Bruichladdich set to double production

Bruichladdich has confirmed plans to double its production in order to meet the distribution requirements of new owner Rémy Cointreau.

The move, which is being phased in gradually, will see the Islay whisky distillery increase annual production from 750,000 litres to around 1.5 million litres. This is being achieved by a shift to 24 hour production for five and a half days per week.

“There’s no doubt we have moved into a rather different universe with the takeover by Rémy,” acknowledged a spokesman from the distillery. “It has a far, far larger distribution network which they’re asking us to supply.”

However, he insisted: “We’re absolutely determined to maintain our traditional methods of production,” confirming: “We can move to this 1.5m without making any changes at the plant.”

The challenge facing the distillery instead is a warehousing shortage. Having built two new warehouses in the last two years, Bruichladdich is currently adding a third and, according to the spokesman, “there’s another in the pipeline.”

Stressing the importance to the final character of the company’s whiskies of maturing them near the distillery, he remarked: “Everything that we make is matured here in the village of Bruichladdich – if we don’t have space here, we won’t do it.”

The spokesman also emphasised the longterm nature of whisky production meant the current increase was not being made with particular markets or styles in mind.

“There’s absolutely no chance of the whisky we’re making today appearing on the market for a minimum of five or six years,” he observed. “We’re not responding to a market in particular; we’re responding to the fact that we have a vastly bigger distribution network than we had before.”