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In the summer of 2001 just after The Laddie re-opening i
spent a delightful hour and a bit talking to the Master Distiller of
Bruichladdich ,the legendary Jim McEwan.We talked about quite a lot ,i hope i
can do the discussion justice,i've never met anyone so enthusiastic about their
job and their place of residence.I took with me a list of questions about the
cask that I (and many others)have purchased.I will say that i went in knowing i
had bought a bargain in the bloodtub and came out knowing that i had a massive
bargain. The bloodtub is a fresh sherry tub from the Jereze region of Spain
,according to Jim it is a work of art ,it is arriving at the end of this month
,it is costing £110 to buy and another £30 to ship (get the
calculators out)and the most Bruichladdich is making out of one is £10
(profit),so there's not much left for the materials,labour etc . Compare the
price of a bloodtub to the price of an ordinary cask (£12.50) and you can
see there's not a lot of cask for the outlay and you get to keep the cask at
the end!
Gordon - how many Litres were in the first distillation?
Jim - He couldn't say without checking the books ,but there are 80 bloodtubs in total to be filled .
Gordon - what type of building is the Port Charlotte warehouse ?
Jim - "A Dunnage" (i know boring question).
Gordon- What where his thoughts on the amount of time to leave the PC to mature in a bloodtub?
Jim - "its an unknown factor,who can say,but start checking at 8 years." (In may 2002 , while at the whisky festival samples were taken from a couple of bloodtubs , Jim was present and was impressed with there progress , he now thinks about 5 years ) .
Gordon - Does the cask surface to whisky ratio speed things up?
Jim - "not surface area to whisky,but the thickness of the staves of the casks,and those on the tub are quite thick."
Gordon - What type of Barley was used?
Jim - "Optic from Port Ellen maltings".He also said the current yields off the barley were exceptional about 407 litres per ton.
Gordon - Are there any old logo's from the Port Charlotte Distillery?
Jim - "no". ( owners can submit there own labels and the default label will contain the usual stuff about Dist. date/bottling date/cask number etc ).
Gordon - The next question (and i read this word for word off the sheet) he was quite impressed with and i was impressed with his answer.Any concern that unpure foreshots and feints were selected for filling ,not quite sure how to word this,since this was a new recipe there was more art than science in the 1st distillation?
Jim - "No,i've spent a lot of time in a still house perfecting the cut by hand,you've got to trust me on this one,if you want open heart surgery you don't go to a dentist." he has been doing it for a few years!
Gordon - The last question was to do with bottling,there have been write ups on the likes of Signatory and Blackadder bottling procedures and they talk of the amount of whisky that sits in the pipes and pads,a real problem when bottling single cask whisky.how does laddie intend to handle the bottling of the small tub?
Jim - "first off you don't have to bottle it here,you can just walk out the gate with your cask,but the easy solution is to put a tap in the end bung hole and fill them straight into the bottle by hand. "
We then talked at length about the whisky festival , his old job at Bowmore , his family past and present(how he hopes one day his daughter will follow in his foot steps , well from what i heard on the island later , on the tours she took , she has her old mans enthusiasm for the whisky!) . We touched upon loads of subjects in a short period of time , i look forward to crossing his path again next May at the festival . He admits he has loads of time for the whisky punters but don't abuse it , he has got a distillery to run and just because you bought a barrel doesn't mean you own the place . Just sit back and think how much of a bargain you got with the bloodtub .
Gordon - how many Litres were in the first distillation?
Jim - He couldn't say without checking the books ,but there are 80 bloodtubs in total to be filled .
Gordon - what type of building is the Port Charlotte warehouse ?
Jim - "A Dunnage" (i know boring question).
Gordon- What where his thoughts on the amount of time to leave the PC to mature in a bloodtub?
Jim - "its an unknown factor,who can say,but start checking at 8 years." (In may 2002 , while at the whisky festival samples were taken from a couple of bloodtubs , Jim was present and was impressed with there progress , he now thinks about 5 years ) .
Gordon - Does the cask surface to whisky ratio speed things up?
Jim - "not surface area to whisky,but the thickness of the staves of the casks,and those on the tub are quite thick."
Gordon - What type of Barley was used?
Jim - "Optic from Port Ellen maltings".He also said the current yields off the barley were exceptional about 407 litres per ton.
Gordon - Are there any old logo's from the Port Charlotte Distillery?
Jim - "no". ( owners can submit there own labels and the default label will contain the usual stuff about Dist. date/bottling date/cask number etc ).
Gordon - The next question (and i read this word for word off the sheet) he was quite impressed with and i was impressed with his answer.Any concern that unpure foreshots and feints were selected for filling ,not quite sure how to word this,since this was a new recipe there was more art than science in the 1st distillation?
Jim - "No,i've spent a lot of time in a still house perfecting the cut by hand,you've got to trust me on this one,if you want open heart surgery you don't go to a dentist." he has been doing it for a few years!
Gordon - The last question was to do with bottling,there have been write ups on the likes of Signatory and Blackadder bottling procedures and they talk of the amount of whisky that sits in the pipes and pads,a real problem when bottling single cask whisky.how does laddie intend to handle the bottling of the small tub?
Jim - "first off you don't have to bottle it here,you can just walk out the gate with your cask,but the easy solution is to put a tap in the end bung hole and fill them straight into the bottle by hand. "
We then talked at length about the whisky festival , his old job at Bowmore , his family past and present(how he hopes one day his daughter will follow in his foot steps , well from what i heard on the island later , on the tours she took , she has her old mans enthusiasm for the whisky!) . We touched upon loads of subjects in a short period of time , i look forward to crossing his path again next May at the festival . He admits he has loads of time for the whisky punters but don't abuse it , he has got a distillery to run and just because you bought a barrel doesn't mean you own the place . Just sit back and think how much of a bargain you got with the bloodtub .