Where there’s smoke
The Ileach is the newspaper for Islay and Jura that’s published fortnightly. The pages are typically filled with construction notifications; updates on the ferry; coverage of charity events; announcements of students, business leaders and community figures winning awards; nature features; and, of course, distillery news. In the 28 August 2021 issue, the cover story was headlined "Still Photography". It featured an image familiar to anyone who lives on Islay – or anyone who knows of Islay’s luminous rank in distilling history, for that matter: copper stills. But they weren’t the standard-issue Scottish machinery. The image, the article noted, was provided by Ben Inglis, the distillery manager at what’s now known as the Islay Rum Company, located in the Old Lemonade Factory in Port Ellen. They are Caribbean-style stills and they’re cranking out rum. Inglis hopes to have early runs of white and flavoured rums ready by May, in time for Fèis Ìle, the Islay festival of music and malt.
In the shadow of behemoth, historic malt distilleries, small-scale craft distilling is alive and well on Islay. In fact, it’s alive and well within the walls of those historic distilleries, too. It’s a trend some might say started in 2011 when Jim McEwan – Bruichladdich’s longtime, now retired, master
