Port Charlotte Distillery, Islay, Scotland, United Kingdom

Port Charlotte is a small town on the island of Islay in the Outer Hebrides, off the coast of Scotland. The Port Charlotte Lochindaal distillery was founded in 1829 and after being in operation for just over 100 years was closed in 1929. Now one of the most successful distilleries on Islay has put a plan into operation to revive the old distillery to make fine malt whisky again.

The Port Charlotte distillery is being restarted on the original site by the operators of the highly successful Bruichladdich distillery. The new distillery will be situated about two miles southwest of the Bruichladdich distillery, operated by The Bruichladdich Distillery Co. Ltd.

PHOENIX DISTILLERY

The Port Charlotte distillery is being dubbed the 'Phoenix Distillery' since the new facility will be reborn from equipment obtained from the former Inverleven distillery in Dumbarton. This was completely demolished in 2003, and the new distillery is being constructed on the site of the former Lochindaal distillery.

The buildings of the former distillery survived and are in use by a local garage, the Islay youth hostel and the local field centre.

The new facility will be expected to produce around 1.2 million litres of whisky per year and will begin operation in 2009. The old equipment was dismantled by a team of ten of Bruichladdich's finest 'engineers' (crofters) under Duncan McGillivray and was shipped by barge to the island.

While in storage pieces have been cannibalised for use as spares in the Bruichladdich distillery, but now they have a definite purpose. In March 2007 Bruichladdich made the announcement that it had plans for a new distillery to be called the Port Charlotte Distillery to increase the production of Islay malt whisky.

PLANS FOR NEW DISTILLERY

One of the great advantages of the plan is that the major distilling plant and equipment was acquired inexpensively from a defunct distillery. In addition, the expertise required to develop and operate such an enterprise is available as it will be a sister facility to Bruichladdich.

Another major disadvantage of starting an independent distillery from scratch is that there are no products to sell for around eight to ten years as this is the length of time that the whisky has to mature in the barrel. This is not the case with Port Charlotte as there are stocks of peated malt at the Bruichladdich distillery, some of it stored in bonded warehouses at Port Charlotte.

Port Charlotte whisky, a heavily peated (40ppm) single malt, has been distilled since 2001. Bruichladdich is already marketing a cask strength (63%) Port Charlotte Islay single malt called Port Charlotte Evolution PC5 (around £199 per bottle).

At the 2007 International Wine & Spirits Awards PC5 won a silver medal.

Planning permission was granted for the new distillery building in 2007 and a second planning application was made shortly after for a further new building to contain a distillery shop, offices, and a tasting room/ceilidh/function room. The Port Charlotte Distillery will be constructed as a completely green operation with a zero carbon footprint.