Nine Special Islay Men together

Mark Unsworth from Islay Studios promised me a while back to send a very special picture. Not knowing what it was I attempted several times to guess what the pictures was all about until today. The picture where I speculated about arrived in my mailbox and I was pleasantly surprised. There were nine Islay Distillery Managers looking at me. Now what is so special about this picture?

This picture is of all nine Islay Distillery managers all of whom, for the first time, are Islay men. Although Islay is a small place, getting all nine distillery managers together at the same time and same place is incredibly difficult. The picture took over three months to set up with many false starts as somebody became unavailable at the last minute. It only happened through the perseverance of Ella Edgar at Bruichladdich distillery badgering the guys to actually do it. The picture was originally shot for an American whisky magazine called the Malt Advocate.

But that's not all. As an aside to this they decided after the shoot to get an enlargement made up, mounted and framed. All the managers are going to sign the mount and then at the whisky festival in May 2008 it will be auctioned off by John McLellan at the managers night on the Friday night of the festival with the proceeds going to local charities. So without further a due, here is the really special and unique picture:

The Nine Islay Distillery Managers

Back row: John Campbell Laphroaig, Billy Stitchell Caol ila, Duncan McGillivray Bruichladdich, Michael Heads Ardbeg, Graham Logie Lagavulin.
Front row: Malcolm Rennie Kilchoman, Eddie McAffer Bowmore, Peter Campbell Port Ellen Maltings and John McLellan Bunnahabhain.