Bruichladdich Makes Whisky Like No Other Distillery

I had never been to a whisky tasting before, but I admit that I was super excited about attending the Bruichladdich master class with ambassador Richard Gillam at Sage in Shangri-La Makati. Friends who had attended previous master classes promised a thoroughly entertaining experience. Gillam is the first to say that he’s not a typical whisky ambassador, and he believes that whisky tasting should be more fun than serious. The former sound engineer and hip-hop DJ has worked for many whisky brands, but he seems to especially love telling stories about the quirky, convention-defying Bruichladdich.

The brand breaks away from the familiar imagery of kilts, gray skies, and bagpipes, and instead aims for radical transparency by encouraging people to be more curious and to ask questions about where and how their whisky is made. The distillery employs 80 people; it’s the largest private employer on Islay (population: 3,228), a Scottish island in the Inner Hebrides known for its peated whisky. On the labels you’ll find the names of individual farmers and farms that supply the barley used to make Bruichladdich whisky. If you check the website you’ll even find all of the whiskies the distillery blends for its individual single malts.

I had tried the Classic Laddie (an unpeated Islay whisky) at the DrinkManila launch, and the Port Charlotte is a favorite among my friends who love peaty single malts. The “super heavily peated” Octomore has become something of a go-to for local bartenders who use it as a mist for smoky cocktails, but I had never tried it on its own. I was curious about how the three Islay whiskies would compare when tasted in quick succession. I’ve found that once you acquire a taste for peated whisky (and this can take some time) it’s something that you look for over and over again. It sounds strange to say it, but an appreciation for a lingering smoky finish can be rewarding in its own way. So starting with the unpeated whisky and then moving up to what some have described as “a peat monster” was a tasting challenge I was up for.

We started with the Classic Laddie, Bruichladdich’s signature, unpeated bottling with no age statement. We were instructed to nose a glass of it gently (huffing too hard will just send alcohol fumes up your nose) before taking a small sip of it neat. Then we added cold water to it to open it up (more on that later), which released delicate floral and fruity notes and made it much easier to drink. Gillam passed around a small jar of unpeated barley and even invited us to try some of it (people who tried it said the barley was nutty and toasty).

After the Classic Laddie, we tried the Port Charlotte, a heavily peated whisky at 40 ppm puts it at par with Lagavulin and Laphroaig. What makes this different is that under the smoke and brine flavors you can still detect some of the oak and vanilla sweetness of the Classic Laddie, especially when you add some cold water. Gillam says he likes it as a highball with “loads of ice, soda water, and a twist of lemon.” While we were tasting the Port Charlotte he passed around a jar of peated barley, which smelled like the sea and hickory-smoked bacon.

The super heavily peated Octomore was surprisingly less smoky on the nose than the Port Charlotte. But the nose was the least intense thing about it. Gillam instructed the entire class to taste the Octomore neat at the same time, because he admitted that it’s always “fun” for him to see people’s initial reactions, which consisted of gasps, giggles, and words like ash, smoke, and fire. Thankfully he taught us a way to use water to appreciate the 6.1 Octomore (167 ppm) and even let us try the 7.1 (208 ppm), which despite its off-the-charts peat levels was more fruity and creamy than the 6.1. Read on to find out what he told us.

The Top 10 Things I Learned from the Bruichladdich Master Class:

1. It’s pronounced BRUC LADDI or “brook laddie.” Ignore the intimidating extra vowels and consonants and you’ll be able to confidently order this whisky at a bar without mangling its name.
2. Terroir matters. Unlike Champagne and Cognac, which are required by law to be produced from grapes grown in those regions, Scotch whisky does not need to be made of malted barley from Scotland. The people who make Bruichladdich believe that the origin of the barley is important. “We make our whisky from 100 percent Scottish barley and I do not know any other single whisky that does that. Can’t find anyone. In fact, they don’t like to talk about it,” claims Gillam.
3. Color doesn’t matter. When you’re tasting whisky, you can skip the step of examining it in your glass before nosing it and tasting it. Most whisky brands use caramel coloring, so looking at it won’t tell you a single thing about the whisky. “We don’t use any, but you can’t see the bloody thing anyway,” says Gillam, referring to the opaque bottles.
4. There’s a reason it comes in that shocking aquamarine bottle. It’s the color of the sea outside the distillery on a sunny day.
5. You’re supposed to add water. “We put it in the bottle at 50 percent,” says Gillam. “We do not expect you to drink it at 50 percent.” The reason the proof is so high is because putting water in whisky that’s made up of less than 50 percent alcohol makes the liquid cloudy, and unlike other producers, Bruichladdich does not chill filter the whisky to make it clear. Chill filtering removes the fat and the oil, but it also removes the flavor. “We give it to you at 50 percent and you’ll put the water in,” he adds.
6. The history of the Bruichladdich distillery influenced The Classic Laddie’s smooth, sweet notes. “In 1881, we built a distillery. The other distilleries were farms making illegal whiskies,” says Gillam, adding that the illegal whiskey makers were probably trying to avoid being taxed. “We started as a proper distillery, which means that our stills are bigger and longer. The bigger and longer the still, the smoother the spirit, because it has more contact with that copper. So this is one of the reasons that you get sweetness when you try Bruichladdich.”
7. You’ll find that surprising underlying sweetness in the heavily peated Port Charlotte. Bruichladdich has always made mostly unpeated whisky. When the distillery reopened in 2000 after being mothballed for six years (and closed on and off in the 90 years before that), the new owners though it was appropriate to make a smoky Islay whisky, because burning peat—once Islay’s main fuel source—is the signature flavor of other Islay whiskies. Jim McEwan (“our lunatic master distiller”) decided that if he was to make a peaty whisky he wanted to do something different from what the other distilleries were making. Rather than make a peaty whisky that’s all about the peat, he wanted the “beautiful Bruichladdich sweetness” to come through. It’s also why you don’t get that “mouthful of ashes” feeling as you’re sipping a dram.
8. There’s a way to experience another dimension of Octomore—the most heavily peated whisky in the world at 167 ppm—that works for any whisky. Gillam instructed us to swirl ice-cold water in our mouths for 10 seconds before taking a sip of Octomore. This prepared our palates to appreciate the more delicate vanilla and oak flavors that were enhanced by the smoke.
9. Try pairing whisky with cheese and chocolate. “If you have non-peated whisky like The Classic Laddie, pair it with hard cheese like pecorino or Parmesan. A smoky whisky like Port Charlotte goes well with a creamy Brie or a really fruity cheddar. As you get up to a super heavily peated whisky like Octomore you want the creamiest cheese you can find—burrata, mozzarella stuff like that.” Gillam recommends pairing high-quality dark chocolate with The Classic Laddie, milk chocolate with Port Charlotte, and white chocolate with Octomore. He also has a few illuminating thoughts on wine pairings vs. whisky pairings: “Cheese and chocolate are almost identical in terms of makeup. It’s dairy with solids and fat. Now, red wine and cheese is the worst thing you can ever have. Because the cheese will get gloopy around your mouth and red wine is warm and it gets even cloggier. White wine is better because the acidity will help cut it. Whisky is incredible, because the fat coats your mouth from the cheese. The whisky cuts through that, and the fat softens the whisky. It’s a match made in heaven.”
10. Try pairing whisky with cheese and chocolate at the same time. “If you take some Port Charlotte, some milk chocolate, and some bleu cheese at the same time, your head will fall off. I’ve seen it happen. One of the most amazing experiences you’ll ever have,” Gillam promises. It’s an unconventional, experimental suggestion that’s crazy enough to work, which is an appropriate way to enjoy Bruichladdich.