The 5th release in ongoing Islay Barley exploration series.

This is a thought provoking, uber-provenance single malt whisky distilled from barley grown by eight family farms on our remote Scottish island home. Barley varieties Optic and Oxbridge were planted across the breadth of the island in 2009. We distilled their spirit early in 2010 and it ran clean, rich and malty, before being filled into ex-Bourbon and French wine casks and matured in our warehouses by Loch Indaal.

From Bruichladdich comes an unpeated single malt Scotch whisky distilled from barely by eight family farms local to Islay. Aged in a combination of bourbon and French-wine casks, the Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2010 uses 100% Scottish barely and is un-chill filtered and of natural colour. The final product, bottled at 50% ABV at the distillery with Islay spring water, marks a really interesting release at a very reasonable price. 

Like its Islay neighbour Bunnahabhain, Bruichladdich has traditionally been an un-peated single malt, mostly owing to its requirements by the blenders who owned it. The last of these was Whyte and Mackay, who eventually shut it down in 1995, deeming it surplus to requirements. They sold the distillery to Murray McDavid in 2001, who launched the peated Port Charlotte and heavily-peated Octomore single malts in 2006 and 2008. A recommissioned Lomond still also now produces the popular Botanist gin there.