Home of the Black art (Bushmills)
Ireland isn’t normally associated with single malts, but at Bushmills they’re investing heavily in producing outstanding whiskeys. Dominic Roskrowwent there
At the start of every week Colum Egan goes on the internet, looks up his list of oil suppliers, picks up the phone and plays broker for a few hours. And right now, with pressure on oil prices unlikely to ease up, Monday mornings are becoming increasingly important and significant.
Colum is master distiller at Bushmills in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, and while fuel costs affect most companies, they take on an even greater significance at a distillery that produces single malt requiring triple distillation.
âItâs a big investment on the part of the distillery,â he says. âWhile most distilleries require 0.6 to 0.8 litres of fuel to produce a litre of alcohol, here itâs about one litre of fuel. That is between 25 per cent and 66 per cent more. There was a time when we could get a guaranteed price for a year but with the market as volatile as it is now thatâs no longer the case, so I have to do it on a weekly basis.
âWe use about 60,000 litres of heavy fuel every week and so we are at the mercy of the oil markets. Itâs one clear reason why it is hard to compete over price with many other whiskeys. We have higher costs.â
Bushmills sits close to what is widely regarded as one of the worldâs great sights, the Giantâs Causeway, some 40 minutes north of Belfast. It is a pretty, virtually selfcontained distillery, and it boasts the worldâs first whiskey-producing licence. It was granted in 1608 though the folk at Irish Distillers will claim that whiskey .....
To read the rest of this article you can buy this issue
or subscribe to Whisky Magazine to have every issue delivered direct to your door.
You can unlock and read this entire article with 1 of your community tokens by clicking here.
By Dominic Roskrow
Section : Distillery Focus
Page number : 34
