BBC Documentaries

The Whisky Dream (2008x54)

Air date: Jan 15, 2008

This new documentary takes a side-ways look at one of Scotland's highest profile industries, Scotch whisky production. The Whisky Dream, made by Demus Productions, is a wry look at the amazing tale of two English wine merchants Mark and Mary Reynier, who together with Gaelic speaking islanders Jim McEwan and Duncan MacGillivray, embarked on a venture some whisky purists dubbed ‘a hair-brained scheme’. In December 2000, eccentric vintner Mark Reynier overcame astonishing odds to raise the £7.5million needed to buy Bruichladdich, one of the world’s last 19th Century malt whisky distilleries. Aiming to recreate a malt whisky which ‘died’ with American Prohibition in 1929, they have further ‘stirred the pot’ in the whisky industry by, controversially, using a wide variety of wine casks to mature the spirit. The Whisky Dream witnesses through their eyes the birth of the first new Scottish single malt for a decade, debunks some whisky mythology and goes behind the marketing hype to uncover the art of the master blender. MD of the company Mary Reynier says: “We’ve created something new, brought into the world something that’s never been seen…And we’ve created it ourselves.”