What does it mean to be thought provoking in food and drink in this decade? It’s quite a statement for any business to say they are “progressive”, so what exactly does that signify in today's competitive world? For many, it indicates that you might be an organisation who pushes to be ecologically sustainable, future respecting, and proactively social in approach - really considering all the citizens in and around your enterprise. And building this into values to ensure the culture is where everyone wants it to be.

But it’s essential that you are not only thinking about it, but you are demonstrating it with genuine intention, as it’s become core to your strategy and ways of working.  This is key if you are to make strides forward, you will need to prove it.

That’s exactly what we have discovered when we came across The Bruichladdich Distillery Company - the overarching name for the home of a few brands of whisky often sampled, and also now visited in the small village from which the name originated on a recent Scottish island trip. This business is a modern day spirits brand steeped in tradition - self proclaimed “Progressive Hebridean distillers” - having started some centuries ago it has found itself passed through a few ownerships over this time, since 2001 it has reimagined its original Victorian origins to suit the world today and into the future.

Here’s what we have discovered about this months “Susty Food Hero”

Who: Bruidladdich Distillery company

What: Spirits

Where: Islay, Hebrides, Scotland, U.K. 

When: Since 1881

How big: 1.5million litres, C.£38m turnover 

Bruichladdich is Gaelic (Bruchláddich or Bruikladdie) and means corner of the beach or gentle slope of the sea. This tiny village on the beautiful coastline of Islay - one of the Scottish islands set in from the North Atlantic Ocean, amongst the inner seas off the West Coast of Scotland. 

This position overlooking the blue waters is where the inspiration for the reinvigorated and recognisable branding came from, highlighting the vivid colours visible each day from the front face of the distillery buildings.

The history

The distillery was built in the year 1881 by the Brothers Robert, William and John Gourlay Harvey. The Harvey family ran the site until William died in 1936. Afterwards the distillery was sold and mothballed many times, until Murray McDavid purchased it in the year 2000 for a group of private investors and it reopened in 2001.

The team inherited 1.2 million litres of whiskey when they bought the site, dating back to 1984, and they started to bottle these stocks in an attempt to recover funds to continue to develop the distillery. The team took a “hit and run” approach to releasing their limited editions to various markets across the world. This range proliferation was simplified once the stocks had been depleted.

The team in place during the early 2000’s led by Mark Reynier and Jim Mcewan refurbished the distillery in the old Victorian style and started production. And there have been some incredibly notable milestones since, which have demonstrated the intent to create thoughtful and definitive ways of working to protect the traditional values as well as pave the path for future journeys with sustainability in mind.

A path to a more sustainable business 

• By 2003 an old warehouse was remodelled into a new bottling hall to support all single malt casks on the island. And in the same year organic barley was harvested and distilled from named single source farms across the island. 

• In 2005 the distillery team won the Queen's Award for Enterprise, and in the same year in partnership with the University of the Highlands and Islands Agronomy Institute they first planted Bere Barley - helping to keep the ancient grain in commercial circulation and protecting its legacy.

• Not everything is successful the first time, as in 2010 the team tested the viability of an aerobic digester to power production at the distillery, the idea still being pursued today.

• In 2011 the first distillation of Biodynamic Barley from Yatesbury House Farm near us in WIltshire happened - this is a method where the whole farm is treated as one organism; soil, plant, cattle, wildlife and people. And the health of the soil is at the heart. Alongside this, a new circulation system was installed which made use of wastewater from the still to heat various parts of the site including offices, and the team became proud winners of the Energy Institute Environment Award.

In July 2012 the distillery was bought by Rémy Cointreau, who still owns the company today and continues to invest in sustainable growth.

• In 2015 the business started to construct the Coultorsay warehouses having committed to future proof all-Islay maturation for many years to come back in 2001. And that same year, the Botanist Foundation was established by a cohort of the team with original botanists Richard and Mavis Gulliver. This important move has supported the RSPB on Islay, and amongst other important work has also provided funding for a PhD student to explore conservation of Scottish Juniper.

• Increasing focus upon sustainable agriculture during 2017, the business bought Shore House Croft, 30 acres of unused croft land surrounding the distillery now being purposed for R&D, whilst in tandem focusing upon energy reduction across the site starting at new builds and ongoing maintenance to introduce things such as LED lights, power inverters etc.

• 2018 saw a focus upon landfill reduction saving 126 tonne by reusing or recycling, as well as increasing volunteer time in the community, and increasing the focus on biodiversity with wildflower conservation - introducing elements like sunflower strips within barley fields.

• Beginning to trial growing heritage and hybrid barley and wheat to understand how they would flourish (or not!) on the wet west islands began in 2019, to get the best of various characteristics spanning flavour, resistance to disease, yield etc, aiming for more sustainable growing opportunities in future years. In tandem the business became a living wage employer, as well as donating funds to the local coastal path project, and by 2020 moving to 100% green electricity.

• In the same year, they became the first whisky and gin distillery in Europe to become certified B Corporation, joining a number of companies around the globe that are adhering to the highest standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency and accountability. 

• 2020 saw yet more milestones achieved, with the beginning of a feasibility study into using hydrogen as a source of green energy. And sourcing 50% of the barley used from farmers on Islay, and having traceability of over ¾ of all barley produced by 30 growers across the island and from mainland highlands.

• Between 2021 and 2023 the focus turned to packaging with the aim of “use less and use better” - offering to remove outer tins from every purchase, and the proprietary classic Laddie bottle was produced using 60% recycled glass and additionally lighter glass and optimising the design to save 65% packaging CO2 emissions.

“Farmer first” philosophy

Being the ultimate natural agricultural product, whisky uses raw materials from the land and this distillery business boasts of using 100% Scottish Barley for single malts, with half of this being grown locally on the island of Islay through a network of 20 partner farms. Bruichladdich emphasises the local barley it sources, and often makes reference to this in some of the products they bring to market, such as their Scottish barley edition or others that directly name the farm from which Bruichladdich source the grain. 

Their ethos makes them very aware of the emissions contributed by the farming sector, and given their standing as a B Corp accredited organisation, the balance of purpose and profit means that they focus upon their impact in many ways which has led them to work on a number of interesting projects - progressive in their approach.

Their Regeneration project came from a conversation between the Production DIrector and one of the youngest local farmers who had been considering the agricultural cycle and made the decision to try and grow Rye as a rotational crop to his barley - which has beneficial effects on the fields enabling them to recover and absorb more nutrients as a consequence - improving the health of the soil and negating the need for artificial input. This produced the first ever Rye Whisky from the island.

The Biodynamic project was the second small batch idea, and became a world first in the industry, with whisky playing its part in the saving of the soils by seeking to grow biodynamic barley on a carbon negative farm in Wiltshire, which later became adorned with the Biodynamic Federations Demeter logo. The approach focuses around the farming ecosystem to nurture all organisms within it - barley being rotated with other cereals, and in this case up to 23 other species of herbs, legumes, and grasses which all root at different depths and thrive in opposition to monoculture. And as part of the work it was discovered that the farm sequestered up to 10x more carbon than it emitted

The Ternary project was the very first project in the series of small batch experiments and brought together the distillery’s three most recognised single malts, all very different in their approach and producing a complex and diverse product.

Evolving portfolio of innovation

Aside from the exciting projects underway to explore sustainable drams, the Bruichladdich distillery has a number of different brands, that range from an unpeated malt to the heavily peated malt like the Octomore - they don’t yet have their own maltings so rely on others to provide them. There is good variety in the distillery bottlings of the Bruichladdich Whiskies. You can find normal standard bottlings such as The Classic Laddie, or a lot of Wine and Sherry finishes as well as a few experiments such as the X4.

The distillery has an annual output of about 1.5 million litres of pure alcohol. The water for the Whisky comes from the Bruichladdich loch and the Octomore spring. Bruichladdich has five pot stills which are very distinctively pear-shaped and tall, two washstills with about 12,000 litres volume and two spirit stills with about 11,000 litres volume. 

The warehouses are rather flat and are all bricked. Together with the humid and cold climate of the Isle of Islay, the Whisky matures very slowly. The variety of casks in the warehouses is very great and you will find a lot of different Wine casks from which Jim McEwan can pick his special series bottlings such as the Cuvee. Bruichladdich doesn't only store their Scotch on site but also at the Octomore farm.

Bruidladdich have recently increased their number of stills to five, by purchasing a Lomond still called “Ugly Betty” for its new dry gin brand The Botanist, which they have been producing since 2010. Their handcrafted Gin is distilled at the distillery on Islay in a modified Lomond Still from the old Inverleven distillery in Dumbarton. A slow "simmer distillation" is used here. The temperature in the still is checked by hand and increased until it is lukewarm. The main botanicals are then added to the still in a specific order and steeped for twelve hours before the temperature is raised to boiling point and the vapours rise. These first hit a bundle of 85 copper pipes with small holes and then a water box on top of the still. Here the vapours are cooled and the heavy oils flow back.

Only the purest and lightest vapours enter the Lyne arm, where the aroma basket containing the Islay botanicals is installed. The herbs are kept in loosely woven muslin bags through which the vapour can easily pass. But there is also a reflux pipe that returns heavier condensed spirits to the neck of the still.

To determine the middle cut, the stillman takes samples from the spirit safe into which the spirit has flowed after passing through the long shell tube condenser.

The 22 herbs which are used, such as apple mint, gorse, hawthorn blossoms, heather and lovage all come from the island of Islay and their Latin names are imprinted on the bottle. They are selected and hand-picked by Bruichladdich's full-time forager James Donaldson, a job that takes him seven months every year.

Sustainable Food Heroes

In summary, the Bruichladdich Distillery team are truly provocateurs who are living their values, bringing true pioneering thinking to their industry, driving change through becoming the first B Corp in their sector, and demonstrating that they believe that “reconnecting the land and the dram” is the meaningful way to continue to make the flavour of their products central to the proposition, and in doing so they are really bringing greater understanding and engagement towards an agricultural ecosystem the planet will benefit from.

If you want to empower your team further and bring about change to help our environment, then we can help you continue to drive your business forward whilst taking a moment to consider it prosperity in many ways - get in touch for a thought provoking conversation about how you can stimulate sustainable growth.