Scotch: A Golden Dream (2018) - full transcript

The Scotch whisky is, of course,
the country's greatest ambassador.

Many people who don't even
know where Scotland is

know of it through Scotch whisky.

You look at any old American movie...

Your guys from America,
any time there was trouble,

what did the guy ask for?
He asked for Scotch.

It's 18-year-old Scotch.
You don't really expect me

to pour it back into the bottle, do you?

1962 Dalmore.
It'd be a sin to spill any.

It's a waste of good Scotch.

It's only six-year-old Scotch.



I got some Scotch.

Uh, Scotch. Rocks.

Scotch.Scotch.

Scotch.Scotch.

Scotch.Scotch.

Scotch.Scotch.

Scotchy, Scotch, Scotch.

There's something
about Scotch that gives...

It brings power to you,
it gives you confidence.

It brings you alive.
It's got that kind of thing.

My name is Jim McEwan,
and I am the Production Director

here at Bruichladdich distillery

on the island of Islay, Scotland.

Most of my family would have
been associated with whisky



because whisky is the main
game on this island.

I was about 1000 yards away
from Bowmore distillery.

So it was every kid's dream
to work in a distillery.

On my way to school, some
days I didn't get to school

because I had to get past
the distillery to go to school.

Sometimes I'd look through
the window in the malt barns.

I would smell the malt.
The men would be turning it.

One of the old guys would say, "Jim,
don't bother going to school today.

"Come on in and sweep the floors."
So I left school at the age of 15.

And I asked them for a job.

And, I mean, I was like a Twiglet.

I was so small and skinny
it was unbelievable.

He said, "Well...

"I can give you
six weeks' work."

Which was the summer holidays
from the school.

"But that's all I can give you."

So I said, "That would be great."
And I remember him closing the door

and walking away after being
told that I had a job for six weeks.

It was like, ah!

That six weeks turned into 52 years.

So here I am, still in the whisky business.

You know, Jim is... He's
a legend within the industry.

Jim is one of these iconic characters.

People come from around the world
just to spend 20 minutes with him.

Jim, I mean, devoted his life to whisky.

He knows what he's talking about and
he is a guy that you've got to listen to.

Wherever I go, it's always, "Do you know
James McEwan? Have you met James McEwan?"

Jim McEwan is one
of these legendary distillers,

and we sometimes use this phrase,

"He's forgotten more about
whisky distilling than I'll ever know."

And it's very true in his case.

He is the sort of, the whisky man of Islay.

He is living, breathing Scotch
whisky. He personifies what it is.

There will never be another Jim McEwan.

Oh, Jesus.
Oh, my goodness.

Within the first month of me
working for the Distillers Company,

as part of my experience,

I was taken to a grain distillery,

a maltings, and a malt distillery.

The distillery manager there at that time

was a very, very old, wizened,
died-in-the-wool distillery manager,

who basically didn't
suffer fools gladly at all,

and when this young,
fresh-faced graduate appeared,

he obviously decided he wanted to do
something to show me who was boss.

And so we wandered round the distillery,

and the gentleman was smoking,

which, of course, absolutely,
you couldn't do now,

and when he finished his cigarette,

he flicked the cigarette butt
into one of the fermentation vats,

and turned round to see
the look of shock on my face.

And he was just doing it
to let me know he was the boss,

and he could do whatever he wanted.

When I first started in the job...

Well, I was...
When a student then, obviously.

My first experience in a whisky distillery.

I was quite amazed that it started
at eight o'clock in the morning,

and the first thing you done
was to line up in a queue

to receive a large whisky.

Now, I had never, ever even thought
about whisky at eight o'clock in the morning.

At that time, I never even drank whisky.

But when you are 18 years old

you want to try and prove
that you are a man, as such.

And I remember watching all
the other guys, the older men

taking their whisky, putting
a little water into it

and then swallowing it over really quickly.

And I thought, "That must
be how it's done."

So I carefully got my glass
that I was given,

poured in some water,
and swallowed it back.

And it just about knocked me over.

I didn't realize it was
cask-strength whisky.

These guys had built up a tolerance to it.

They half knew what to expect,

I was gonna almost pass out with it.

And they took me away and laid me down.

And I slept it off for about three hours,

before it was lunchtime, and they
lined up again and got another dram,

which I refused to take that time.

What makes this barley extremely special

is the fact that it is grown in Islay,

and the soil in Islay is full of salt.

Because next door
we have the Atlantic Ocean.

So you can imagine the
amount of salt we get in our rain.

So the soil is super impregnated,

and the root of the plant
is going into that soil.

And it has to hold on tight,

because we get ferocious winds here.

How does that salty flavor
manifest itself in a whisky?

Barley grown in Islay has a fantastic,
fresh, citrus, lemon and honey flavor.

The smell is just fantastic.

Just evocative of Islay.
It's the smell of the sea,

the smell of the peat smoke.
It's all there.

The Scottish farmers
are very important to me,

because, as a person that
demands only Scottish-grown barley,

I have a great reliance on these farmers.

We've been pretty poor at recognizing
what a key cornerstone they are.

And that is why I buy
directly from a lot of farmers.

I work with a grain-growing cooperative
up north, called the Black Isle Growers

of which Kenny MacKenzie is part.

I think if the whisky industry
had a serious downturn

it would be a major impact
on the farming in the North.

Not just locally, but
throughout the Highlands,

and Scotland generally.

We are a major producer of malting barley

for a huge number of malt distillers.

Without the farmers, there obviously
could not be any Scotch whisky.

I approached the distillery manager,
whose name was Duncan McGillivray.

We were at school together.
And I said to him,

"We've got really good
spring water here, Duncan.

"When they're selling a bottle of whisky,

"why don't they sell a bottle
of spring water with it,

"so there's no
chemicals involved?"

Duncan thought, "Good idea."

And he sniffed it,
and licked it, and drank it.

And next thing, he was
wanting barrels of it.

We also grow 50 acres of Concerto barley

for the very famous Octomore.

And the name goes all over the world now.

It's the heaviest-peated
whisky in the world.

And here you have it.
This is Octomore barley,

which is grown at a farm close by.

What we want to get
is access to the starch inside.

How do we find that out? Well,
we use this amazing contraption.

And inside is a little sieve
which separates it.

Whether you make good whisky
or bad whisky, it's all done here.

We have separated the husk in the mash tun.

So that's your husk.

Here it is the middle.

And then you have the pure flour there.

This is incredible.

Wow.

People in Scotland
are proud of being Scottish,

of anything that we do.

So Scotch whisky is part of that.

And, as I say, in Speyside it's a massive
part of the history that we have here.

It's one of the main
industries other than farming,

and both work hand in hand. Like,
most of them started as farmers.

I do enjoy whisky, but we often
use whisky for reviving lambs.

It's an old cure in the Highlands.

A lot of whisky drinkers. If you
didn't have any milk for the lamb,

a cold lamb, you give him whisky,

and nine times out of ten,
that cold lamb would come round.

The Scotch whisky industry
covers the length and breadth

of the country of Scotland.

And as a consequence of that,
the vast majority of distilleries,

particularly malt distilleries,

are situated in small rural communities.

I think it's very true to say

that the distilleries didn't fit
into the rural communities.

The rural communities grew
up round about the distilleries.

The distilleries themselves
established many of these communities.

If you say to any Scotsman, "Are
you linked to the whisky industry?"

the answer is yes. Going back to the
days of illicit stills and everything else.

You know, we all made whisky,
whether it was legal or illegal.

With the agricultural revolution,

you could produce more grain,
therefore you could produce more whisky.

So the actual distilling was permissible,

but the transportation
and sale was not legal.

Illicit distillation really gets going
in the middle of the 18th century.

And it's partly a reflection
of the high taxation

and the industrialization
of the big industries.

The way they were taxing low wines
or taxing wash, or taxing malt and so on,

was ineffectual, and it had the
effect of making it impossible,

ultimately, for licensed
distilleries to make good spirit.

In the 1780s, when the Steins
and the Haigs collapsed,

it got really big, because they
had flooded the Scottish market.

And that meant that the only
way you could get a decent whisky

is if it was illicitly distilled.

It was packed up into little
barrels called ankers.

And these were carried to market.

And even the Royal infirmary in Glasgow

had an illicit still inside it.

And it's very easy.
All you need is a pot still

made of copper, and it
doesn't have to be very big.

It can only hold 20 gallons,
or even less than that.

And if you've got the
equipment, you can make it.

I used to work here about 20 years ago.

And I remember seeing
a still down in the cellars.

So I could go and see if I can dig it out.

There's a wonderful observation

by the Minister of Brechin
in the early 19th century.

He said that smugglers
brought the whisky into town

and would deliver it, and once
they had dropped off their product,

they would, all of a sudden, assemble

like military regiments, and
they would bang the empty barrels

in a ritualistic fashion, wearing kilts.

And the Customs men
would sit and watch this,

unable to do anything about it,

because there was no spirit for
them to confiscate at this point.

So there you go. These are the
two parts of the drum and wash still.

I see.

And, as you can see,
this is the original pot.

It's about a gallon and a half,
nearly four liters.

So it would probably produce
about one liter of whisky.

And that is the swan's neck.
That would have...

This is very small.

That's a small still. Yeah. It's
definitely been an in-house still.

Obviously what's missing
is the connecting cone.

In 1823 there was somewhere in the region
of 14,000 illicit distilleries operating.

And the government had a
major problem. It's the taxation.

So eventually they got together
with the distillers

and they came up with
a realistic Excise Act,

which came into force
on Friday, 18th July, 1823.

So it wasn't an easy job to persuade
the distillers to take out the licenses,

but one by one they did so.

And George Smith, give him
all the credit, of Glenlivet,

saw the future of no longer
producing illicit whisky.

But you must remember, that was 1823.

It would take many years before
these illicit distilleries would be depleted.

But, nevertheless, it was the door that
opened to the Scotch whisky industry.

A lot of illicit distillers
do become licensed distillers.

Because that's how they'd
learned how to do it.

Well, I suppose, before
everyone always tries one...

Maybe their dad gives
them a little one, you know?

Maybe before their 18th.

It was probably when I would have been

too young to have been supposed
to have been drinking it.

It was probably stolen
from my parents' drink cupboard.

My best friend David and I were
at his house, his parents' house.

And his mum and dad had gone out for
the evening to the theater or the opera.

So we did what all good teenage
boys did under the circumstances,

we raided the drinks cupboard.

So we got Led Zeppelin and
Black Sabbath on the hi-fi,

and we found a bottle of Scotch whisky.

And it was a lovely old blended brand
called Stewarts Cream of the Barley.

Which I don't actually know
if it exists anymore.

But David and I started drinking this.

And you know to be honest,
it was too strong for us,

so we probably mixed it with
ginger ale or something like that.

But we drank and drank this bottle, turned
the hi-fi louder and louder and louder.

And, eventually, I had the wizard idea of
going up to his big brother Richard's room.

Richard was a musician.

And we took down his
prize Gibson Les Paul guitar

with a lovely rosewood case.

And we were pretending
to play it, playing air guitar.

But I hadn't bargained on the fact that
there was metal strings on the guitar,

so in my inebriated state,
I cut my fingers to ribbons,

and got blood all over
the case of the guitar.

Richard duly came home, found this,
and he beat the shit out of both David and I.

So... That's a true story.

My first memory of Scotch
whisky wasn't the most positive one.

New Year is a huge celebration in Scotland.

And my house was a house
where a lot of celebrating went on.

It was a household full of traditions.

And in that tradition was drinking whisky.

So I probably had my first whisky

when I was 12 or 13,
I would imagine, at New Year.

I think the first dram that I actually
connected with was a Mortlach.

It just tasted really rich
and very, very smooth.

And I suddenly kind of went,
"Ooh! Okay, I think I can do this."

Once you have your first, you need to...

I strongly believe there is
a single malt for everyone.

There is one that will just turn your head.

Somebody thrust a glass into
my hand and said, "Billy, try this."

And I thought, "Wow.
Gosh, that's a bit different."

I knew it was whisky, obviously,
but I thought, "That's a bit interesting."

It's smooth, its elegant,
it's easy to drink.

So that was my introduction to
the love of my life, Glenmorangie.

So I was lucky enough
to become an apprentice cooper,

which was quite rare at that time,

because the coopering
industry was very strong.

In most trades, you have a
tradesman and you have an apprentice.

But in the coopering industry, you had
to have four trades for one apprentice.

When I was accepted
as an apprentice cooper,

to this man here.
His name was David Bell.

And he was the number-one
cooper in the world for about ten years.

He was still swinging a
hammer at 70 years of age.

When this picture was taken, he was 95.

And you can see, clearly, in
the picture how he got to 95,

because in his hand
he's got a glass of whisky.

I've been very fortunate in the
years in my career in whisky,

where I have encountered and met people

who have been very experienced,
and have been great mentors for me,

and assisted me in learning
everything about the industry.

While I was at Bowmore Distillery
I was learning everything else.

If somebody was going off sick, I
would do their job, 'cause I wanted money.

Working hard, so in the malt
barns or whatever you were doing,

you would always jump in and
say, "I'll do it. I'll take that shift."

So you'd be maybe working 24
hours sometimes just to get the money.

The first manager I had there
was a man called Lewis Paterson.

He was very encouraging
to sort of learn everything.

About... From the real
dirty jobs to the...

To the ones... and he encouraged me
to get involved in everything, you know?

I remember this day, we had a blockage,

and the smell of the sour
draft was down the...

He thought that this
was a great opportunity for me.

If I wanted to learn about the industry, I had
to get down into this hole and clear this out.

I remember going home that night
and being flung out of the house

because of the smell. That was
unbelievable, the smell off of me.

It took several baths to get
rid of it, so that was...

That was a memory of one of my mentors
wanting me to learn a lot about the business.

So very quickly I
learned all about distilling

and how it was made
in the traditional manner.

And then my old friend
decided one day to walk away.

So he very quietly came up to me,

put the keys in my hand, and
he said, "Jim, it's your turn now."

Patted me on the shoulder
and he walked away.

And I was 22.

The barley which you saw at the other side

has been crushed by two sets of rollers.

And here it is. This is the
flour of the plant, the barley.

Beautiful. Smells incredible.

The secret of distillation is to make sure

we can still smell that smell
at the end of the distillation.

We don't want to lose it, and
to do that we have to mash it

with the hot water very carefully.

This is Scottish gold.

We then add hot water to it.

And this will continue, or complete
the conversion of the starch into a sugar.

We add, depending on
the size of the distillery,

either three or four different
temperatures of water

to extract all these sugars.

The wort then is cooled down
to around 20, 21 degrees Celsius.

And it comes into this vat. This is
a very, very old Oregon pine vat.

Really ancient.

In goes the yeast. The yeast
cells are activated by sugar

and they multiply by trillions.

It's called fermentation.

Which is the Latin word fermentum.

It's like boiling.

You would think it was boiling, but
there's no heat in there. It's 20 degrees C.

The level of the liquid inside the vessel

will rise up like a pint of frothy beer.

It will rise up, and we're going to
watch it so it doesn't come over the top.

The yeast has converted
all the starch into sugar.

That sugar has now given us a beer,

about 7% alcohol.

What were going to do is take this

and distill it, and make
the alcohol stronger.

It's not really an art.

Its alchemy. We see ourselves...
we are really alchemists,

when it comes to the distillation side.

Here we are in a sampling box.

And this is where
the critical part happens.

It's where we make what
you call the middle cut.

These stills will boil... This
is the first distillation here.

The alcohol goes up to 22%.

If you recall, the beer was 7%.

We've distilled that beer, and
it's during that second distillation

we get the part in the middle, the heart.

It's taken out. What I am
trying to do is find the heart.

The heart is when the spirit
is at its most pure.

Fruity, clean.

Right now the alcohol going
down here is too strong.

Flavor is not particularly pleasant.

This is a very coarse alcohol
that needs to be distilled again

to bring out a more refined product.

And it's in the second distillation

that we create the new whisky.

I need to use my nose.

I need to use my palate.

And I'm nosing it.

It smells fine.

We are just about there.

What I'm looking for is clarity.

This is the oldest way
of doing this in the world.

We don't use computers.

If it remains absolutely clear

that means I have found the heart

and that starts being collected as whisky.

And that will go to the barrel.

So I'm adding water.

This will lift. This will clear.

It's like mist coming off a loch.

If it had remained cloudy

it was not ready for the cask.

Now absolutely clear.

I just gotta taste it.

And nose it.

And all the flavors, the smoky
flavor that we found in the mill room,

and in the mashing,
and in the fermentation,

they are here, they are concentrated.

It's a beautiful, beautiful thing.

So now I want to collect this for the cask.

Very, very high-tech.

And I move that over to there.

This is going down a different pipe,

and it's going to a warehouse next door

where it's going to be
filled into the barrels.

Once you've got your middle cut,

that then goes to the
warehouse to be filled into casks.

And then you move it to the cask.
Then it starts that long, slow journey.

Every time we do a run...

as we call it, a distillation,
a child is born.

The child is then given to the mother.

And the mother is the cask.

First bottle at the very top left

is a spirit that was produced
and it's one day old.

So it's spirit before
it goes into the bottle.

As you go from the left to the
right and you work your way down,

each bottle then represents one year.

So you'll see how this goes
from a clear water-like liquid,

and as you go to the right, it gets
some slight oakiness color come into it.

It's like golden color.

We also notice that
the level just drops a slight.

And that represents the evaporation.

The very bottom right at 30 years old,

you can see by this stage,
the bottle is less than half full.

And the color is really quite beautiful.

Now, it is my view

that it doesn't matter how
good your new-make spirit is,

if you then mature that
in poor-quality barrels.

Guess what? You're going
to get poor-quality whisky.

The cask is so, so important, you know?

First of all, you look at the cask.

And the physical appearance of the cask.

It's like looking at a person.
You judge by what you see.

If it looks tired, the hoops
are maybe slightly rusty,

it's getting a bit weak.

You can form an opinion right
away just by looking at the cask.

And generally,

most of the time you are
correct. The assessment is correct.

The cask is king. Sixty, even
up to 70% of the influence

of my style is to be
influenced by the cask.

Sometimes I talk to the casks.

I'm like some kind of mad cask whisperer.

You are beautiful.

But you are not ready.

I'm coming back to see you
in six months, okay?

We don't have control over
the weather, so some years

the whisky will mature
more quickly than others

because you can have warmer year,

or vice versa, it with a cold year.

And it's a whole...
It's a jigsaw puzzle.

Sometimes you pop a barrel,
like this one here

and you think, Oh my God.

I want to share this with the world.
This is like, you are so beautiful.

The world deserves you. You
really, really are so beautiful.

And you look, and you think, "You've
been waiting a while, you know?"

Incredible. This one here in my
hand has been waiting for 23 years.

You always look at a beautiful
woman, and you say to her,

"What's your favorite color
when you wear a dress?"

Well, it might be blue
or black or red or whatever.

But that particular color suits
her personality, suits her character.

And she elevates the beauty through it.

Well, it's the same with a cask.

If I can find a cask
that will mature my whisky

and get it compatible,
and give it the right time,

that elevation of beauty can also
be reflected in a Scotch whisky.

That has also led to lots of
interesting offshoots and experiments

trying lots of different types of barrel.

And that, over the last decade,
has unquestionably been

the richest area in the industry
for development of new products.

- Bill, I've worked with.
- He's a chemist by training.

But is also a very... He is an
artist, I think, by temperament.

He's done a lot... He knows
probably more about wood

and the effects of different
types of oak, for example,

than any other master blender.

Nowadays, more than 90%
of all Scotch whisky

is matured in American oak
ex-Bourbon barrels.

And there's two reasons for that.

Firstly, to make Kentucky straight Bourbon

or Tennessee sour mash whiskey,

the law states it has to be a new
charred oak barrel used only once.

Us Scots, we don't tend to like new wood.

So these barrels, filled once, are ideal
for a long, slow maturation of Scotch.

The second reason is that
American oak has a flavor profile

that's very sympathetic with
the flavors of Scotch malt spirit.

So these soft, buttery, creamy,
vanilla and almond and coconut flavors.

You get that from American oak.

Whereas European oak has
more tannin, more hemicellulose.

You get more of a spicy, resinny flavor.

We spend a lot of time just
checking casks, checking casks.

It's almost orgasmic
when you open a cask up.

And you taste it and you think, ah!

"I want to share this
with the world."

There's some casks in the
warehouse that are secret.

I don't tell anyone about them
because they are so good.

I don't want them ever
to go into the bottle.

So I can go back to them
time after time after time.

Any blender, their recipe
is a secret to themselves.

You would never divulge
what you use in that.

So every blender has his own idea of
what he would put into a particular blend.

I put them together in a
loving union and I marry them.

So this is anassemblage.
This is a blending.

It's bringing all these
different whiskies together.

It's still a single malt, because
it comes from one distillery only.

The master blender, I mean,
is an extraordinary skillful job.

Because, again, his primary role
is to keep each batch consistent,

the same as the last batch.

But it might not have
exactly the same ingredients.

Everything is important. But the
style, consistency must be there.

Otherwise, the consumer
will not support you.

You must give them that confidence
and maintain that confidence.

The company approached me again
and said, "Would you like to go to Glasgow,

"and train to become
a whisky blender?"

And once again, yeah.

So every day of my life
I had my nose in a glass.

You would have truckload
after truckload after truckload

of whisky coming in from all over Scotland.

From the Highlands, from the
Speyside, from the Lowlands, from Islay.

These truckloads were coming
with barrels of whisky.

Each barrel of whisky had to be
opened up and checked for quality.

So you had to decide very quickly...

"Definitely first class."
You would use less of that.

"Not so good."
You didn't value it so much,

so you use more of this in your
percentages for making up blends.

So you have first class: small
percentage. Second class, slightly more.

The objective here was to move away subtly,

but definitely away from
the original Black Art style,

which has been fantastic, you know?

It's just got a fantastic
gentleness off it.

It's almost creamy

The texture is really...
And on the nose

there is no volatility at all.

It's really easy to smell.

I think they are just a step
down the road, aren't they?

You've got the Black Art Four.

You take a different
direction with Trial One.

Trial Two is just taking it
that further step.

Yeah.

This is more feminine. It's more
graceful. It's more subtle. Um...

The Black Art Four is quite a
full-bodied one, quite a robust one.

This has gone slightly the other way.

It's just smoother.

Here's to Black Art Five.

Here's to a happy retirement,
you pair of chancers.

We'll enjoy your retirement
just as much as you will.

I got promoted to a blending manager

in another blending place outside Glasgow.

So that gave me the freedom to create,

start mixing whiskies and working with it.

And I actually loved it.

The company Bowmore Distillers said,
"Jim, we want you to go back home to Bowmore

and take over as the general
manager at Bowmore distillery.

That was a gold medal. Just at
that same point, just about that time,

Bowmore was bought over by
the Japanese giant called Suntory.

For relaxing times,

make it Suntory time.

Because Suntory wanted to make Bowmore
the number-one single malt in Scotland.

That is a big ask.

We took Bowmore from nowhere, and
we won Distillery of the Year so many times.

And then I started to get
the call from Japan.

Could you come and teach our
people about single malt?

And I never regarded myself as a teacher.

I'm just a guy who tells
stories, you know, about lifestyle.

So I went to Japan and started
teaching the Suntory sales teams.

More and more requests came in,
from America, from developing markets.

Jim was not only the greatest
ambassador for Bowmore

and then latterly Bruichladdich,
the companies he worked for,

but for Islay, and indeed for
the entire Scotch whisky industry.

He is a complex character.

He's this...

very strong, very effusive,
very... Huge personality.

But at heart he's just a boy from Bowmore.

This side of it, the nosing
and the creative side,

you are going towards
the blending side of it then.

So my job kind of overlaps two camps,
the blending side and the production side.

So it isn't something, you
can just pick up a textbook

or spend a year at university
or a couple of years and learn it.

You've really got to be at the shoulder
of somebody else for many years.

It could be 10, 15, 20 years before
you will get the title of Master Blender.

Even longer than that.

Nowadays there are many, many, many
people with that title. Master Distillers.

One of the most hackneyed terms
in the Scotch whisky industry

is to use the word "Master"
before your job title.

Master Blender, Master Distiller,

Master of the Universe, whatever.

It isn't actually a valid technical term

and it is more a PR term. So if someone
has been in the role for many years

the company uses it to help
try and promote the fact

that they kind of know what
they are talking about.

It irks me somewhat, you know?

I see guys who have been in the
business 10 years or something,

suddenly they are Master Distiller.

The number of business cards I
have received from young guys

who have been given this
title... "I'm a Master Distiller."

A master distiller should
be able to take raw material

like water, barley, and yeast,
and turn it into whisky.

That would be the litmus test.

So I was going round the world
for about 32, 33 weeks a year

trying to educate.
It was becoming very tiring.

Because I had a young family, and my
wife was doing her best to look after them

and I am away for five
weeks at a time and back.

I was home, sick, I can't remember,
I had chickenpox or something.

I was home from school, sick.

And all of a sudden a
helicopter landed in the garden.

This is not an everyday occurrence.

And this was...
Some film crew had been over,

and Dad had said, "My daughter is
not well. Could you go and do a fly-by?

"It would really make
her happy."

So I look out, there is a helicopter.

And not only did I get
a fly-by, they took us up.

They took us up, we went once round Loch
Indaal, flew over our house and landed again.

So there was loads of plus points
to being "Jim McEwan's daughter."

During that time, three times I just
totally collapsed with exhaustion.

Just went down.
I was so tired I couldn't go any further.

However, during that period of traveling,
I met and made many, many friends

in many, many countries.

But it was hard, and I was
getting really tired of it

and thinking about a career move.

And then I got a phone call.

The only consistent thing in your body

from the day you were born
until the day you die...

It just never stops.
It's consistent.

So why would you not follow that?

So when it came to making
the decision to leave Bowmore,

to come here to Bruichladdich,

that was done in a heartbeat.

Yeah. I want to spend
time with my family.

I was living in Glasgow because I
had to be beside an international airport.

The thought of coming home to
Islay, to Bruichladdich, which I knew,

and, given that my wife Barbara comes from
Port Charlotte, which is just down the road,

And I wanted my children
to experience life in Islay.

And I joined up after
38 years with Bowmore.

And it's now gone to a beaten-up,
broken-down almost derelict distillery.

That was, to me... This
distillery was like Cinderella.

There was a beauty there, but
it never got invited to the ball.

And I knew Bruichladdich
was good. However...

I had no idea just how much it had
deteriorated since I was last here.

I had known Bruichladdich because it
is just across the water from Bowmore.

I'd been in here many, many times.

I knew the quality
of the spirit was excellent.

Unfortunately, some of the previous owners

did not appreciate
the quality of the spirit.

And this distillery has had
six owners since 1881.

And we are still using
the same equipment since 1881.

Which clearly indicates

they never spent one penny
on investment in the distillery.

...and then Whyte & Mackay began
a process of disinvestment.

So they got rid of some of
the distilleries, including Jura

and Bruichladdich, and they languish.

When he moved into Bruichladdich,
Bruichladdich was shut. It was a shell.

It was.
It was a very sad place.

I came through the gate,
and I am thinking, "Oh, Jesus.

"This is a mess.

"You have just made the biggest
mistake of your life, Jim McEwan."

Anyway, the two guys met me. John,
the Cooper, and Duncan, the Stillman.

And they were just security guys.

And a dog named Boo. So it was
me, two men and a dog named Boo.

And I think most people who knew me,

or were even bothered,

thought, "What a mistake that guy's made.

"What an absolute mistake."

But there was something
there. There was just a pulse.

I'm looking at it. "It's not
that bad. It's not that bad."

After wandering through for about
three hours and all that stuff, I thought...

Yeah. It's a bit like...
the good Samaritan, you know?

The guy's lying. Everybody walks
past him because they all think he's dead.

Bruichladdich, it was like,
"I feel a pulse. Yeah.

"There is still a pulse
in Bruichladdich."

Within two weeks we had
recruited the original team.

Which was great.

The 22nd of May, 2001,

at 7:29 in the morning,

we were all gathered in the still
house. We had done the mashing.

We got through the first mash, second mash.
Things were starting to get a bit easier.

The machinery was starting
to work a bit better.

Got the fermentation done.
It was really good.

- We went to first distillation...
- "Ah! Yeah!"

It's like, "Yeah, it's gonna
happen, it's gonna happen."

Second distillation.

"Wow, that was difficult."

The heart of the run.

That is the secret to success.

I remember standing there, and
all the guys were standing round.

We get the still going, the
spirits are going, it's good.

And I'm nosing clear spirit.

I just couldn't get it.
Just couldn't get it.

Just as quickly as it came, it disappears.

Like a thief in the night.
It goes cloudy.

A second ago it was clear,
and now it has gone cloudy.

All the guys are standing around waiting

For Bruichladdich to live again.

It's quite a poignant moment.

Just imagine, these guys who had
been made redundant so many times.

And here we were back,
and got the old still working.

I was trying. And it was
taking forever, and I'm thinking,

"Oh my god. It's just
not happening for me.

"It's just not happening."

After about 35 minutes, 40 minutes,

I'm starting to get worried.
Add the water.

And it's there.

Phew! Bruichladdich was back.

This is probably the best
moment ever in 52 years.

The guys are standing around.

Passed a glass to Duncan
McGillivray, Distillery Manager.

I said, "Dunkie, Bruichladdich is back.

"Have a taste."

He tastes, but he doesn't speak.

He looks at the floor.

I pass it round all the crew.

Nobody speaks. I'm expecting
high-fives. "Hey! Let's do it."

Didn't happen.
Strange, bizarre moment.

And then I get it.
Totally get it.

I look at Duncan McGillivray,

and I look at The Budgie,

and these veterans, who have been
fired and come back, fired and come back...

I totally get it. They have
been through this too often.

And now they are there,
and they can't believe it.

And they cannot speak because, if
they tried to speak, they would cry.

I can see the Adam's apples moving.

I can see the heads down.

It's like, "Please, God,
make it real this time."

Quite a submissive pose.
And I'm thinking, shh!

This is not a time for talking.

"Okay, guys, let's get to work."

When Bruichladdich died, a community died.

Now it's thriving. It's back. And
we are going forward all the time.

The key to it all is,
we are still making whisky

exactly the same as it was in 1881.

A whisky made by people is different
from a whisky made by computers.

There is no doubt. We've been
open now since 2001. Fourteen years.

We have won Distillery
of the Year nine times.

Sometimes you get partnerships
that just... You need a running mate.

And I found Duncan McGillivray.

Dad and Duncan are a dynamite team.

There would be no Bruichladdich
without the Dad and Duncan relationship.

He's a tinkerer,
and Dad is not like that at all.

Dad is hopeless. You wouldn't
ask him to hang a picture,

you wouldn't ask him to put a shelf up.

Now, when I made the whisky,
he made the distillery.

He rebuilt this distillery with
string and all that kind of stuff.

He would say, "God, what good's a
cup of tea to a man who needs a drink?

"Go and get me a dram,"
sort of thing, you know?

As a manager, Duncan was in a boiler suit

with oil on his hands. Duncan
was a hands-on manager.

He would, er... Everyone was...
Everyone was included,

and part of the team. We
went up to the top, top loft here,

Which was like Duncan's Aladdin's
cave of things that he had kept for years

just in case he would need it.
Duncan would even re-use nails.

It was that kind of mentality

that managed to get the bottling
hall built with basically no money.

Wasn't it? He built
the bottling hall.

So we spent £25,000.

We bought a whole distillery
for £25,000. Unbelievable.

They are characters,
the two of them together.

And he is also fantastically funny.

Duncan used to be the assistant
manager at Bruichladdich.

And you were let go, what, three times?

See that?

Dad needs a playmate.

Probably one of the
most notorious tag teams

since Jesse James
and his brothers, you know?

I took him to Chicago with me.

We went to the top of the
Hancock Tower revolving restaurant.

And Duncan have never
had tequila in his life.

And I said to the girl, "Could we have
two tequila margaritas? Make them strong.

"Country boys in town. We are
really kickin' up the dust, you know?"

She comes with a big glass
of tequila and a straw.

And Duncan is looking around
and he's settling down.

And he goes...

"Nice stuff, that."

Triple of tequila.
So I said, "Did you enjoy that?"

"Oh," he says, "Good stuff.
Good for the vitamin C."

And then I said,
"Would you like another one?"

He says, "I don't mind. You
buying it?" I said, "Yeah, I'll buy it."

Out she comes.
"Same again, please."

"By God, I feel a bit of that. That
Vitamin C is working, I tell you.

"The jetlag is disappearing.
I feel great."

Then the food comes, and, uh...

I said, "Would you like another one?

"Or would you like some wine?"
"No, no, I'll stay with the fruit juice.

"No, I'm fine.
Forget the wine."

So he has another one.

And we are halfway through the meal,

and he says,
"That is strong stuff," he says.

"I feel the whole bloody room
is going round and round."

I said, "Duncan,
it's a revolving restaurant.

"And I feel it's going round..."

He stood up. I said,
"Come to the window and look."

As we were going round...

I'm like pissing myself
laughing, I can't believe it.

First time in America.

So it is just one of these
brilliant combinations.

You know, stars that pass in the night.

Without him, I wouldn't have done it.
And without me, he wouldn't have done it.

He retired just about two years ago.

That's what makes this place
special. People like Duncan McGillivray.

- Are you...
- Ready?

Are you... ready?

When I started in the whisky industry

there was, as far as I can remember,

no women working
in the whisky distilleries.

Even in my lifetime, women did not...

"Respectable women," in inverted commas,

tended not to drink strong liquor.

"But you are a girl. You
don't drink it, do you?"

"No, no, no. Of course I don't. I'm a
girl. Why would I drink Scotch whisky?"

That's a question that
comes up quite a lot.

When I have been working
in a whisky shop in Edinburgh,

there have been men from
certain cultures or certain countries

that have come into the whisky shop, and they
have waited specifically to speak to a man,

or they have kind of downplayed
my opinion on something

because they think I am a woman, and I don't
know as much about whisky as other men do.

When you're working for somebody,

you can't turn around and
say, "Hey, you are a sexist shit.

"I don't want to
serve you, anyway."

Yes, as a young girl, female,
in the whisky industry,

there have been interesting experiences.

I kind of got involved in it when I was 26.

And the reactions have been fascinating.

Interestingly, never from people
who work in the whisky industry.

Always from consumers.

I think that just makes
me love the challenge.

To walk into a room full of guys and say,

"Look, I'm going to teach you
about some of our whiskies,

and I'm gonna have a look at some other
ways we can do a bit of a nosing and tasting.

And then it's nice to see them
actually say, "Okay, well, fair enough."

Women have a great history
in the whisky industry.

Whether it was Bessie Williamson,
my namesake, at Laphroaig Distillery,

growing that distillery.

People like Maureen Robinson or
Stephanie McLeod, who are master blenders.

I was really proud last year.

I won Distillery Manager of the Year
for the Icons of Whisky Scotland awards.

And I'm the first woman to have won that,

that I am absolutely certain, sure,
that I'm not going to be the last.

At my level, over 40%
of roles in our company

are held by women, so it is not
something unusual in our business at all.

Thirty, 40 years ago it was a very
manual task, working in a distillery.

And there was a lot of people here doing that

and a lot of big strong men were required
to do the manual tasks of making the malt.

Everything was pumps, and it was
all hand valves and things like that.

So, obviously, you know,
we have progressed and changed

with how we can make our product.

Come on, get a life, it's all changed.

Women are making... And I
want to have women in a meeting.

Because quite often they
will see a different balance

and they will bring some freshness to it.

It can become very staid, very boring,
if you don't kind of shake things up.

So the more diversity you can bring in,

it's a good thing,
it is a really good thing,

and I know there's quite a few
lady managers, women managers,

and they are doing very good jobs,
shoulder to shoulder with the men.

This is not just manly stuff.

Actually, women will look at
whisky in a more revered way.

They will get behind and
give it much more dedication.

Now physiologically, we are
similarly equipped, male and female.

But I think it may be...
You see, there's two things.

First of all, it's identifying an aroma.

But then the second stage
is putting a word to it.

I had one girl who was like, "It smells
really like walking through a forest

"just after it has rained," and her
husband just kind of stared at her.

"Okay, I was just going to
say it smells like oak wood."

Putting a word to it requires being
aware, once you have been trained in it,

but being aware of smells.

But one smells smells subliminally.

Even without being
consciously aware of them.

So, if one is exposed to many smells

in childhood, particularly, it stands
to reason that you might be better

able to identify a particular
aroma, to give it a name.

Traditionally, girls and women are exposed
to many more exciting smells than men.

They are exposed to cooking
smells, cleaning smells,

smells of babies, perfumes,
flower arrangement, let's say.

These traditional female roles.

I found in tastings that a lot more women were
able to go, "Oh, yes, that is pine needles."

Or, "That is creme brulee."

They are able to make that
association a little bit more quickly.

And if you learn to tune that,
tune into that,

that gets even better over time.

You can always keep
training your palate and nose.

And the companies have spent
a tremendous amount of money

developing the packaging as well

because the packaging is generally about
20% of the value of any product you get,

in the whisky industry.

The type of work that we are involved with

is called "ultra premium."

So, really, it's working with
the top of the Christmas tree

the really expensive, age-related whiskies.

Usually 50 years plus.

This is a beautiful bottle
for the Bowmore company

When we were commissioned to make this

The Bowmore company asked us, "We are
going to capture the whisky on the inside.

"Can you capture a bit of
the island on the outside?"

So we designed this bottle to have
these rocky-like islands all on the surface.

Bottles when they are sold with the
whisky in it tend to be really expensive.

Usually a starting price of around £10,000.

But we've made bottles up to £100,000.

Sometimes the technology changes.
State-of-the-art furnaces and equipment,

but the actual hand skills
haven't changed for 2,000 years.

I think that is very similar to some of
the craft that's involved in making whisky.

What I was doing today is I
was gathering out of our furnace.

And then we are shaping the
glass into a nice droplet shape.

Then we drop into a wooden mold

and that closes, and that helps us form the
bowl, which is going to be our whisky glass.

My assistant then opens up the mold,

and then we have to do a series of
reheats, getting this bowl in a nice shape.

We drop a gob of
molten-hot glass over the top.

And then we use a specialist
rock tool that we have developed

to press into the glass, and that
gives a fantastic rocky-like texture

on the bottom of this whisky glass.

We attach the pontil
to the bottom of the glass.

And now we are transferring direction.

We now take the glass and
we take it to the reheating station

called the glory hole, then, through
a series of concentrated heats

we can then open up the whisky glass

and get a really nice-shaped
whisky glass like this.

So the level of ultra-premium that we work in

means that there are no imperfections.

The whisky companies we
work for are extremely demanding.

And rightfully so. The whisky that's
going into these is often 50 years old,

and it is very limited stock. Maybe
only 50 bottles, maybe only 10 bottles.

Basically, if it's not good
enough, it gets destroyed.

And if it is good enough, then it goes to
the whisky companies who commissioned it.

So we treat them with absolute care

and we have special transport cases

made for individual bottles, and they
are sent by high security all over the world.

Slainte mhath.

Mmm. Perfect.

Doing a tasting...
I think it was in Texas.

And in the room next door there
were two entrances into the bar.

Jim finished his tasting and he
noted just out of the corner of his eye

he noticed somebody leaving the far end
of the table and going through to the bar.

And then, of course,
sure enough, moments later

this person came back with
four whiskies on a tray, you see.

And he had been there before.

All of us are very reluctant
to do blind tastings.

Especially after having done
a whisky tasting.

So Jim excused himself. "Sorry,
boys, I'm just going to go to the john."

He nips out of the other door
while this chap is still coming,

hands the barman ten bucks
and says, "What did you give him?"

So then he comes back
and they set up the whiskies,

and they are all waiting there.
"Hey, Mr. Whisky. We'll catch him out."

"Oh, come on, boys, for goodness sake.

"We've just done eight whiskies."
Or six whiskies or whatever.

"It's really not fair,
you know."

So he starts fiddling around, nosing,
moving them around like chess pieces.

And he says, "Well, that's straightforward.

"That's quite clearly a Bladnoch.

"And I would say it's probably
about ten years old.

"This one is... This is
definitely a Cragganmore.

"But it has been wine-finished,
and I would say

"it's the Cragganmore 12 years old,
finished in... whatever they finish it in...

"Amoroso, you know?" They
are going, "God, this is amazing."

He comes to the last one and he says,

"Now, this is very difficult.
This is a single-cask whisky.

"It has been bottled at,
I would guess, 58.3% alcohol.

"And it was made in the Spring."

"And it's a Tullibardine, and I
think it is probably 12 years old."

And they said, "This is amazing.

"How do you know it's made in the Spring?

"What was the cask number? If
the cask number was under 1000

"then it would have been made
in the first six months of the year."

And of course he was right
in every particular.

And his reputation
was absolutely saved, you know?

He never told them that he had cheated.

I always visit Taiwan

which is our number-one market in
Asia, our number-two market globally now.

In France, for example, a lot of
women are drinking blended Scotch

in different ways, with soda.

Japan... Suntory reinvented
whisky and soda.

They call it Suntory soda.

I have been fortunate to travel
to markets like China, to Brazil,

where Scotch whisky is being
enjoyed by consumers in their 20s

who are mixing it with different things.

In China, green tea
is a very popular mixer.

So it's very much market to market.

Probably the country that I've
visited that has the most enthusiasm

for the single malt market is Taiwan.

It is unbelievable, the amount
of interest and passion.

It's the one country in the world where
single malts actually outsell blended Scotch.

He wants to share what he is passionate about

and what he is passionate
about is Islay, is whisky,

is about making people understand
how privileged we are to be on this island

and what a special place it is.

A lot of people on Islay
obviously respect him

because of what he has done
for the community.

Bruichladdich employs 80 people now.

That's a massive achievement
and I am very proud of that.

And there is also all the work we do with
the farmers and the associated communities.

So they are very proud
of this Islay boy James.

He will absolutely let you know
if you are doing anything wrong.

But, equally, praise you
if you're doing anything right.

He is a great ambassador, not
only for his brand Bruichladdich,

but also for Islay,

and the way I remember the
very first time when we were abroad

and he would stand in the middle
of New York and say, "Right, John.

"Come in here and listen to me,"
he says. "Laphroaig comes first,

"Islay comes second,
and then Scotland's third.

"Never ever think that you
are just part of one thing.

"But remember," he says,
"You're from Islay,

"and we always promote Islay
with the greatest authority.

"You're an ambassador for this island now.

"You need to take
that responsibility on board."

I think, we've got eight
world-class distilleries here.

The amount of people who come
from around the world to visit us...

It means that all the craft
shops, bed and breakfasts, hotels

they have guests coming all the time.

So it's supporting
the community that way as well.

Islay's got a very rich
heritage, very rich culture.

So I met Jim at Whisky Live
in Taipei two years ago.

It was the first time I'd seen
Jim for more than a year.

So I had a long chat with him,
we had a coffee together,

which turned into a dram or two,
and I said,

"Incidentally, I was actually
on Islay about five weeks ago.

"I didn't manage to get to
Bruich..." And he stopped me.

He said, "Bill, I know
you were there."

"I know when you arrived,
I know who you were with.

"I even know what you
had for lunch that day."

That kind of brought it home to me
that, yes, on Islay, there are no secrets.

Islay has got eight distilleries

which must contribute huge money
to the government, huge money.

A lot of that money doesn't come back.

This island contributes
vastly to the income

for its size, it's punching
way above its weight.

It's a very punitive tax.

It's always been very high, as
long as I have been in the business.

You know, it is. It's round
about the 70% mark.

It doesn't bode well for the
tourist industry in Scotland

if people from those countries are coming here
and discovering they are paying twice the price

for what should be a local product

paying local rates,
which should be cheaper.

So it's bad public relations
for Scotland in general

and for tourism in general.

I can walk into a store in New York City

and I can buy my own whisky
about 40% cheaper

than I can buy it in the shop downstairs.

That is unfair.

If you look at the amount
of revenue that is generated

by the sale of Islay whisky,
or whisky from Islay,

and then you divide that
amongst all the people,

each person is contributing
about £200,000 a year.

It's something phenomenal.

I think it's fair to say, if we
believe that every ounce of tax

coming off of Scotch whisky
should come back to Islay, let's say,

the roads should be paved
with gold, but that's not the case.

If you turn it another way
around and looked at it

and said, Islay's going to be independent,

we'd be one of the richest
islands in the world.

In one of the richest islands in
the world, we don't have a dentist.

You can't have your baby born there
because the hospital isn't equipped.

That's a bit of a shame, you know?

It's enough to drive you to drink.

Nosing a whisky is like
getting to know a person.

You've got to talk.
You've got to communicate.

It's the same with a whisky.

You put the whisky in the glass,

you bring it up and you say...

"Hello."

Then you go back to it and say...

"How are you?" More importantly,
you go back a third time and say,

"Quite well, thank you
very much."

Just by nosing, you tease all these wonderful
nuances that have been brought together.

This glass is good,
because it's got a stem.

Which means you are not putting
your fingers on the glass.

Have a quick look
at the color of the whisky

so you get to terms with it,

Have a nice swirl on the glass like so.

Gives you a chance to get
a look at the tears.

This is known as the legs.
Now, if they run very quickly

and there's lots of them,
that's a lighter-bodied whisky.

Whereas, if it takes a while
for the legs to start to run,

and they are slower, then that's a
much fuller, heavier-bodied whisky.

Fantastic viscosity there.

They are not even moving. They
are just stuck there like pearls.

Nosing a whisky will tell you far more
about it than actually tasting a whisky.

Most people take a glass and
they will put their nose into the glass

- and inhale deeply, like they were snorting cocaine.
- Go like that...

And the first thing you'll
get is the alcohol.

And inhale deeply. And then
their eyes fall out. It's fantastic.

So when you nose a whisky, try and
keep your mouth open slightly as well.

And I hold it about that
distance under my nose.

I don't have to go in.
It's coming up.

The aromas are coming up, you know?

Close your eyes. It's really important
to close your eyes and just focus on it.

What's that smell I'm getting?

Lots of people aren't actually
aware of their nose.

That you've got this memory bank of smells

and flavors in your olfactory
epithelium just here in your brain

in between your eyebrows.

The gentler notes are hiding
down underneath there.

I got to get them out,
and to do that I need water.

In terms of nosing, you really
should add water.

There are two very good reasons for that.

First of all, whisky is sold
at 40% alcohol by volume.

And if you are nosing a series
of whiskies at that alcohol level,

then you'll find very quickly, your nose and
sense of smell are actually anesthetized a bit.

Try the whisky neat first.
Always good to do that

so you can gauge how much water
you may or may not want to put in.

If you add a splash of water
you obviously reduce the content

and you also raise the
temperature of the whisky slightly,

which allows the aromas
to be released better.

So, depending on the heat
I'm getting in the palate,

I will just the water I add to my whisky.

In Scotland, we all add
water to single malt.

When you nose it, you
don't just smell one thing,

you smell a whole combination
coming together in a loving union.

Fantastic notes of the Madeira
sherry are coming through.

Really sultanas, raisins, grapes, dates.

That fruit, absolutely incredible.

That's one of the great appeals to whisky,

there is such a range of aromas
in the... No disrespect to vodka,

but it's inclined to be one-dimensional.

Like a flower opening,
it doesn't reveal it all.

Just keep moving it
and you will be rewarded.

So that's what I do every time.

When you really look inside
into the soul of the whisky,

you'll see all these wonderful
flavors coming together.

But when it comes to tasting, I
don't want you to knock it back.

I want you to really
give it the time, again.

And then the finish of the whisky,
once you have swallowed it,

is often described as being very
short, very long, very warming.

And then when you put it in your
mouth, hold it on the top of the tongue,

underneath the tongue, back in the
middle, keep it there and let it go down.

Mmm. Mmm-mmm!

Mmm-mm-mm-mm!

Mmm! Mmm! Mmm!

Hello there.

There's nothing wrong with young whisky.

Young whisky, you're
getting more flavor in it,

like a six, seven, eight,
nine, a ten-year-old.

You don't get the same influence of oak.
You get more of the flavor of distillation.

The fruits of distillation,
the flowers of fermentation.

The sweetness of oak is
coming in but it's not dominating.

It's like watching a child growing up.

It really is. That's what it's like. You
watch them just maturing, the colors changing.

They are getting rounded at the edges,
more personality from the Bourbon casks

or fruit from a wine cask.

It's quite a controversial subject.

This whole idea that the
older a whisky is, the better it is.

And I am a passionate believer

that, in fact, almost
the opposite is the case.

From a very personal perspective,
whether I'm drinking Ardbeg or Glenmorangie

or Balvenie or Mortlach
or Springbank or Highland Park,

Any of these other whiskies which I enjoy,

I tend to prefer them between
the ages of 10 and 18.

Because I think most
distilleries hit the sweet spot

somewhere in that range.

Now, the older a whisky gets,

obviously the rarer it's going
to be, again for two reasons.

Firstly, most of it will have been
bottled at 10 or 12 or 18 or whatever.

So there is simply less
of a pool to choose from.

And you have lost more by evaporative
loss, the so-called "angels' share."

So, by its very nature it's
going to be much rarer.

And really, that's what you're
paying for in a very old whisky.

It's the scarcity value, the rarity value.

But you need to bear in mind
that a 50-year-old whisky

is going to have taken up
so much flavor from the wood,

it might be woody, it might be dry,

it might be bitter, so I would
say, think very, very carefully

before you decide to shell out
five or £10,000 on a bottle of whisky.

Er... Is it worth it?

If I had £100,000, would I buy
a bottle of whisky?

I would not buy a bottle
of whisky for £100,000.

I would buy many hundreds
of cases of bottles of whisky

for the same amount of money.

Age isn't everything. I think there's too
much emphasis put on the age of whisky.

Yes, it tells you how long
it's been in the cask

and that will give you an indication
of what its complexity may be.

But it could have been in tired
old casks for 30 years

and become over-aged.

And you could have an eight-year-old, which
is every bit as good, if not much better

because it has been in good quality casks.

We are a nation
that can laugh at ourselves.

Hey, it's just a drink. But
it's a very, very special drink.

And it is unique to us.

Scotch whisky has such an emotional
connection for people that are involved in it,

and drinkers alike,

because it really is the
heart and soul of Scotland.

You share with friends, you sit
down. It's there to mark something.

Having a special dram
will always stay in your memory.

You don't hear people
thinking about a special time

when they drank a vodka
somewhere or whatever.

There's a great deal of memorable
times that you have with a dram.

I remember sharing many drams with
my father, who is no longer with us now,

but I treasure these memories

of taking him home a taste of a
special dram that I had created.

Him and I sitting
having a chat over that dram.

Probably whisky has more to offer

than some of the other spirits.

The flavors and tastes are more
prominent than they are on white spirit.

Therefore, I think that's why you get...

Somebody will say they like
to have a whisky by the fire.

Have a peat fire going, have a nice dram.

Also when you are fishing.

It's a cold day.

A nice whisky will warm you up.

I think a lot of it is not
so much from the taste,

I think it comes more
from the aromas, the smells.

Because your sense of smell
is very emotive.

If you smell something,
it quite often will bring back

a certain point in time
when you first smelt that.

I normally drink
with those people that I love.

I want to hear what they have got to say.

You know, a celebration, an
anniversary. Well, you bring in a whisky.

So quite often I will in fact
serve a very aged whisky

over a special occasion.

The secret to a good dram?

Oh, God Almighty!
I don't know.

I would find it difficult
to answer that question.

To me, the secret of a good dram
is depth of flavor.

So not just one thing.

First and foremost, it must have
an interesting range of flavors.

I don't think a dram of whisky
should be one-dimensional.

Making sure that everything comes together.

That's the contribution of the wood,
the contribution of the component parts.

Whether it be a single malt, or all
the casks, or even a blended whisky,

they must come together in a loving union.

Something you want to take your time with.

Something from me that I spend as
much time smelling it as I do tasting it.

I really think about, you know... It's
almost like an emotional thing for me.

Does it give you a memory of something?

Does it take you back
to when you last had this dram?

Who did you have it with? What
stories were you telling one another?

That sort of thing, so it is something
that is complex and makes you think.

Good company.

A good malt whisky, I'll say that's
50%. 40% I would say is company.

I love it in company.

And 10%, somebody else's whisky.

It's the people and place
you are with, you know?

It could be yourself
and it is just the right time,

the right moment, you just
need something to end the week,

to give it a quiet moment of solitude,

or it is just sitting around the table
with people that make you laugh,

telling good stories, singing
songs. That's a good dram.

I'd just like to say, sharing it.

You've got to share it with friends.

I don't think whisky...
It's not a selfish drink.

It's a drink to be celebrated,
it's a drink to be enjoyed.

Having been invited to fish for salmon on
the River Tweed in November years ago,

on the way down we bought
a bottle of blended Scotch,

a secondary blend, one of these ones that
is completely unknown because it's rat shit.

Anyway, we fished away.
It was bitterly cold.

And the light faded,
and we went into the hut.

Got the old stove going, somebody
had caught a beautiful fresh salmon.

The host just took the bottle
and divided it in six glasses,

and everybody said this was the
best whisky they had ever tasted.

As Prince Charles stood on the
Highland moor with his castle behind him,

he was leaning on his shepherd's
stick and he feeling very sad.

He could hear the eagle calling
and he cried.

And his teardrops fell into the stream.

The stream went down
the glen, the magic glen.

And it went into a distillery
where they were making whisky.

And today when you drink this whisky,

you can taste Prince Charles's teardrops.

Have you ever heard
such bullshit in your life?

Good afternoon, everybody, and
welcome to Bruichladdich Distillery.

It's a beautiful sunny day here on Islay.

And we have some amazing
whiskies for you to taste with me today.

And, of course, I realize that
you have traveled a long, long way

from South America to be here.

When we do this tasting today, you
should find the character and the personality

of the islanders in this glass.

It is 23 years old and I
have used a variety of casks,

which I can't tell you, it's a secret.

We just won best single malt in the
world about two weeks ago with this whisky.

If I had to order one whisky
before I left this earth,

this would be it.

Not only is this a special whisky,

but it is also the last tasting
I will conduct in my life.

And I can't think of a better way than
to end it with a product like Black Art.

The personality and the heartbeat
of Bruichladdich is in this glass.

The Passion.
It is all about passion.

People make this and they make that,

but if it is not made with passion, then it
is only a mere shadow of what it could be.

So we make this with passion, and, uh...

it's just fantastic
to finish my last session

with probably the highlight of my career.

At the end of the day, this is the
blood of Scotland. There is no question.

We are known throughout the
world because of this product.

We are a small nation
of 4.5 million people,

and yet everywhere I have traveled,
and I have traveled everywhere,

when I put my hand out,
when I meet strangers,

and they say, "Where are you
from?" And I say I'm from Scotland,

Immediately their eyes light up and
a smile of welcome comes to the face.

That's what it does. It is this
amazing blood of Scotland.

To the end of the journey.
Cheers.

I think I cried for three days
when he told me he was retiring.

Yeah, I'll believe it once I see it.

You think he'll go? I think
you'll have to take an axe to him.

They'll still be chasing him away every
week. "Bugger off, Jim, you've retired now."

They just tend not to leave.
Like herpes. Yeah.

Dad's retiring has come at this...

For him, a very...
portentous time.

The distillery is in a great place.

He has just won
Master Distiller of the Year.

And Black Art, which is his most
famous dram, won Malt of the Year.

So there's all these weird things
have come together that just...

The stars are aligned in the sky,
saying, "Jim, you've done a great job.

"You will never be forgotten.
Your legacy is huge.

But it's time to relax.

So I leave Bruichladdich
at the top of the league.

And there is no doubt I will
be popping over occasionally,

just to make sure the quality is right.

There is something
instilled in all of us now,

about how things should be done, about our
values, about the way we should approach things.

And it is there. So as long as
we don't change that, we're good.

So I can see me spending
a few nice days in the loft.

Just close the hatch and sit
up there with headphones on,

listening to Bruce Springsteen,
drinking Black Art.

The future looks very bright indeed.

So it has been a big success story.

It hasn't been without sacrifice.

I mean, I didn't see my family for years.

My wife did a phenomenal job.
She was bringing up children herself.

So the other chapters have been
dedicated to education, working, traveling.

So the last chapter is
dedicated totally to the family.

There are not many people in
the industry like Jim and I today.

We have both been through and
done every single job in the distillery.

And so the opportunities for people
like that nowadays are very, very limited.

But I think we have survived because we have
always been so passionate about what we do.

You can't speak highly enough
about Jim McEwan.

The only thing I can say
is that our industry

is a much, much, much
poorer place without him in it.

I would just like to say to Dad, thanks.

And we are all really proud
of you, the whole family.

We could not be more proud.
It's not that you are the most...

recognized individual.

It's that you did something
that nobody else did.

And you did it your way.
And that is inspiring.

And my kids will learn from that.

And my kids will know about you
and their kids will know about you.

So thank you.