Bruichladdich releases ‘Transparency’ Fèis Ìle whisky

Bruichladdich is “highlighting the issue” of transparency in Scotch whisky age components with its Fèis Ìle 2017 special edition bottling.

Bruichladdich’s special edition bottling for Fèis Ìle 2017 is a heavily-peated Port Charlotte

The distillery is offering a no-age-statement heavily-peated Port Charlotte whisky at the Islay Festival of Music and Malt, called Transparency.

Each individually numbered bottle will carry a numerical batch code that buyers can enter into an online system to view the specific cask recipe of Transparency, including the single malt’s different age components.

Bruichladdich has previously used the system for all individual vattings of The Classic Laddie and Port Charlotte Scottish Barley. It will now also be extended to the Octomore OBA Concept.

The distillery said it believes current EU regulations “explicitly support” consumers’ rights to access cask recipes in multi-vintage single malts.

Bruichladdich has expressed its support for Compass Box’s Scotch Whisky Transparency campaign, which was launch early last year after the blender and bottler was called out for allegedly breaking EU laws after listing the proportions of different age components in two of its blends.

Compass Box said in order to offer greater transparency, it would no longer publish the age components of its whiskies, but would offer this information when approached by “interested consumers”.

While Bruichladdich said it supports regulations that state the youngest age in a whisky should appear on the labels of age statement expressions, it believes an “unfortunate interpretation” of EU regulations has “resulted in the recent trend for NAS whiskies”.

“Our philosophy is rooted in authenticity, provenance and traceability,” said Douglas Taylor, CEO of Bruichladdich. “These are not simply lofty ideals or marketing hype. We are determined to deliver them in practice. That means providing you with genuine transparency.

“We are therefore prepared to challenge the comfortable conventions that appear to block our path. We are prepared to stand alone and take on institutionalised thinking. We know this is going to be difficult, but making the world’s most thought provoking whiskies was never going to be easy.

“We are encouraged by the upsurge in interest in transparency in many areas, but particularly among those of you who, like us, love great food and drink. We believe that concealing relevant information is no longer acceptable.”

Bruichladdich’s Transparency edition went on sale on 28 May at an RRP of £100.