Occasionally, a light sediment or deposit may form in certain bottlings of Bruichladdich depending on storage and maturation conditions. Bruichladdich is bottled at the distillery – Islay’s only bottling hall – where it is bottled naturally with no intervention to provide the maximum flavour for the consumer.

 

There is no chill-filtration, an industrial process to remove the potential for sediment or haze in bottled whisky or wine. By chilling the whisky to -5 ºC, followed by an aggressive high pressure plaque filtration, compounds that may visually detract from a limpid product are removed. These are also the flavour compounds. Our whiskies are bottled at either the full cask strength or diluted with exceptionally pure Islay Spring water to a bottling strength of 46% alc/vol – 6% higher than most whiskies to provide more flavour.

 

Bruichladdich do not add colouring of any kind to disguise the naturally occurring flavours or colour derived from cask maturation. Bruichladdich uses only a gentle, light filtration immediately prior to bottling to remove any larger particles from the cask.(eg. cask fragments, charcoal flakes etc.) There are two forms of naturally occurring haze or sediment that may occur in non chill-filtered whiskies like Bruichladdich   if exposed to low temperature conditions that simulate those of chill-filtration.  

 

Firstly, a haze is caused by the long-chained fatty acids, an important flavour providing group of compounds, joining together to the extent that they become visible. Once the whisky regains room temperature, the haze will disappear.

 

Secondly, small, white crystals may sometimes precipitate after bottling. These naturally forming acid crystals (similar to Tartaric Acid crystals that occur in non chill-filtered fine wines) come from casks that contained Sherry. They are more predominant in older whisky with longer Sherry cask maturation. Though unattractive to the inexperienced consumer, they confirm that the whisky has been matured in genuine Sherry casks rather than using artificial colouring to simulate sherry cask maturation. A vigorous shaking of the bottle will cause the crystals to disappear. They do not affect the flavour, nor are they harmful to the consumer.

 

At Bruichladdich we prefer the greater flavour of natural whisky, even if it may contain a small amount of naturally occurring sediment, to cosmetically produced whiskies which have been chill-filtered with artificial colouring added to them. Bruichladdich Distillery, certificate by the preceding that neither of the two types of sediments affect the flavour of the whisky, nor are harmful to the consumer in any way.