The Maker Bunnahabhain is one of the great Islay distilleries. Founded in 1881 on the shores of the Sound of Islay overlooking Jura, Bunnahabhain (meaning ‘mouth of the river’) has its roots in the original Islay Distillery Company. For decades the distillery was cut off from the rest of the island, with the only way in and out being by sea – hence the image of a helmsman which can still be found on the distillery logo. During those years many distillery workers lived on site

The Maker Edradour distillery was built around 1837, but distillation got underway as part of a farmers co-operative in a nearby barn in 1825. The formation of the co-operative was a product of the recent Excise Act which required stills to be larger in an attempt to prevent distillation at the domestic scale. By joining together local communities were able to make a larger operation work, and thereby supply themselves and others with all the whisky they could drink with plen

The Maker The Octave series is from independent bottler Duncan Taylor. The story of Duncan Taylor goes back nearly 90 years to 1938 where they were founded in Glasgow as a cask brokerage. After several decades blending whiskies and exporting them around the world the company was acquired by an American named Abe Rosenberg. He then unsurprisingly focused on building that business through premiumisation (sounds familiar) by ensuring that every blend produced was made of the bes