Resurrecting ‘ghost’ whisky distilleries
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2024
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Scotland in the 1980s, a slump in the whisky market brought about the closure of some of the country's most iconic distilleries. These sites become known as 'ghost' distilleries - where spirit production has stopped, but where some stock is still available.
In this programme, Elizabeth Hotson will be discovering why some of these distilleries are now being brought back to life.
She visits the legendary Port Ellen on the Isle of Islay for its much-anticipated re-opening and hears from the master blender there, and she takes a tour of London’s fabled Vintage House.
A whisky writer explains what makes a truly great dram and we learn why investors need to be careful if they’re planning to jump on the whisky bandwagon.
(Picture: A bottle of Port Ellen whisky bottled in 1980. Credit: Elizabeth Hotson/BBC)
Presented and produced by Elizabeth Hotson
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Elizabeth Houghton and in today's Business Daily, I'll be looking at how and why |
| 0:07.5 | ghost whiskey distilleries are being resurrected. |
| 0:11.1 | We're looking to recreate the traditional, the expected flavours of pot-Ellen, similar to in 1983 |
| 0:16.4 | when we close the doors to it. |
| 0:18.5 | We'll hear about the appeal of liquid from long-gone labels. |
| 0:22.2 | Who doesn't love a ghost story? |
| 0:23.5 | And some of these stories are stories of legends, |
| 0:27.0 | stories of things that will never come back. |
| 0:29.1 | And it's a unique position to taste something |
| 0:30.9 | which you know can never be made again. |
| 0:33.4 | And what it takes to make a really special dram. |
| 0:37.3 | It's a tango between the spirit and the drinker. |
| 0:41.9 | The spirit only does half of the job. |
| 0:45.0 | The rest, it's really the mind of the drinker, you know? |
| 0:47.4 | What he imagines, etc., etc. |
| 0:49.4 | So it's all mental cinema, you know. |
| 0:51.8 | This is Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 1:00.3 | I'm in my kitchen, rummaging through the cupboards, looking for my prized possession. |
| 1:06.2 | Ah, found it. |
| 1:08.3 | It's not the deeds to my flat or a signed photo of my favourite singer, Dolly Parton. |
| 1:13.4 | It's a bottle of whiskey. |
| 1:15.1 | But not just any old bottle. |
... |
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