Bruichladdich

Bruichladdich village is the distillery, built in 1881, and an excellent tour it does too (ph 01496 850190). The distillery had to close down during the two World Wars, then went through various owners, and was closed down again in 1993 by Whyte and Mackay. Luckily it was rescued from corporate mothballs in 2000 and became privately owned in exchange for £6.5 million. All the workers had shares in the company, almost everything was done on site with the original Victorian machinery (and nae computers), and their low peat whisky is delicious (the peaty stuff is for others). Well, that is how it used to be until it was sold to Remy Cointreau for £58 million in 2012, and maybe it still is to an extent. How understandable and profitable for the owners and the 60 investors, but how depressing that yet another successful small operation gets swallowed up by a multinational corporate monster. I am of course no businessman so I don't understand these things at all, but I know what I like, and what I don't, and what I am likely to intuitively support. indeed I was once all in favour of this distillery because they sponsored the first Scottish Islands Peaks Race I entered in the early 1990s.