Whisky Dream: Waking a Giant

by George Robertson (Introduction), George Robertson (Introduction), Stuart Rivans (Author), Stuart Greig (Photographer)

• Used

  Illustrated
  2008

  $3.25

  Whisky Dream tells the extraordinary story of one man's dream to raise from the dead not one, but two of Islay's most cherished malts. After a hard-fought battle, former wine merchant Mark Reynier, together with old business partner Simon and masterblender Jim McEwan reopened Bruichladdich in 2001 after seven years of silent mash-tuns. Their astonishing journey involved scrapes with a top secret MOD submarine, U.S. military satellites, the CIA, faceless multinationals, patronising bank staff, supply problems, all-new international sales and distribution network, and an eleventh hour, GBP7.5 million bank loan. Port Charlotte Distillery, closed its doors on Islay in 1929, exactly a century after its foundation, as a direct result of a major downturn in the whisky industry, caused by Prohibition in the United States, becoming nothing more than a windswept ruin.Not happy with achieving what even their families and close friends told them was impossible with Bruichladdich, and after declaring that he would 'never, ever, ever do this again', Mark set his sights on the traumatic challenge of, indeed, 'doing it all over again' with Port Charlotte.
  More than anything, however, this is the story of the islanders themselves, 'The Ileach': their resourcefulness, their stubbornness, their ancient ability to triumph over adversity. This is what brought - and will bring - both Bruichladdich and Port Charlotte distilleries back from the grave.