While the Bruichladdich Distillery on Islay has been highly successful since its management buy-out and vigorous new marketing, whisky speciaists are asking whether the astonishing frequency with which the distillery launches new products on the market may be unwise.

October saw the launch of the six whiskies in its First Growth Series and then the announcement of the Resurrection Dram.

Now the distillery is launching four more unique whiskies:

• Octomore, the most heavily peated ever made – all 6,000 bottles are already sold
• Bruichladdich x4 – a quadruple-distilled whisky used to fiel a car driven by Top Gear’s James May at the distillery earier in the year – all of its 6,000 bottles are also already sold
• Bruichladdich DNA – a bottling of 36 year old whisky remainig in almost-empty casks of Bruichladdich from the 1960s and 1970s. And yes – all 6,000 bottles are already sold.
• Bruichladdich PC7 – the third bottling and packaged in six different tins, each featuring members of staff at the distillery.

The consistent success of Bruichladdich with its persistent innovations in whisky design is very good news for Islay. However, the words ‘goose’ and ‘golden eggs’ are giving experts growing anxiety.