Bowmore – Heaven on Earth for Whisky Lovers
There is growing demand for Single Malt Scotch Whisky and every year thousands of people visit the Scottish distilleries. The Hebridean island of Islay off the West coast of Scotland is famous for producing some of the best single malt whisky in the world. The island, warmed by the Gulf Stream, is a magical place with beautiful scenery and the locals are friendly.
There is a strong community spirit among the 3500 friendly inhabitants on Islay, and a number of festivals throughout the year including the Festival of Malt and Music in May. With plenty of excellent accommodation to choose from you may be interested to know that Bowmore distillery even has its own holiday cottages. The island covers 610 square kilometres and seven of the distilleries are sited around the 130 miles of beautiful coastline.
The first people to set up stills and produce whisky on Islay are thought to have been Irish monks in the 14th century The monks found the island so suited to the production of what was known as Uisage Beathe (water of life) because of the unlimited supply of peat and pure soft water in the lochs and rivers, and an early strain of barley was grown by the crofters known as Bere.
Bowmore is the oldest distillery on Islay where it has stood on the shores of Loch Indaal in the town of Bowmore since 1779. It was started by a local merchant David Simpson who built the distillery and began producing the whisky which, in years to come would be sought after the world over. The distillery has changed hands four times in the last two hundred years and is now owned by Morrison Bowmore distillers who have owned it since 1994 and who carry on the traditional methods of production.
A single malt whisky is the product of a single distillery and no two distilleries produce the same flavour and body. The distilleries to the south of Islay produce the most powerful medium bodied flavours with the use of the islands peat water for every stage of production, and those to the north produce much milder flavours since they use clear spring water. Bowmore is in the middle of the island and the flavour it produces comes between the two extremes having a warm smoky character with peaty, toffee flavours and some floral scents and traces of linseed oil.
Islay is largely composed of peat and this is covered in salt spray as the winter gales blow across the island and saturate the ground in the seaweedy essence. The water used to produce Bowmore whisky is taken from the uncontaminated water of the Laggan River which flows down from the mountains gathering the rich flavours and colouring of the peat as it does so.
The traditional practice of floor malting the barley is dying out and Bowmore distillery is one of only a few left where this is still carried out. The malt is first soaked for up to 72 hours to allow it to germinate and then drained, spread out over the malting floor and turned regularly by the Maltman with a traditional wooden shovel to release the heat. The malt is then transferred to the kiln which is fired by the Islay peat, for drying and roasting.
The high quality of the single malt whisky produced at Bowmore distillery owes much to the wealth of experience in its work force. There is a very low turnover in staff at Bowmore Distillery and the three stills men alone have 30 years experience each. The men of Bowmore Distillery see themselves as caretakers who will pass on their knowledge to the next generation by word of mouth. The distillery produces forty five million drams of single malt whisky every year and exports 1.7 million bottles a year to forty countries worldwide. Bowmore Distillery produces award winning whisky and the latest was the Double gold award at the San Francisco World Spirit competition in March 2009. A combination of dedication and experience in Bowmore team and the magic of Islay make this single malt whisky one of the best in the world.
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