CAOL ILA WHISKY
<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=168 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="03fa11c3.gif"> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="19f7a790.gif" border=0 width="122" height="121" ALT="CAOL ILA MUSIC" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CAOL ILA "><U><B><U>HOME</U></B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id16.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ABOUT US"><U><B><U>ABOUT US</U></B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CELEBRATIONS"><U><B><U>CELEBRATIONS</U></B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="LAMENTATIONS"><U><B><U>LAMENTATIONS</U></B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id47.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SCOTCH"><U><B><U>SCOTCH</U></B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SITEMAP"><U><B><U>SITEMAP</U></B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="JOIN"><U><B><U>JOIN</U></B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="mailto:info@caolila.org.uk" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:info@caolila.org.uk"><U><B><U>CONTACT US</U></B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id35_guestbook.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="JOIN"><U><B><U>GUESTBOOK</U></B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="19f7a790.gif" border=0 width="122" height="121" ALT="CAOL ILA MUSIC" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#339933" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B><U>CAOL ILA MUSIC | </U></B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CAOL ILA "><U><B><U>home</U></B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id47.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SCOTCH"><U><B><U>SCOTCH</U></B></U></A><B><U> | </U></B><A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ISLAY WHISKY"><U><B><U>ISLAY WHISKY</U></B></U></A><B><U> | </U></B><B><U>CAOL ILA WHISKY</U></B><B><U> | </U></B><A HREF="id48.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="WHISKY LINKS"><U><B><U>WHISKY LINKS</U></B></U></A><B><U> | </U></B><A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ABSINTHE"><U><B><U>ABSINTHE</U></B></U></A><B><U> | </U></B><A HREF="id62.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TOXICOLOGY REVIEW"><U><B><U>TOXICOLOGY REVIEW</U></B></U></A></div> <div> <B><IMG SRC="21bc1a80.jpg" border=0 width="193" height="168" ALT="CAOL ILA" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <div> <B>CAOL ILA DISTILLERY</B></div> <div> <B>PORT ASKAIG, ISLAY, ARGYLL</B></div> <div> <B>Owners:</B></div> <div> <B>SCOTTISH MALT DISTILLERs LTD</B></div> <div> <B>TRINITY RD ELGIN</B></div> <div> <B>IV30 IUF</B></div> <div> <B>Licensees:</B></div> <div> <B>BULLOCH, LADE </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#009900" FACE="Arial" ><B>& Co </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#009900" FACE="Arial" ><B>LTD</B></FONT></div> <div> <B>75 HOPE STREET</B></div> <div> <B>GLASGOW G2 6AW</B></div> <div> <B>Manager:</B></div> <div> <B>GRANT CARMICHAEL </B><B>Telephone: </B><B>049684 207</B></div> <div> <B>(Visits to the distillery should be arranged through SMD at the Elgin office. </B><B>Telephone: 0343 7891.)</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="222ba7f0.jpg" border=0 width="698" height="383" ALT="DISTILLERY DRAWING" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>Caol Ila can only be approached from the CA846, where it is clearly signposted just over the back of the hill from Port Askaig. The switchback road descends behind the distillery and runs along the front of the Victorian warehouse, the only remnant of the original block before the rebuilding of the 1970s. In terms of </B><B>efficiency </B><B>the programme was a success, with the very latest plant</B></div> <div> <B>installed and sea water heat exchangers employed to cool the water from the condensers. In all, over f I million was spent with four new stills added to the original pair in a glass-fronted stillhouse looking out over the Sound to Jura.</B></div> <div> <B>Grant Carmichael is always on hand to show visitors round the plant. A tour of the main building quickly familiarises the visitor with all the articles used in a modern </B><B>distillery of this type. Oregon pine washbacks stand adjacent to the mashtun, both under the supervision of the mashman and brewer, who maintains complete control over the operation from a central console situated on the topmost floor of the mashroom. The massive washbacks are impressive, especially to peer into when empty, but this immaculate room cannot bear comparison to the stillhouse, which is best entered on the uppermost level from the mashroom. A line of six huge gleaming copper stills meets you, their lyne arms stretching back towards the rear of the room creating a dramatic contrast with the scenery viewed through the front of the stillhouse. Despite the intimidating size of the stills, control is again completely centralised from a panel set just behind the </B><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#009900" FACE="Arial" ><B>middle pair of stills. There can be a few shop floors in Scotland quite like this one.</B></FONT></div> <div> <B>The offices are set apart from the stillhouse with Grant's poised literally over </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#009900" FACE="Arial" ><B>the sea wall. The 'bay' window aptly describes the view from here. Visitors never leave without being offered a dram of B & L'Gold Label', or for the fortunate, a rare taste of pure Caol Ila malt, a gesture which fairly improves the outlook on the foulest of days. (The association with Bulloch, Lade was re-established when the distillery was licensed by SMD once more under the name of the firm which had once owned it.) The old</B></FONT></div> <div> <B>warehouse is also visible from here and is gradually being stripped of the awful whitewash which covered its entire surface, revealing a rich red-brick facade.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="21db4fa0.gif" border=0 width="180" height="250" ALT="BOTTLES" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Caol Ila is built in the next cove to Freeport, where in 1772, Pennant found the miner Freebairn, who had been smelting lead there since 1763. The waterfall behind the distillery which supplies Caol Ila comes from the same source which Freebairn used. These historical associations are hard to imagine against the blatantly modern design of Caol Ila, but despite this it remains one of the </B><B>most rewarding to visit, not least for its location. One of Islay's other distillery managers described it enviously as 'a cracking distillery.'</B></div> <div> <B>Jura lies across the Sound, a short ferry ride away from Port Askaig. This was the major droving halt well into the 19th Century for all the cattle leaving Islay. John MacCulloch aptly described the mayhem that met him when he took the ferry to Feolin in 1824:</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="221fad30.jpg" border=0 width="250" height="211" ALT="LABEL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <I><B>The shore was covered with </B></I><I><B>cattle; and while some were collected in groups </B></I><I><B>under </B></I><I><B>the trees and rocks, crowding to avoid the hot rays of a July evening, others were wading </B></I><I><B>in </B></I><I><B>the sea to shun the flies, some embarking, and another set swimming on shore from the ferryboats; while the noise of the drovers and the boatmen, and all the bustle and vociferation which whisky did not tend to diminish, were re-echoed </B></I><I><B>from </B></I><I><B>hill to hill, contrasting strangely with the silence and solitude of the </B></I><I><B>surrounding mountain. </B></I><I><B>The disembarkation formed a most extraordinary spectacle. I had seated myself with my back to the </B></I><I><B>horned company, </B></I><I><B>meditating thoughts oblivious of </B></I><I><B>bulls and boats alike, when I was startled by a </B></I><I><B>plunge under </B></I><I><B>my nose, on which uprose from </B></I><I><B>bottom of the deep a cow, and with such a bound as almost to clear the entire surface. For an instant I </B></I><I><B>forgot myself, and thought it was the very Water Bull of which I had heard. The very </B></I><I><B>long minute </B></I><I><B>that intervened between the plunge of each and its reappearance above the water, as they were all thrown over in succession, was almost awful; </B></I><I><B>and </B></I><I><B>their extreme buoyancy was indicated by the elastic and forcible spring with which they rose above the surface, to fall back again into the sea.</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>And this was 6 years after the Stent Committee limited the amount of whisky allowed to the ferrymen to a single mutchkin, or 3/4 of an English pint for every 30 head of cattle ferried! Before 1818, their allowance was unlimited, and the Stent Committee eventually decided that this was `. . . often injurious to the cattle and the proprietors thereof, ` - what about the ferrymen?</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="COPYRIGHT INFORMATION"><U><I><B><U>© INFORMATION</U></B></I></U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>