The remote Hebridean isle of Islay has an almost otherworldly quality about it. For centuries, this eerily beautiful and beguiling postage stamp of Scotland produced whiskies that elevated some of the world’s most well-known blended malts. In recent years, however, Islay has stepped out from the shadows and become one of the most lauded single malt regions in the world – a position cemented this month when a cask of Ardbeg sold for a record-breaking £16 million.   So just how did this small whisky-producing region become the most collectable name in the world?  Adam Hannett started working as Head Distiller at Bruichladdich, on the southwestern tip of the island, in 2006. He says the difference between Islay, and Islay whisky, then and now is “pretty transformative”. When he joined Bruichladdich, the Victorian distillery was six years into what would become one of the greatest distillery revivals the whisky industry has ever seen.   “Inside the distillery gates, we were at the beginning of our journey,” the Head Distiller tells me. This journey included distilling an organic spirit, running barley experiments and bringing barley-growing back to Islay. The latter, Hannett says, has “changed the landscape of the island completely”. He adds: “Gordon, our Assistant Distillery Manager, talks about how we’ve turned fields golden, which sounds a bit cheesy, but it’s true.”  Journey due east and you’ll find Bowmore – Islay’s oldest and one of its most coveted single malt producers located in the island’s capital. David Turner, who was born and raised on the island, has worked at the distillery for 30 years – for the past 10 as Distillery Manager.   “Thirty years ago we were producing a lot of our spirit for bulk, for blending purposes, and we had a few thousand tourists a year,” he tells me. “We probably had one full-time visitor centre manager and a couple of seasonal tour guides that would come on for the summer.  “I think we’ve now got nine full-time staff in our visitor centre who do tours all year round and we’ve moved away from bulk blended whisky to just being a single malt specialist now.”  During Turner’s career at Bowmore, the distillery has transformed from a lesser-known producer to one of the most collectable names in Scotch whisky. Black Bowmore, Turner says, “put us on the map for being collectable”.  “When we took these samples out the casks, the whisky colour was black,” he says, “the quality was phenomenal.”  This discovery was made in the 1990s, around the same time as the wider whisky world started to take notice of Islay after whisky writer Michael Jackson shone a spotlight on the island’s quality in his pivotal work, Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch.   As a region, Islay has faced hardship and several distilleries have been temporary or permanent casualties. Port Ellen, one of Scotland’s so-called “Holy Trinity” of lost distilleries, is arguably the most well-known victim, closing its doors after the downturn in 1983. Ardbeg was also shuttered in 1991 and was saved by the grace of God (Glenmorangie) in 1997. Today, the region is booming and the number of producers has reached a healthy nine. This number will increase when Port Ellen is resurrected by owners Diageo imminently – an announcement met with unfettered excitement last year. These closures and shifting paradigms have created a thrilling market for collectors, as whisky enthusiasts search for bottlings from bygone eras. The 1950s through to 1970s is of keen interest as whisky was being produced on a much smaller scale via traditional methods.  Traditionally, Islay was associated with peated whisky. For a time, distillers like Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg competed against one another to see who could produce the biggest peat bombs on the market, which divided opinion. Bruichladdich blew all the others out the water when it released Octomore 6.3 in 2015, which registered 258 phenol parts per million (the scale used to determine the peat levels of whisky). For context, prior to that release, the highest peat levels were circa 167 PPM, also from Bruichladdich.   “I think there’s a hugely diverse range of flavour in the whiskies being produced across Islay at the moment,” Bruichladdich’s Hannett tells me. “It makes defining an ‘Islay’ whisky quite challenging as there’s so much variety from one distillery to the next.   “The general public almost expects a heavy smoke, almost medicinal flavour from an Islay whisky but even within our heavily peated Port Charlotte range, we have quite a soft, heathery, barbecue smoke.”    “Islay is famous for its peated whiskies but Bowmore is not all about peated,” Turner adds. “Bowmore sits in the middle of Islay. The north of Islay is very, very lightly peated. The south is very heavily peated. We’re in between the north and the south in peating levels. We see ourselves, and call ourselves, mid-peated, or a perfectly balanced Islay whisky.”  The people of Islay – Ileachs to give them their proper name – are integral to the whisky industry on the Hebridean island. Many of the Master Distillers and Blenders are locals and the vast majority of the production team hails from the island with an average population of 3,000 people. One of the most famous Ileachs is Jim McEwan who started his career at Bowmore, where he later worked as Distillery Manager before he left to lead Bruichladdich’s resurrection in 2000. McEwan came out of retirement to spearhead independent bottler Hunter Laing & Co’s new £12 million Islay distillery, Ardnahoe, saying it was an offer he could not refuse and beyond his wildest dreams.    The distillery, located on a four-acre plot on Islay’s northern coast, between Caol Ila and Bunnahabhain, overlooking the Isle of Jura, became the ninth working distillery on the island when it opened in 2019. McEwan designed the pot stills, mash tun and mucked in with every aspect of production to create a new-make whisky that he says is everything he looks for from a classic Islay: fruit, flower, sweet notes from the mash tun, baked cereal notes, smoky flavour from the peat, and bracken, heather and wild plants from the bog land. McEwan says the spirit he’s produced at Ardnahoe is as good as anything he’s tasted in 56 years.    Islay is at an interesting point in its history. New distilleries are opening, lost names are coming back to life, and many of the old guard are reaching retirement and are being replaced by younger distilling talent. There, arguably, has never been a more interesting time in its whisky-producing history.    Hannett, who is on the younger side, says: “I’m excited to see how distilleries can continue to adapt to support the local community. We’ve got a special thing here, with a booming industry and nine working distilleries.”  Turner picks up the point: “It’s good to see the old distilleries are still thriving. The new ones have got a good future as well but they’ve got a good number of years before they get a good standard core range." He adds: “A good Islay whisky I would say is between 12, 15 to 18 years. So they’ve got a good few years to get to that, never mind becoming collectable.”  Turner has quietly been amassing a collection of his own since the early 1990s. “I was in since the very beginning,” he says. “I was lucky to be in at the right time and I’ve got a big collection. It’s not just quantity or some of the new releases. It’s old and rare and quality I’ve based mine on.”  Initially, Turner collected Bowmore and slowly started adding other Islay and Scotch limited releases to his collection. As interest in whisky grew, the Distillery Manager rejigged his collection to focus on Islay malts – at one point exclusively Bowmore, Laphroaig and Lagavulin. After a period of selling certain bottlings to buy other, more expensive ones, Turner now has an exclusively Bowmore collection. He doesn’t elaborate on this but he does add: “Aye, it’s got smaller but it’s got more quality and rarity attached to it.” One suspects it is quite something to behold.  As for his distillery, Turner says Bowmore has got “good quality stuff maturing” and “some good aged stocks”. “We were family-owned up until 1994 and the family and the directors at the time had good insight. They kept good aged stocks, so we’ve got good 30s, 40s, 50s – 51, 52-year-old whisky – maturing. This good aged stock will keep the collectability going.”  With impressive aged stocks slumbering at Bowmore and its neighbours, there’ll undoubtedly be more records broken in the coming years from this enchanting Scottish isle.    Explore all our Islay whiskies or read more Editorial 

Islay has cast its spell over the whisky cognoscenti for decades, driving independent and distillery bottlings ever higher. Holly Motion explores how this small Scottish island has bewitched fans and become the gold standard of whisky collectability  

Exploring why single malt whiskies from the remote Hebridean island of Islay have become the gold standard of collectability with Bruichladdich and Bowmore

Exploring Islay whisky’s popularity

The enchanting isle of Islay

Screaming Eagle winemaker Nick Gislason wears many hats – he is also the Technical Director of Lopez Island Community Fireworks and co-founder of Hanabi Lager. FONDATA's Gavin Lucas caught up with the busy man to discuss how these dichotomous ventures have more in common than you might think.

Screaming Eagle's Nick Gislason on winemaking, beer brewing (Hanabi Lager) and designing fireworks (Island Community Fireworks)

FONDATA: Curiosity & Wonder: Magic’s Secret Ingredients 

Curiosity and wonder: magic’s secret ingredients

The latest from Latour In the wake of last week’s launch of the 2016 vintage of the First Growth’s third wine, Pauillac de Latour, the Pauillac powerhouse will be releasing the 2013 vintage of the Grand Vin, as well as 2015 Les Forts de Latour, its second wine. The 2013 is only the second vintage of the Grand Vin that the property has released since it moved away from en primeur – and there’s no doubt, despite the vintage’s sometimes maligned reputation, that this is going to be highly sought-after. New from Champagne March brings with it a bounty of fine fizz releases. Top of our wish-list are the new wines from Henri Giraud – a House that produces small volumes of outstanding, terroir-driven wines, almost all of which are oak-fermented (and is, for that reason, often compared favourably to Krug). We’ll see the latest release of its multi-vintage cuvée (described by Jancis Robinson MW as “a sort of Montrachet of Champagne”) and the new, 2013 vintage of their top wine, Argonne. Keep an eye out also for 2007 Bollinger R.D. and Pol Roger’s 2012 Sir Winston Churchill.  Single-farm spirits The unfailingly modish and exciting Irish distillery Waterford has been making waves in recent weeks, having scientifically proven terroir’s influence in whisky. This month will see the latest spirits from the Irish distillery released – two single-farm single malts that offer a chance for you to explore the concept yourself. One comes from Hook Head – a site on the southern coast with clay-loam soils, while the other hails from Lakefield, with deep loam soils in County Laois. Burgundy There are still a few 2019s emerging from the Côte d’Or – including wines from Domaine des Lambrays and Le Grappin. Clos des Lambrays was a stand-out from our trip in October last year, while Aussie Andrew Nielsen’s Le Grappin wines (a darling of London’s restaurant scene) offer brilliant value year in, year out. The 2021 collection from Maison Leroy has almost entirely sold out, however we’ll also see the latest releases from the rest of Lalou Bize-Leroy’s empire – Domaine Leroy and Domaine d’Auvenay. Available, as ever, in tiny volumes, these are some of the world’s most collectable wines, and unmissable for Burgundy aficionados. Italian icons After a series of superlative 2016s from Brunello, Tuscany is on the mind. While Castello di Ama’s 2017 San Lorenzo is already available, the 2018 vintage of the Chianti Classico property’s flagship wine, L’Apparita, will be released in the coming weeks. Tasting through a selection of the range with our team, CEO Lorenza Sebasti told us that she and winemaker Marco Pallanti feel it’s “the best we’ve ever made”. We’ll also see the new vintage of Ornellaia’s entry-level bottling – Le Volte dell’Ornellaia, which provides an affordable and earlier-drinking taste of this Super Tuscan estate, ahead of the release of Ornellaia “proper” in April.

A new month brings another flurry of fine wine and spirits releases. While Bordeaux en primeur is on the horizon, March sees new vintages from Latour and the Grandes Marques, as well as releases from Tuscany, Burgundy and Ireland’s most exciting distillery: here’s our pick of the bunch

A new month brings another flurry of fine wine and spirits releases. Here, we pick the best of the bunch – from Latour, Castello di Ama, Waterford and more 

The wines and spirits to look out for this March

What to look out for this March

Just over 25 years ago, French fashion house CHANEL entered into the world of fine wine, purchasing the largely underperforming Margaux Second Growth estate Château Rauzan-Ségla. Two years later they acquired the Saint-Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classé, Château Canon. They have since turned these properties into two of the most in-demand fine wines in Bordeaux today. In 2019 CHANEL embraced their latest endeavour, acquiring Domaine de l’Ile, a prestigious wine estate on the French riviera on the exclusive island of Porquerolles, the largest of the “golden” islands just off the Côte d'Azur. Sharing the same philosophy as their sister wineries, they have invested in a stellar winemaking team at the Domaine, enlisting the help of Pierre Etcheberry and celebrated winemaker Nicolas Audebert (of Châteaux Rauzan-Ségla and Canon). Nicolas Audebert is in fact a local to the region, born and raised in the nearby port city and naval base of Toulon. We caught up with him to discuss returning to his roots in Provence and to find out what makes this idyllic island so well-suited to fine wine production. “I was born in Toulon. My father was a naval officer, so we used to travel a lot, living in different countries, but we would always return to Provence. Porquerolles is a very special place to me as we would spend time sailing there with friends and family.  Probably my strongest memory of when we were kids is sailing with my family and spending nights “au mouillage” on the Notre Dame beach. My brother and I would wake up early in the morning with a mission:  buying some bread in the village. We would spend the whole morning walking on the back trails, discovering the island and its incredible nature, guided by the eucalyptus perfume to finally reach the Place d’Armes, where the bakery is. By the time we were back on the boat, it was lunchtime.  As a child, Porquerolles was the epitome of nature and freedom.   My travels and the great outdoors are part of my DNA, that’s why I decided to study Agronomy and then Oenology in Montpellier. Winemaking took me to Champagne, South America, Bordeaux... Today, coming back to Porquerolles is like coming back to my roots - and making wine there is the icing on the cake.”  The history of Domaine de l’Ile The island of Porquerolles is a place of idyllic beauty with a fascinating history. First inhabited in 1820, the island was largely destroyed by a devastating fire at the end of the 19th Century, before being auctioned off in 1910. The island was acquired in its entirety by François Joseph Fournier, who as Nicolas explains, “was a man of many lives”; the son of a poor Belgian boatman, he became fabulously rich thanks to his discovery of the largest seam of gold ever found in Mexico. Fournier was the sole bidder in the auction of the island, which was a wedding gift to his wife, Sylvia. They actually established vines on the island almost immediately, planting vineyards on different strategic plains of Porquerolles. Under their visionary and watchful eye, the island reclaimed its agricultural character. It sprung back to life; an oasis in the middle of the Mediterranean. The vines populated its gentle slopes and fuelled the chatter in the village. The vineyards were in fact some of the first in the region to be classified as Côtes de Provence, due to the quality of the wine produced. In 1957, the island was divided up between the four Fournier daughters; each one received a plain. Progressively, three of them sold their inheritance to the French government, but Lélia Le Ber (neé Fournier), fought to keep her land and replanted vines on the Brégançonnet plain.  She passed on the estate to her son, Sébastien Le Ber, who managed the family business before entrusting the site to CHANEL, opening a new chapter in the story of Domaine de l’Ile.  From the Classed Growths of Margaux and Saint-Emilion to Provence Asked why CHANEL decided to invest in a new winery, and in particular in Domaine de l’Ile, Nicolas explains that it was "love at first sight" with this island vineyard in the heart of Provence, its special terroir, the Le Ber’s philosophy of Porquerolles and their unique history. “As we took over Domaine de l’Ile in early 2019, Pierre Etcheberry joined the estate’s team as Vineyard Manager. Pierre has an Agricultural Engineering degree and spent three years at Château La Fleur in Bordeaux as Assistant Technical Director.  At Domaine de l’Ile he is now in charge of the winemaking, vine growing and day-to-day management. Pierre stays in touch closely with the teams in Bordeaux, and they visit regularly whenever their support is needed.”   In the vineyard The individual parcels of Domaine de l’Ile were delimited and planted in 1957. While Porquerolles shares similarities with Provençal rosé in terms of the soils and climate, it remains unique because of the insularity specificities, explains Nicolas. “Being an island, Porquerolles has a unique ecosystem: vines grow on orogenic schist bedrock and clay soils, vines are surrounded by wild and protected fragrant flora, under a warm Mediterranean climate and are exposed to fresh saline winds.  The unique environment of the vineyard has a real influence on Porquerolles wines. Surrounded by the sea, growing on an exceptional soil under seasonal high temperatures and exposed to salty winds, the Porquerolles vines produce wines of character with a fresh tension and saline notes. Pine trees, eucalyptus and wild flowers frame our parcels, this very rich naturally odorous environment finds its illustration in our wines, in delicate flavours.” “The blend of grapes in the Domaine de l’Ile rosé is made up of Grenache, Mouvèdre, Cinsault, Syrah and Tibouren.” For Nicolas, these traditional Mediterranean grape varieties express all the uniqueness and insularity of the Domaine de l’Ile wines. “On dry and stony soils, enduring the wind, gorged with sun, the Grenache brings generosity to the blend, a reminder of the sweetness of local life. The Mourvèdre likes to watch the sea. It affirms all its character here and adds its grains of spice. A window opens on the pine forest. The white flesh fruits of Cinsault combine with the freshness and crispness of Syrah. As for the Tibouren, authentic Provençal, it is at home here, deploying its nobility on these shale soils.”  Life on Porquerolles The idyllic picture postcards of the island don’t lie; Porquerolles is exceptionally beautiful. Such landscapes are due to its protection, conservation and very real isolation. During summer, thousands of visitors discover the good life of Porquerolles, exploring the local restaurants, community and the beautiful coastline by walking, biking or sailing. But once the high tourist season ends, nature takes back its rights. Spring is sweet but autumn and winter can be difficult. To live on Porquerolles is a real philosophy of life, a desire of being out of “the continent”, a place where time flows slowly.  Finally, we asked Nicolas’ thoughts on rosé wine more generally and where and when best to enjoy it. “Rosé is the traditional wine of Provence, a region that has nothing left to prove. It designates wines of incredible diversity that can be found on the most prestigious restaurant wine lists all around the world.  From the ones to be enjoyed between friends over a simple supper, to some brilliant and complex expressions of terroir paired with more elaborate menus. For me, when spring begins to bloom, and temperatures rise, opening a bottle of a rosé wine offers you a promise, a foretaste of the coming summer. And in autumn, or even in winter, it will put a smile on your face, as an opportunity to remember the joy and pleasure of the long-gone summertime. Ultimately rosé is the ideal summer wine to share at the end of warm days." Browse Editorial

We speak to winemaker Nicolas Audebert about Domaine de l'Ile, CHANEL's latest wine venture on the island of Porquerolles, just off the Côte d'Azur

Winemaker Nicolas Audebert on Domaine de l'Ile, CHANEL's latest wine venture on the island of Porquerolles, just off the Côte d'Azur

Domaine de l'Ile, CHANEL's latest wine venture

Nicolas Audebert returns to his roots with Domaine de l'Ile

We can't ignore what is going on in Europe and the rest of the world right now. After four weeks in lockdown, how are you and your team coping? Can you still work in the vineyards? 
The rhythm of life in the countryside has always been slower compared to the cities, so we are quite used to living a bit far from the modern rush, even if we are worried and we read and follow the news. Mother Nature keeps rolling and we follow the cycle of vineyards with precautions and care of our people: we just finished the pruning and today we had a snow storm that nicely covered our vineyards before Spring arrives. 
Do you have any advice for those of us just starting quarantine? Well, after 15 days of quarantine we have seen that the most important thing is to feed our souls with good food and good wine! We Italians are spending time slow cooking old “grandma” recipes and baking cakes and of course drinking fantastic wines. What are the latest updates at the Aurora winery? All the refurbishments of the historical building are in standby because of the lockdown but the winery is active. We are currently blending our 2018 Testamatta and Colore, released in September 2020.  Italian fine wine has been going through the most amazing renaissance, certainly helped by some fantastic vintages. In your opinion, what have been the key reasons behind the rise in quality? Italy is a beautiful country that has one the highest number of indigenous
varieties in the world which gives us an amazing rainbow of different beautiful wine expressions. If you blend this with the “passion” for what Italians are very well known for, the result will be an amazing and fascinating wine scene that’s seducing more and more wine lovers. On top of this we have been blessed with three top vintages in the last four, 2015 and 2016 are probably within the best I have ever made, the purity of the grapes results in a perfect balance between elegance and structure. And then the magical 2018, I still remember the beauty of the vineyards and my decision to let the vines grows without any human interaction.  The result today is wine with incredible perfumes and freshness, rich of finesse and fruit that definitely position this vintage amongst the greatest I've made. Fermenting the wines in barrel is a key element to Testamatta and Colore. What does this method bring to the wine? The first reason why I came across this vinification method is because of my vineyards: I’m
totally in love with old vines and today I have the biggest collection of rare and beautiful vineyards in Tuscany. Working with such old vineyards means you have to think out of the box, each single vine is followed individually and the harvest proceed plant to plant, parcel to parcel filling one barrel after the other. The result is amazing, from one vineyard of Sangiovese we can obtain multiple expression of Sangiovese, one for each barrel and each one with different nuances and shades. So when at the end of the aging we start blending
these barrels, the magic happens, you can imagine the complexity and the layers of the wines! 
What vintages are you enjoying to drink right now?  2016 vintage has been austere and full of richness since the vinification, now after almost 4 years from the harvest it is my favourite wine glass to enjoy what Sangiovese, Canaiolo and
Colorino can do in Tuscany. Every time I open a bottle I’m impressed! What other wines are you enjoying in your confinement?  During our steady lockdown we can’t move and shop, so I’m forced to dig into my private cellar and open some very old bottles of Colore and Testamatta. I also found a couple of old cases of 20 year old Champagne which found its way to our table but also enjoy our
Bollamatta “crazy-bubble” Sangiovese sparkling, very fun and full of joy!
 What is your favorite song that you are listening to at the moment? Music is always on in the kitchen and it goes from the Abba to Queen, passing through jazz and blues. Explore all Bibi Graetz listings or read more Editorial 

We caught up with Tuscan wine maverick Bibi Graetz who provided some much-needed escapism in the form of his new video which captures the halcyon days of the 2019 harvest on the island of Giglio

Bibi Graetz on the Italian wine renaissance, his fascination with old vines and his flagship Testamatta and Colore wines.

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