I always thought it was Bree"ch"laddie.

Next you'll be telling us that "ghoti" is pronounced "fish".

Oh, hang on, it is.

Really? Are you sure? That goes against the way ch is pronounced in every other Gaelic word. Not that I know Gaelic mind, so willing to be corrected.

You'd best go and tell the people who run the distillery then – when I went to a party there as part of Islay whisky festival that's how they pronounced it.

Really? Are you sure? That goes against the way ch is pronounced in every other Gaelic word. Not that I know Gaelic mind, so willing to be corrected.

A good starter single malt is Glen Moray, a nice easy drinking speyside, and fairly cheap too.

Laphroig is still my favourite though.

Definately brook-laddie 8)

well I stand corrected then

coat on, door clicked shut.

Glenmorangie is a safe bet, and you can usually get it relatively cheap somewhere – like Sainsbury.

Longmorn is good.

Maybe they weren't Gaelic speakers – I'd say there was a bit of a 'ch' detectable, but it mostly sounded like a 'k'

Bursts back in….

Thinking about it, I reckon Bruichladdich have just said 'Brook-Laddie' on the website to make it easy for erm Americans and such like….I reckon it should be broo-ch with the back of the throat sound, but hey what do I know.

Must be a Gaelic speaker who can give an informed opinion

Yup. Glenmorangie is a safe bet. That's why it would disappoint.

Anyone mentioned Balvenie yet? Always a good allrounder. The came out with a "Golden Cask" one recently, matured in rum barrels. It was yum.

Someone mentioned Aberlor A'bunadh being available for £25 from Waitrose.

That's a serious bargain and a fantastic malt.

Thinking about it, I reckon Bruichladdich have just said 'Brook-Laddie' on the website to make it easy for erm Americans and such like….I reckon it should be broo-ch with the back of the throat sound, but hey what do I know.

There's a debate on this on whisky magazine's forum 😉

http://www.whiskymag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3645

The simplified transliteration "brook laddie" merely reflects the difficulty of explaining to speakers of one language the pronunciation of a word in another. One sees this often with English approximations of Gaelic names.

As far as I'm concerned, the correct pronunciation of the name is the one used by the people who live there, regardless of whether it conforms to the rules of the language of origin. These names are derived from Gaelic; they aren't Gaelic, any more than the capital of my state is St Botolph's Town.

So if Bruichladdich is a word made up by Bruichladdich (which I think it is) and they say it's brook laddie, then brook laddie it is, but if they spelled it that way to make it LOOK gaelic, shouldn't they also pronounced the gaelic way?

If you go for jura the superstition is nice, personal fave is benromach

agree with bigjohn.

IMO discount anything you have heard of.

get something a bit different for him/her to 'try' they dont HAVE to like it, but you might uncover their favourite whisky to date!

listen to this from this site

Steer clear of the big Isla's like Laphroaig, Ardbeg, Caol Isla and Bowmore as they are a very acquired taste. IMO also steer clear of the really major brands like Glenfiddich and Glenmorangie. By definition they put a large amount of their budget into marketing and promotion, rather than the whisky, which is why they are so well known and distributed.

Otherwise any Speyside single malt on offer around £25 in the supermarket will be good. BTW I agree with the comment about Highland Park being overrated

Nothing wrong with glenmorangie, an easy drinking malt as is brook laddie ((my favorite). Anyone who puts malt in christmas cake wants shooting. Oh and singleton is nice – sweet and creamy.

Graham

I was out in Glasgow testing some waters on Saturday, comparing them to my current fave (Ardbeg) and found I enjoy Bruichladdich (pronouced with the first ch from loch and the second as "ick" by the locals and a native speaker in my party) and Talisker, in that order. Jura was OK, very smooth but less flavoursome.

Just got a word back from the distillery:

"Brew-ah-kladdie would be the correct form, yet often the middle 'ah' is absorbed to make broo-kladdie"

Told you 🙂

you just scrape by with an acceptable "told you so" grumm, the actual point was it's "brew-ah-kladdie" but some peolpe choose to condense it. The link explains the derivation of the word. You also have to bear in mind that some people (myself included) pronounce "oo" as "u", which isn't the case here.

springbank?

That goes against the way ch is pronounced in every other Gaelic word.

No expert on Gaelic but it has dialects just as English does so any standard pronunciation is just an approximation of real world usage.

A good starter single malt is Glen Moray, a nice easy drinking speyside, and fairly cheap too.

About £9 a bottle in Aldi; total bargin. We went on the tour there a year or two ago – a really nice little distillery.