July 1, 2009

Visit The Bowmore Distillery to Experience Tha Magic of Islay

by Rachel Wilson

There is growing demand for Single Malt Scotch Whisky and every year thousands of people visit the Scottish distilleries. The Hebridean island of Islay off the West coast of Scotland is famous for producing some of the best single malt whisky in the world. The island, warmed by the Gulf Stream, is a magical place with beautiful scenery and the locals are friendly.

It is not difficult to find excellent accommodation on Islay and at Bowmore distillery they even have their own holiday cottages where you can stay and enjoy a complementary tour of the distillery and sample their excellent single malt whisky. There are 130 miles of beautiful coastline, around which seven of the distilleries are sited. The inhabitants number approximately 3500 and there is a strong community spirit. There are a number of festivals throughout the year including the festival of Malt and Music in May, which celebrates the rich heritage in Whisky production on Islay.

The first record of whisky making in Scotland goes back to 1494 and is thought to have been started by Irish monks. Many of the distilleries started out as farms where home stills were used to produce grain spirit. The process of distilling began after the harvest and continued until late April This cycle has continued down the centuries, and even today many of the distilleries are closed in August for the ’silent season’.

Bowmore Distillery in the town of Bowmore on the shores of Loch Indaal is the oldest on Islay and one of the oldest in Scotland; established in 1779 by David Simpson a local merchant and pioneer who built the distillery, produced the whisky and introduced Islay whisky to the world. Bowmore Distillery has changed hands four times in the last 200 years but traditional methods of production are still used and handed down by word of mouth.

The quality and flavour of Bowmore Single malt whisky is strongly influenced by the environment and the geographical position of the distillery on Islay. The distilleries in the south of the island produce the most powerful whiskies saturated with peat smoke, salt and iodine, with peat water used for every stage of production and those in the north producing the milder flavours with the use of clear spring water. Bowmore Distillery in the middle of the island produce single malt whiskies with flavours that fall between the two extremes Their whiskies range from zesty lemon and smoky with hints of sea air and honey at the lighter end to cedar wood and treacle, soft fruit and chocolate and then a delicious toffee and hazelnut with a hint of peat smoke for the 25 year old single malt.

Islay is largely composed of peat and this is covered in salt spray as the winter gales blow across the island and saturate the ground in the seaweedy essence. The water used to produce Bowmore whisky is taken from the uncontaminated water of the Laggan River which flows down from the mountains gathering the rich flavours and colouring of the peat as it does so.

The traditional practice of floor malting the barley is dying out and Bowmore distillery is one of only a few left where this is still carried out. The malt is first soaked for up to 72 hours to allow it to germinate and then drained, spread out over the malting floor and turned regularly by the Maltman with a traditional wooden shovel to release the heat. The malt is then transferred to the kiln which is fired by the Islay peat, for drying and roasting.

At Bowmore Distillery traditional methods are used by a very experienced team, most of whom have worked at the distillery for many years. Demand for Bowmore single malt whisky is high and it is exported to forty countries around the world. A bottle of Black Bowmore, distilled in 1897 was recently sold at auction for 1400. The whisky if left to mature in the famous Bowmore vaults where the damp cellars are below sea level, keeping them at a constant temperature the year round, stored in casks of Spanish and American Oak which adds to the rich mellow flavours of the maturing whisky. The workforce take great pride in the single malt whisky they produce and their constant efforts make Bowmore a world class dram.

About the Author:

Daphne Hamilton is a travel writer and historian with a keen interest in the history of single malt whisky production in Scotland. Her local distillery at Bowmore is just one of the many distilleries in the UK that produce single malt whisky.