The oldest distillery on Islay, where the salty sea breezes blow right into the warehouses and give this whisky an utterly distinctive character.
Bowmore (the first "legal" distillery on Islay) was founded in 1779 by John Simpson and stands on the shore of Loch Indaal, close to the town of the same name. The distillery remained in the hands of the Simpson family until 1837, when it was bought by the Mutter family. James Mutter was the eclectic head of the family: a farmer, a distiller, but also vice consul for the Ottoman, Portuguese and Brazilian Empires at the Glasgow consulate. James saw to the expansion and modernisation of the distillery, and it is said that he used his own steamship to bring barley and coal to the distillery and to ship his whisky to Glasgow.
Over the following years the distillery changed hands many times, but it never halted production except during the two World Wars (for much of the Second World War the distillery housed the RAF flying boats engaged in raids against German submarines). In 1963 the distillery was bought by Stanley P. Morrison and James Howat of Morrison's Bowmore Distillery Ltd. In the late 1980s the Japanese company Suntory Ltd acquired a stake in the business, before taking it over completely in 1994. Despite the many changes of ownership and various refurbishments and renovations, Bowmore has kept its original Malting Floor, and its whisky-making methods are still the traditional ones; for obvious production reasons, much of the barley arrives at the distillery already malted, but a small percentage is still spread out today on the old stone floors, turned by hand and dried over the classic peat fire that characterises the spirits of the island of Islay.
If you are still not convinced of just how special this distillery is, we can tell you that one of its largest maturation warehouses (the famous No. 1 Vaults) is the oldest in Scotland and has the distinction of being the only one below sea level; its dark, damp and cold conditions are ideal for the maturation of whisky.
Did you know? In the past, in recognition of the exclusive quality of its spirits, the distillery was granted the right to produce whisky without paying the relevant government duty. Although that concession lapsed long ago, the company's great skill in making whisky has remained unchanged: barley, peat and the crystal-clear water of the nearby River Laggan have always been the ingredients that guarantee the outstanding character of its products, and its whisky is made with a phenol content of around 25 ppm.
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