Scottish islands benefit from new brand of independence

Scotland's other offshore asset

Scottish islands are the best places in the world for producing malt whisky. Names such as Laphroaig, Talisker and Highland Park are among the most revered and among the most successful in the whisky world. Yet many island distilleries have suffered closure and demolition: even Islay, centre of the whisky universe with its own regional appellation, has seen three of its eight distilleries close in recent times. Market forces, the vagaries of Scottish weather, and the complex logistics of ferrying raw materials to tiny harbours and nursing precious casks over to bottling plants on the mainland: all these have made island whisky a luxury which only the multinational drinks giants could afford to produce.

But there's a new breed of island distillery crouched on the crags and kyles of Scotland's isles. The independents have arrived, and they are thriving in a market where character is king and variety is the water of life. It started with a man who wanted to own his own distillery, every whisky-lover's dream. This man had the advantage of being the retired MD of the Chivas drinks empire, and he built his dream on the island of Arran in 1995.

Harold Currie founded the new Lochranza Distillery on a site which had been abandoned in 1837. He capitalised on local tourism and culture to produce deluxe blended whiskies for overseas markets, as well as the Arran malt and a Robert Burns malt. Funding from around 500 private investors has allowed Lochranza to add a visitors' centre and restaurant: both have won awards. The Arran malt has received its fair share of medals and prizes too, and is prized by connoisseurs worldwide for its rarity.

60 North, 70 proof

Up at the other end of Scotland, a small band of free spirits are establishing the first ever (licensed) distillery in Shetland. No free spirits for the public, though. In fact, no spirits at all until 2006, when the first 3-year-old bottles will be ready just in time for Christmas. For 8,000 you can buy your own cask now.

The Shetland environment is ideal for making whisky: plenty of water from the sky, plenty of salt spray from the sea, and plenty of rich peat which has hardly seen commercial exploitation. So why is Blackwood Distillery the first of its kind? Logistics again: getting to and from Shetland is a costly business, but costs are falling and the cachet of malt whisky from Scotland's most northerly outpost will be prodigious. Demand from collectors and cognoscenti will almost certainly soak up the initial output of 40,000 cases a year.

Blackwood plans to target the younger, less tartan-clad end of the whisky market: well-heeled, image-conscious drinkers who will appreciate the uniqueness and taste of a modern malt. In the process, the new distillery will create 24 jobs and dozens of new opportunities for Shetland enterprises. Just keeping old tartan-clad tipplers away will be a full-time job for somebody.

Innovation in the Inner Hebrides

And what about Islay? The whisky renaissance has re-opened two of its great old distilleries. Ardbeg, smoky giant of malts, is back in production for global leader Glenmorangie plc. On the other side of the island, the Bruichladdich distillery has been resurrected by five private individuals with a little help from their friends, and their bank. Bruichladdich is something of an enigma. Even the name is controversial, pronounced brew-ich-laddie or brewy-laddie. Its whisky is distinctive, with a taste unlike other Islay malts owing to the delicately peated barley used and the exceptionally tall-necked stills that combine to make a sophisticated, elegant, non-medicinal dram bottled at 46% at the distillery, caramel free and without chill filtration.

Since its rebirth in 2001 as the only privately-owned Islay distillery, the fiercely independent Bruichladdich Distillery Company has distinguished itself in many ways. It immediately won a Distillery of the Year award. It has opened a bottling plant which allows whisky to be distilled, matured and bottled on Islay for the first time. It has formed a partnership with a local disability action group to employ disabled workers and welcome disabled visitors at the distillery. It allows investors to fill their own cask by arrangement, a very personal touch.

The distillery has become a hub for the local community, much as it must have been in the past. Most importantly for whisky-lovers, Bruichladdich plans two other malts: the revival of the historic Port Charlotte malt, a peatier cousin of Bruichladdich using the same water, will be accompanied by the creation of a new super-malt named Octomore which is to contain twice as much peat as today's heavily-peated whisky. Of course, the lighter Bruichladdich malt will continue to be produced using traditional methods and ingredients.

Independence and innovation. Youth and variety. Community partnerships. These are the values which are revitalising island malt whisky. Grandeur and tradition (and a wee bit of tartan) are still important, but the future is looking more down-to-earth and a lot peatier.