<-- Back to MM#2
Our fresh French correspondent Serge Valentin managed to get hold of Mark Reynier in London for an 'exclusive' interview. Mark is one of the founders of Murray McDavid and Managing Director at the recently re-opened Bruichladdich distillery on Islay.
E-pistle #02/01 - An interview with Mark 'Bruichladdich' Reynier
by Serge Valentin, France
"Yes, there will be some Bruichladdich aged in Yquem casks!"
Introduction: I first met Mark Reynier ten years ago, in London and I have fabulous memories of this meeting… full of drams
of Springbank. Since that day, Mark has made his way in the world of whisky. First, with his friends Simon Coughlin and Gordon Wright, he started Murray McDavid - maybe one of the best independent bottlers. Then, he bought the
Bruichladdich distillery, on Islay. On March 11th, 2002, I had the opportunity to meet Mark Reynier again, thanks to my dear old friend Paul Adam. We met at La Reserve's headquarters, in Knightsbridge, London. Johannes had the
excellent idea to have me interview Mark, and Paul agreed it was a good idea. I had thought this would be quite a gentle chat about this and that, about Islay, about peat, about sherry etc. But as Mark is a man of energy, the interview
turned out to be full of passion. I love this man. Mark has some French ancestors (together with Scottish and Finnish) so he answered all my questions in French, and his French is excellent!
Q1 - Mark, what's your explanation for the recent boom in single malt scotch whisky? Independent bottlers! Without them, only a few single malts would be available. Macallan, Glenlivet… The distillery proprietors wanted to focus on
volume, thus on blended whiskies. In the 70's, all the distillers knew that United Distillers or other big companies were buying their whiskies "cash on delivery". As soon as the spirit was distilled, it was delivered to the
blenders, and paid for. Those were easy times for the distillers. But suddenly, when the oil crisis occurred, the big companies stopped buying these whiskies, and a lot of distilleries got into big trouble, and almost fell into bankruptcy.
Then, it became very easy for the big names to buy starving distilleries. Q2 - Just because the distilleries had financial problems? Yes. It was much easier for the blenders to buy the distillery, rather than the whisky!
That's what Allied did when they bought Johnston in 1975. Johnston was the owner of Laphroaig! Furthermore, the big groups bought distilleries and closed them, just to avoid any competitor buying them instead.
Q3 - All right, but how did the independent bottlers step in? Well, at the beginning of the 80s, another economic crisis was looming. So, the big companies' accountants suddenly said "Look, we've got a whole bunch of old Port
Ellen casks (for example) in our warehouses. The distillery's closed. Sell them!" Some bottlers bought them because they were looking for aged single malts to produce premium blends - 18 years old, 21 years old
etc. It became quite easy to buy casks, but you had to buy at least 25 or 50 casks at the same time. Q4 - You mean, you can't buy only one or two casks from United or Allied? Forget it! What the best independent bottlers
do is to buy, let's say 50 casks of Ardbeg. Then the three or four best ones are selected. That's what we do at Murray McDavid's. The remaining casks are sold to blenders, or to less "serious" independent bottlers. You know,
many independent bottlers don't even sample the whiskies before they buy the casks. In short: the world of whisky has its head in its ass! Q5 - Is it really that bad? Look, let me give you an example. A long time ago, the new-make whisky was put into casks at 70%
alcohol by volume. That's the way it should be done, because it's the natural way to do it. But guess why everybody's reducing the whisky to 65% nowadays? Just because accountants once said: "We can't avoid a certain portion
of the whisky evaporating while in the cask, but we would prefer water to do so, rather than alcohol!" Q6 - But your Murray McDavid bottlings are not cask strength. True. We seldom find casks which deserve to be
bottled at cask strength. I think most cask strength bottlings you can find on the market are bad ones. Moreover, when you add water to them before drinking, the whisky and the water stay apart, they don't unite, and it's
undrinkable. I know the collectors like cask strength bottlings, but most bottlers bottle as "single cask-cask strength" because it's easy and they know there are 250 collectors around the world who will buy every single bottling
from one cask just to look at them. Q7 - By the way, who is Mr. Murray McDavid ? Well, he doesn't exist. Murray and McDavid were the names of my maternal grandparents. Both
families were involved in Scotch and I named the Company in honour of them. Q8 - All right, let's talk about Bruichladdich now. You recently acquired the distillery. Were there any other distilleries
you had your eye on at the time? Yes and no. But let me tell you how all this happened. It was the luck of the draw really and all began in the 80s - 1986 - when I was 24. At that time, I was working in my father's company. One
day, I was visiting the London Wine Trade Fair. The event took place in the City of London for the very first time, and it was a big failure. I was walking in the empty aisles, when suddenly, a large hairy man with a big beard came
up to me. He said I could win a £1000 bottle of whisky. I just had to give my business card to him. But I hadn't any! So, the guy gave me one of his own cards, so that I could write my address on it. That's what I
did, and then, I put the card in the hat. Q9 - Who was this guy? Wait! On the same day, I was sipping a glass of wine on the roof, at my place in London. It was the beginning of the evening. The telephone rang and
it was John Milroy. He told me I had won the £1000 bottle, and I had to come to his shop, in Soho, to get it. It was a Springbank 40 year old. I had a wonderful time talking with John - I know almost nothing about whisky, being a wine
man. He helped me discover two excellent malts: Springbank and Bruichladdich. That was my first contact with Bruichladdich, and it was love at first sight! Q10 - So, you decided to buy the distillery at that time?
Of course not. Two or three years later, I decided to tour West Scotland with my
brother, playing all the island golf courses - by bicycle!. One day, we arrived at Springbank, where I met Gordon Wright for the first time. He said to me "If you go to Islay, go and see my friend Jim McEwan, at Bowmore."
That's what I did - and toured the Distillery. We got on like a house on fire. Jim was so kind, so enthusiastic! I remember, we were at Bowmore together, and we could see Bruichladdich on the other shore, so I decided to go
there. The gates were closed - there was no way in! A year later, I went there again, with my father and my brother. We were in front of the main gate, which was closed, but
we saw a guy inside. I shouted, "I buy a lot of your malts and I'd like to visit the Distillery." Q11 - So, you decided to buy the distillery in spite of this very rough experience? Mmm... In fact, both Simon (my partner) and I were fond of the maritime
flavours, whiskies that are aged by the sea - what we call 'coastal'. You know, a lot of distilleries that are near the sea have their main warehouses inland. For instance, Caol Ila sends its whisky by the next ferryboat to Glasgow, as
soon as it's distilled! Anyway, each January from 1990, I used to write to Allied Distillers asking to buy the Ardbeg distillery. At the time Ardbeg was closed and Bruichladdich was still operational. Every year, they answered,
"No way." After five years, they said they would agree to sell the Distillery, but to Glenmorangie (who didn't even visit Ardbeg before signing the contract!) Anyway, Bruichladdich was silent at that time. More than thirty different people tried to buy it, but its owner,
Invergordon, had been bought by Whyte & Mackay and Jim Beam Brands. JBB became owner of seven distilleries and they bought Invergordon just because of their blending plant. They found all the malts 'surplus to requirements,
except Jura and Dalmore and so, in the space of a couple of years, they closed all of them except these two. I went on writing to Invergordon for five years (from 1996 to 2000), each January. Finally, in January 2000, to my
shock, they said "OK, but we need a letter from a bank, to prove that you've got the money." I met the people from the Bank of Scotland. They condescended to listen to me, and they said "You've got to find £ 4
million, then we'll lend you the rest of the money." Never believing I would do it, I managed to collect the money from clients of La Réserve and Murray McDavid, and from Islay people. So, six months later, I went back to the bank,
with the evidence of the £ 4 million. They said "Hey, you're still here!" You know, the clock was ticking, and Invergordon was becoming impatient, but the bank was finally convinced and we were able to finish the deal.
Q12 - So, it hasn't been that difficult, after all! Wait! In September 2000, it was time to finalize the deal with Jim Beam Brands. But things were progressing slowly with the bank. JBB sent me an ultimatum. All
the financing had to be in place by December 19th or the deal was over. You know, it's quite easy to borrow either £ 200,000 or £ 10 million, but £ 3 million is much more difficult. As the bank said, "We don't normally get out of
bed for less than £10 million". Anyway, on December 19th, all the money was there, except for £ 300,000 that had been sent, but hadn't arrived yet. I remember, I was at my lawyer's office. I had arrived early in the
morning and we didn't stop calling the bank all morning. JBB's deadline was 12:00 and at 11:40, the £ 300,000 still wasn't there. My lawyer said "Mark, you should start to think about what you're going to say to JBB. They're
waiting for your call at noon." I was destroyed, as you can guess. Simon and Gordon, were already at the Harbour Inn, Bowmore, waiting for the good news to enter Bruichladdich. At 11:59, I made a final call to the
bank. They answered "No problem, the money just arrived! We've got the whole amount now." I started dancing in my lawyer's office.
Q13 - Well, anybody would have gone crazy… In fact, there were two reasons why I was extremely happy. Bruichladdich, and the fact that my wife gave birth to our first child, a son, half an hour before the Bruichladdich deal closed!
Q14 - Nice story Mark… What did you do next? I went to Bruichladdich a few days later and ceremonially I tore away the panel that said "Plant Closed - No Visitors!" Then, from January to May, we refurbished everything -
wood, metal, pipes.... Some specialized companies helped us. We wanted to preserve all the equipment. Jim McEwan joined the team at this point. He was really happy to get back to his roots! We re-hired some of the
original people from Bruichladdich. They're so skilled! We had a really good team of young, talented and enthusiastic guys doing the work. We took the boilers to pieces, we cleaned everything, and we remounted them. It was
very moving, when we made them work again for the first time. It was like an old steam train. And on May 29th, 2001, we organized our first distillation.
Q15 - People really like the new design of Bruichladdich bottles. Not at all. You know, we wanted to get rid of the Scottish clichés, tartans, bagpipes, stags' heads etc. We did it mainly
ourselves. We all had an input. Gordon chose the bottle, I helped to design the labelling. The aquamarine was chosen because it's the real colour of the sea round Islay, when you're walking on the beach. It reflects the
marine nature of Bruichladdich. Q16 - Now, can you tell us what sets Bruichladdich apart from other Islay distilleries? Sure! Bruichladdich was made a distillery, not a farm! That's why the stills are very tall.
They give us a very elegant and sophisticated spirit. Most other distilleries were farms, that's why the stills are quite short - they had to fit into the barn. They produce a whisky, which is heavier and oilier, in short: much
more powerful. Also, Bruichladdich hasn't been a peated malt since 1961. Before that year, it was much more peated, but the kiln was dismantled in 1961. Bruichladdich is the only malt from Islay, which is entirely aged on
Islay. Most other malts are aged very far from the sea on the mainland! What is Islay malt after all? There is no legal definition - it could be peated whisky aged inland or non-peated whisky aged on Islay!
Q17 - So, the Bruichladdichs are among the softest Islay malts available. You know, we really want to produce the best whiskies possible. The stills are tall, that is to say
Bruichladdich will remain a sophisticated whisky. We won't peat it, and it will be aged in Bourbon casks. Bourbon casks are excellent for fine spirits. But they reveal every single flaw of a more vulgar alcohol, while sherry
casks can mask the same flaws. When Jim came, he decided to put some new spirits in sherry casks, and to increase the phenol level to 10 PPM. But after a year, he found that Bruichladdich is better when unpeated (only 2-3 PPM,
coming solely from the water), and when aged in bourbon casks. The highly acclaimed 20 years old from the new series is 100% aged in bourbon casks! Q18 - What are your personal favorites in the current Bruichladdich range?
The 15 year old that Jim created. Q19 - When will the first bottlings of the 'new' product become available? Ten years' time. We had 6,000 full casks at Bruichladdich when we bought
the distillery, going back to 1964. So, as you can guess, there's some whisky left for the next few years.
Q20 - What will the new bottlings of Bruichladdich be in the near future? Trickle distillation and a really good cask policy will produce top quality spirit. Q21 - Yquem, wow! Well, I don't think so. You know, we'll actually mature our whisky in the casks, for 10, 15 years or more. It's not only a matter of quick
"finishing" where they inject the whisky in casks under very high pressure, and then "cook" it. We'll never do that at Bruichladdich. Q22 - Any other new Bruichladdich bottlings this year? Yes, in April,
we'll launch Bruichladdich Vintage. The first bottling will be 1984, and sherry casks will be involved. It will be Bruichladdich's fourth expression. The label will be a new, cream-coloured one. The last bottling this year will be
a cask strength version from the sixties, bottled at 45 to 48% vol, called Bruichladdich Legacy. The label will be new as well, and will show a wonderful painting of Islay's landscape. And the sixth bottling? The Valinch - only available
at the Distillery and you have to fill it yourself! Q23 - But recently, I've seen a Ceramic bottle of 1983 wearing the new label! Yes, this was a very special bottling for a German customer. We only made 600 ceramics.
It's excellent whisky, but we won't do that again. I must say we'll always bottle Bruichladdich for its taste, and never only for the collectors. From later this year, every malt will be bottled at the Distillery. We are building a
bottling hall, to open in May. Bruichladdich will be the first official bottling done on Islay, as no other distillery bottles all its whiskies on the island. Q24 - What about Port Charlotte? Let me tell you the whole story. This whisky is highly peated (30 ppm), but it has no "hospital" taste, owing to the tall stills. It offers the genuine taste of peat. Medicinal flavours come from short stills. The
genuine taste of peat combined with "sea" notes - fantastic. High stills will always give whiskies which will be subtler than Lagavulin, Ardbeg or Laphroaig. Even if they are more heavily peated! Don't get me wrong
- I love all these whiskies. Anyway we decided to do it again, with 35ppm. And that's Port Charlotte. It won't be bottled for 8 or 9 years from now. It's so good! You know, we take our time. We only run the
distillery at 1/5 of its capacity. We don't need to produce more than that, because we won't sell any malt to blenders. Q25 - Do you use malts from Port Ellen Maltings? Yes, and you know, something very funny happened. We
produce the whisky as it was done fifty, a hundred years ago. We use no computers! So, usually, a computerized distillery gets 85% of the potential yield stated on the malter's analysis. But it happens that we get 105%! Yes, with
our old 1881 equipment, distilling slowly, correctly, without pressure! Q26 - And what about the mysterious Octomore? Octomore is a farm, located where the spring we use for Bruichladdich rises. Q27 - OK, Mark - one last stupid question. Yes it is.
But this didn't prevent Bruichladdich from being elected Distillery of the Year in 2001! All right, Mark. Thanks a lot, on behalf of all the MaltManiacs.
Here goes:
The charming old lady who ran Cadenhead's in Aberdeen, for instance, used to buy any cask somebody would try to sell to her, just because she couldn't say
no! But I must say that, even if you're talking about a "boom", which is right in a certain sense, the whisky industry remains very conservative. It's covered with dust. The old stocks will disappear - never to be
replaced, as many distilleries no longer exist.
Murray McDavid bottles whisky for drinking.
Reynier doesn't sound too Scottish!
I hadn't much money at that time, and I hadn't even dreamed about that. But what I did was to start my own wine and spirit merchant company, La Reserve, in Knightsbridge. And I instantly decided to concentrate on two specific
malts: Springbank and Bruichladdich, which became the flagship malts of La Reserve. I was among the first merchants who pushed these malts quite heavily in the market.
We took our bikes, and we carried on with our trip.
Do you know what the guy answered?
He said "Fuck off!"
That was my first experience with the Bruichladdich distillery itself.
I remember, Glenmorangie's Chairman came to me, at La
Réserve. We had a nice chat. He didn't know what to do with Ardbeg's whiskies so I gave him a piece of advice. "You shouldn't chill-filter, and you should reduce the malt to 46% vol. That's the way we bottle our
Murray McDavid malts, and our own Ardbegs." That's what he did, and it produced the acclaimed new Ardbeg Ten.
They all thought that I was going crazy!
My son Ruaridh filled cask No. 1.
Did you hire a famous designer?
Are you going to change anything in the future?
The three bottlings are completely different. We wanted three 'cuvées' to suit whatever mood you were in. I would say the 10 year old is apéritif and the 15 year old contemplative, while the 20
year old is digestive. None is coloured, nor chill-filtered, nor homogenized and all are 100% natural. These were the first releases and first editions of those ages. The next editions (to be released in May) will be
different. We don't want to be banging on about the same thing all the time!
What I can say is that we won't vat old and new Bruichladdichs together.
I bought some Sauternes casks from Château Yquem - first fill, of course.
Bruichladdich aged (and not just finished) in Yquem casks should be fantastic! We bought some Madeira casks as well, and different sherries: Fino, Amontillado, Pedro Ximenez as well.
By the way, will your Bruichladdich Madeira Wood taste like Glenmorangie's?
Some say it will be quite heavily peated.
In 1998, Jim Beam Brands let the Distillery run for a month, just to let it run. You need some feints from a former distillation to do that. The
only feints they had at the time were heavily peated. It wasn't planned, it was an accident! When Simon, Gordon, Jim and myself tasted the results, we found it was excellent. Not medicinal at all, and very sophisticated, thanks to
Bruichladdich's stills.
It's a former distillery, which
was closed 80 years ago. Octomore will be our most heavily peated malt; we'll only produce it to check what our stills will give with malts rating up to 60 PPM!
Once again, a good still is the most important thing.
Good stills always produce good whisky.
On every bottle of Murray McDavid or Bruichladdich, one can read "Clachan A Choin".
What does this mean?
Is it Gaelic?
Literally, it means "The Dog's Bollocks" ;-)
But it also means "Really Good" - it's one of those expressions that don't really translate into a foreign language... When we say something is REALLY good, we have a
number of phrases that we use: 'the cat's pyjamas', 'the cat's whiskers', etc. Putting 'Clachan A Choin' on our bottles was just to emphasise our status as 'enfant terrible' of the whisky industry.
And congratulations on both your energy and your passion!
- - -
After this interview, Paul and I had excellent drams with Mark. An old heavily sherried Bruichladdich (not bottled at the moment), and several other Laddies, Lochside 1981, Springbank 1965 and Linkwood 1988, all from Murray McDavid's. They were all superb whiskies… Kind of paradise for any MaltManiac!
Serge Valentin - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Click HERE
for an overview of other articles in MM#2.
Overview of interviews:
Malt Maniacs #1 - Derek M. Gilchrist
Malt Maniacs #2 - Mark Reynier
Malt Maniacs #3 - Raymond Armstrong
Malt Maniacs #4 - Olivier Humbrecht
Malt Maniacs #5 - Keir Sword
Mark offers us tons of refreshing insights in the whisky industry and reveals what we can expect from the Bruichladdich people in the future. The picture at the right shows Mark Reynier (with tie) and Serge (with moustache) enjoying a Murray McDavid Springbank 1965 from not-quite-perfect glassware.