This post was in the writing for a long time and I hesitated completing it as Bruichladdich was our last stop on Islay and writing it brings a bucketful of sadness. But life go on so I finally sat down and completed it, doing it was kind of a relief and it’s way better then going to a shrink 🙂

Bruichladdich, well, as I said above – it was our last stop on the island. We were in a hurry as we had to return our rented car and make it on time for our flight back to Glasgow, but we were passing near Bruichladdich, a mere 500 meters away. How could we NOT stop there, even if not for a tour then just see it and have a dram in the visitors center.

So we arrived to Bruichladdich visitors center, just as one of the staff workers went home, leaving there only middle aged bearded worker to work behind the couner who served another visitor. We took the time to walk in the visitors center and enjoy the displays:

then the man was free, smiled at us and served us a Islay Barley 2004 dram and we started to chat a bit. Oh, what a fool I was that I didn’t recognized the face immediately – it was Bruichladdich’s own Duncan Mcgillivray – the Distillery manager, no less, working the counter – what a humble and modest man!

We were about to leave and then somebody comes into the visitors center and ask “Who’s Yoav?” and for a second I was confused how someone tracked me down? But silly me – I did notify on twitter I’m there, so Carl, the good man behind the Bruichladdich social networks presence, went out from his office to look for me.

What a delight to meet the real person behind the virtual presence – with all due respect to virtual friendships/acquaintances, those relationships goes to completely different level upon meeting in real life.

As we arrived late to the last tour, I apologized for us arriving so late and missing the tour, but Carl offered to take us on a personal tour. I tried to decline due to the short time we had, but he insisted and promised it will be a very quick tour and he managed to get us through the distillery (bar the warehouse) in 15 minutes!

Here are a couple of pictures (with captions!)

So the world quickest distillery tour ended after 15 min, although sadly we didn’t cover the warehouse and we were ‘forced’ to leave. We really didn’t want to leave so it was quite a sad moment for us. I promised Carl and Duncan that I’ll be back for a full extended tour, including the warehouse, the next time I’m on Islay and I intend to stand up to this promise!

Distillery In a nutshell

Name: Bruichladdich Distillery
Owners: Remy Cointreau
Location: Bruichladdich, Islay
Water source: Spring at Octomore farm
Stills: 2 Wash stills, 2 Spirit stills
Capacity (yearly): 1,500,000 litres

Tour in a nutshell

Tours availability: See on their site
Cost of tour: £5
Length of tour: 45min
Distillery Exclusive bottles: Yes.
Food: No.