Issue 167 | Whisky Magazine 39
GETTING TECHNICAL
Water source: Margadale Spring.
The only distillery on Islay to produce
whisky using pure spring water
Malt: Unpeated and peated (peated to
35-45ppm) – Laureate variety
Mashing: Traditional 12.5 tonne
stainless steel, copper-topped mash
tun. 12-hour mash cycle
Fermentation: 6 Oregon pine wash
EDFNVOLWUHVFDSDFLW\ÀOOHG
with 66,500 litres). 55-100 hours
fermentations
Distillation: 2 x wash stills – onion-
shaped (charge 16,625 litres), 2 x
spirit stills – pear-shaped (charge
9,500 litres)
Production capacity: 2.5mla
the 1960s, meant that the complement
of stills was doubled from two to four
ͳͻ͵ǡβ
operation in the same year.
The distillery’s fortunes took a dip in
the early 1980s, however, when over-
production led to the closure of many
Scottish distilleries, and Bunnahabhain
was silent from 1982 to 1984, only
for several years thereafter.
The late 1980s saw Bunnahabhain
ǡ
of the distillery’s output was for the
ǡǯ
brands, Famous Grouse, Cutty Sark,
and from 1995, Black Bottle, after the
company acquired the blend and made
Ǧ
βǤ
ǡ
ǡβ
malt brands such as The Macallan
ǡ
ʹͲͲ͵Ǥ
Bunnahabhain and Black Bottle
were subsequently purchased by Burn
Stewart Distillers plc for £10 million,
ǡ
Tobermory on the island of Mull.
ʹͲͳ͵
stewardship, when Burn Stewart’s
sold its Scottish operations to South
African-based The Distell Group for
£160 million.
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