New Port Charlotte Distillery on Islay
Thursday, February 22 2007
Armin started his Blog yesterday with the mentioning of a possible ninth distillery on Islay, which would be great news for Islay and for the Bruichladdich Distillery as well, who are the ones that will probably start this new project. The "new" distillery would be located in Port Charlotte in the former buildings of the Lochindaal Distillery (picture) which was also named Rhinns Distillery and Port Charlotte Distillery. Port Charlotte was named after Frederick Campbell's wife who built the distillery and the village to provide housing for the distilleries workforce. Colin Campbell was the first licensee in 1829 and many others followed in his footsteps and Benmore Distilleries were the last owners of the Lochindaal Distillery which eventually closed down in 1929. The buildings are now in use by the Youth Hostel and Islay wildlife Centre.
Apparantly there has been rumours quite some time but the following sources show very reliable as they were thoughts and mentionings of the new distillery by Jim McEwan himself
Quote from Malt madness
Though I was on bottling shift, I actually didn't have the chance for the work.
The major reason is that my classmate can't go for the distillation because someone forgot to open the river gate, they have no water for the distillation. As half of my classmates will be affected, Jim decided to take the chance to show us their Port Charlotte warehousing and to talk about his dreams for the future Port Charlotte Distillery. And of course, we also take the chance to taste some young vintage Port Charlotte and Octomore.
Quote from Whisky Mag forum
"In fact, when Jim McEwan showed me the Lomond Still he got from Dumbarton site in 2004, he also said this kind of still will produce an extremely light style of malt. But of course he hasn’t got the chance to try that yet. I heard from him that they’ll start to re-build Port Charlotte distillery next year (2007) and they’ll use the Lomond still from Dumbarton and an old pot still from Port Charlotte in the Port Charlotte distillery. Let’s wait and see what will happen."
Latest news: Seems that these are more than "rumours". I asked around in a Dutch forum and some of the members there heard from several "very reliable sources" that the Port Charlotte Distillery will be reopened and that the deal is for 99% a fact. I wonder when the news will be official.
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Yeah, that would be something. Seems the demand for Islay and Scottish malt is big enough to justify the investment. I read that Diageo is investing heavily as well to keep track with the growing demand from Asia for Scottish Malt. They are opening a new distillery in the Speyside near Elgin if all goes as planned, as part of a total investment of £100m, which is the biggest investment of the last twenty years.
I'll take a look in April during my next visit if there are any signs of activity.