Island whiskies

Set apart from the mainland and the mainstream, islanders have a distinct way of life – which is reflected in the character of the whiskies they produce. We take a tour of island distilleries around the world to find out more

- RICHARD WOODARD

‘Islands share a distinct sense of their own identity, represented by their unique landscapes’

For travellers, islands have an unspoken allure as places of mystery and otherness, destinations that promise to take us – body and mind – somewhere new. Some, like Atlantis and Avalon, are places of myth and fantasy, while others – Ellis Island in New York Bay, for instance – can be portals to a new life.

What islands share is a distinct sense of their own identity, represented by their unique landscapes, but also by the people who inhabit them, the lives they lead, and the artefacts they create. Island whisky may make us think of Islay, Orkney and Skye; of Arran, Mull and Jura. But, beyond the borders of Scotland, whisky is being made right now on islands dotted all over the globe, from Hokkaido to Nantucket, Tasmania to Taiwan.

To begin in Islay, though, legend has it that the science of distillation first found a Scottish foothold here more than seven centuries ago, and the Hebridean island is currently in the grip of a single malt boom, with nine distilleries in operation, and at least two more on the way.

Islay-born Bruichladdich head distiller Adam Hannett has lived there nearly 40 years. ‘It’s about the place and the people, not just the whisky,’ he says. ‘You see the shadows coming across the loch, the way the light is at this time of year. The love of the place – that comes through into the whisky. If we were making whisky elsewhere, somewhere else in the country, it would be different.’