Bruichladdich 1970 Valinch 'I Was There' #5079

Like its island neighbour Bunnahabhain distillery, Bruichladdich has traditionally been an un-peated single malt, mostly owing to its requirements by the blenders who owned it. The last of these was Whyte & Mackay, who eventually shut it down in 1995, deeming it surplus to requirements. They sold the distillery to Murray McDavid in 2001, who launched the peated Port Charlotte and heavily-peated Octomore single malts in 2006 and 2008. A recommissioned Lomond still also now produces the popular Botanist gin there.

The Valinch bottlings are 50cl single cask releases, available exclusively from the distillery. More recent versions have also been hand-filled by distillery visitors.

A very rare Bruichladdich available at the Islay Festival in 2001 to mark the 'first distillation of the re-opening of the distillery', on Tuesday 29th May 2001.