seaside winery, he has at his disposal no less than 20,700 butts, hogsheads and bourbon casks. Read less

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