A rendering of the new Islay distillery planned by Chivas Brothers.
Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky group owned by French drinks multinational Pernod Ricard, has unveiled plans to build a new distillery on Islay. The distillery will be located on Gartbreck Farm, which Chivas Brothers has acquired. It’s situated just a couple of miles southwest of Bowmore Distillery on the shores of Loch Indaal, facing across the water toward Bruichladdich and Port Charlotte. There is no word yet on the scale of the facility or its opening date, but the focus, unsurprisingly, will be on peated single malt.
Chivas Brothers is the second-biggest distillery owner in Scotland, behind Diageo. The group owns 14 scotch whisky distilleries, including Glenlivet, Scapa, Aberlour, Allt-a-Bhainne, Braeval, Glen Keith, and Longmorn, the lesser-known ones producing whisky for Chivas Regal and the group's other blends. The key Chivas Brothers labels include single malts Glenlivet, Aberlour, and Scapa, as well as blended scotches Chivas Regal, and Royal Salute. Other blended scotches in the group are mainly sold in international markets, and those include Ballantine’s, 100 Pipers, Something Special, and Passport. Both 100 Pipers and Something Special have a major presence in India.
This will be Chivas Brothers' first foray into making Islay whisky, and Gartbreck Farm has been the scene of a distillery project in previous years. In 2014, French distiller Jean Donnay of Glann ar Mor distillery in Brittany won permission to convert the farm into a distillery, complete with its own malting floors. In need of investment support, he turned to independent scotch whisky bottler Hunter Laing, with whom he already had business ties. A complicated partnership ensued, and the deal eventually collapsed due to a series of business differences. Hunter Laing went on to build the Islay distillery Ardnahoe, which is located on the northeast coast of the island by Port Askaig, right across the Sound of Islay from the Isle of Jura. Ardnahoe filled its first cask in 2018.
Fueled by the popularity of peated scotch, Islay has been a beehive of new distillery construction and reconstruction in recent years. Port Ellen Distillery, which was mothballed in 1983, is due to open very soon. The UK-based Elixir Distillers group is working on Portintruan Distillery, which is expected to open next year and will be the island’s 11th distillery. Laggan Bay, a venture by Ian MacLeod and local partners, is in the planning stages and will be the 12th distillery. The Chivas Brothers facility will be the island’s 13th.
