Caol Ila on the beautiful Sound of Islay

Islay’s famous whisky industry received a major boost with the announcement last week that Diageo, the world’s leading premium drinks business, is to invest £3.5million in expanding and upgrading its Caol Ila distillery.

The distillery – which enjoys one of the most stunning locations in Scotland on the Sound of Islay and produces one of the island’s iconic Scotch brands – will see its production capacity increased by 700,000 litres per year from 5.7 million litres per annum (mla) to 6.4mla.

The extension of the distillery will see two new 62,000litre washbacks installed in addition to the eight which are already onsite. (Washbacks are the vessels in which the fermentation process takes place prior to distillation. )

It is the new washbacks that will drive the increased production capacity.

The refurbishment of the distillery will see key equipment upgraded, including the replacement of the distillery’s mash tun – a crucial piece of equipment in the distillation process – and a new control system installed in the stillhouse. Caol Ila’s six large onion-shaped copper stills, overlooking the Sound of Islay, are not part of the refurbishment project.

The investment is a major boost to local contractors who will benefit from work on the site as well as generating a knock-on financial benefit to the local economy from contractors who will have to be brought on to the island to carry out aspects of the work. The Caol Ila project builds on £3million which Diageo has already invested in upgrading and developing its Port Ellen Maltings on Islay over the past three years.

The refurbishment work is scheduled to take six months beginning in June, following the Islay Festival. The distillery will be closed to public tours for that period; however, the popular distillery shop will remain open to visitors.

Caol Ila can be obtained from:-

The Whisky Exchange.

Master of Malt.

About Caol Ila

The distillery was established in 1846 near Port Askaig by Hector Henderson, and borrows its Gaelic name from the sea sweeping past its dramatic and almost secret location, squeezed tight between the steep cliff and the sea, hard on the shores of the Sound of Islay with its fast and challenging currents. It was a spot originally chosen in 1846 partly because of the fresh water which still provides its main supply, rising from limestone in nearby Loch nam Ban, then falling to the sea at Caol Ila, just behind the distillery. Before electricity came to the island in the 1940s, this same stream, harnessed to water wheels, lent its motive power to everything in the distillery.