The New Era
As mentioned, Bruichladdich came into new ownership though Murray McDavid under Mark Reynier, Simon Coughlin and Gordon Wright’s leadership in 2000. Suddenly a vast array of bottles came to the market. At the very start, when they re-opened the distillery, they produced 3 valinches and shortly after – 10 year old, 15 year old & 20 year old editions from the stock they had inherited.
In this section, these are shown first and then the 6 bottle Legacy Series which showcased inherited vintage stock of between 32 to 37 years old.
The first 3 Valinches
The Valinch bottlings are 50cl single cask releases, available exclusively from the distillery. More recent versions are often hand-filled by distillery visitors but these first issue ones were available at the Islay Festival in 2001 to mark the ‘first distillation of the re-opening of the distillery’ on Tuesday 29th May 2001.
Valinch No. 5079
Valinch No. 5081
Valinch No. 5085
In August 2001 I was fortunate enough to visit the distillery on the morning they received their new 15 year old & 20 year old bottles into the shop. Looking back, it was probably at this point which my ‘addiction’ to all things Bruichladdich commenced ! I recall that Jim McEwen & the late great Duncan McGillivray were so proud of what they were doing. Shown here are the first ever bottles they sold of the 15 & 20yr editions.
15 Year Old
20 Year Old
The Legacy Series
Whilst Bruichladdich when they relaunched issued numerous bottles, the Legacy Series focussed on aged stock. Six different editions were issued over the course of the early 2000’s.
