When Risk Becomes Reward: The History of X4

There are two types of people in the world: those that use their life experiences to keep them on the known path – what has proven itself to be safe and reliable – and those who are willing to risk it all in order to see just what else is possible. In the world of business, it is typically the scrapy, independent startups fighting to differentiate themselves and get a share of the market that are best positioned to challenge convention. But in art, there is no one better poised to take their work to the very edges of its limits than a true master. 

You see where this is going. 

Jim McEwan spent thirty-eight years of his life dedicated to learning every aspect of the art of distillation. He began as an apprentice cooper at the age of 16, then became a cellar master, then a trainee blender, and eventually distillery manager and globe-trotting ambassador. By the time the opportunity came for him to join the soon-to-be-reopened Bruichladdich Distillery, the man was already one of the most revered whisky masters in the world. He had seen it all, he had done it all.  

Or so it seemed. But anyone who has met Jim can see straight away he is an artist to the core: a natural-born storyteller; a mischievous imaginateur. Surely then, as proud as he must have been of his rich knowledge, prestige, accomplishments and accolades, his heart must have been aching for something more. 

Along came Bruichladdich and a tantalising proposal. 

Jim, approaching retirement, made the decision to leave his secure job and pension with a stable, multinational corporation, and place his bets on an absolute gamble – all for the chance to fulfill a long-held dream and the opportunity to put his creative mastery to the test. 

The day he walked through the gates of Bruichladdich Distillery for the first time after agreeing to join, he was faced with a ruin of a distillery, and for a moment, thought he’d made the biggest mistake of his life. But onward he ploughed. 

A combination of necessity to raise capital and the unleashing of Jim’s creative genius, immediately led to an array of hitherto unimaginable bottlings: wine cask finishings (not commonly done in the early naughts), Black Art, Octomore, and of course, X4. 

Lynne McEwan, Head of Brand, The Botanist, recounts what the transition was like for her father: “He said once it was as if he were Picasso, but had only ever painted with one colour... and then someone gave him a whole palette. Imagine what he could do!” 

It’s risky enough to release bottlings that fly in the face of a tradition as institutionalised as Scotch whisky. But these risks were mere sparklers compared to the potential bonfire of operatic proportions that was the first distillation of X4. 

“In retrospect, I have to admit that what we were about to do bordered on madness: in a newly refurbished distillery that had already been at the end of its rope, we wanted to distil an 80% spirit once more,” reflects Jim in his autobiography, A Journeyman’s Journey. “Did we have any experience of this? No.  Was it safe?  NO.  Was it necessary?  NO. There were dozens of reasons why this experiment should not be carried out…but that was also the case before the moon landing. There are moments in life when you just have to dare to do something...and this was such a moment.” 

Legend tells it that the impetus for creating a quadruple-distilled spirit was born while McEwan was reading A Description of The Western Isles of Scotland by Martin Martin. In his 17th century account, Martin tells of usquebaugh-baul (Gaelic for perilous whisky): a spirit he describes as so potent that should anyone exceed a dose more than two spoonfuls, it would “presently stop his breath and endanger his life."  

McEwan had already done a triple distillation to 84.5% in 2005 – something fairly common with Irish whisky, but Scotch is almost always only twice distilled. 

On reading this, he hatched a plan. On the day of distillation, he and Neil McTaggart, then stillman, gathered in the stillhouse and ran the liquid through three times, then loaded it into the 125-year-old copper still for a final distillation. Jim recounts the experience in his book:  

"For a moment I was overcome with doubt. What on earth were we doing? The hydrometer showed 85 degrees and an unnatural sound rang out, not a harmonious, soothing sound, but something more threatening, more like a rattle or a clang. That was definitely not a good sign. I took a step back and that’s when I saw it: the still was shaking. Inside, a thunderous storm was raging, ignited by the boiling contents. With each degree more, the elderly interior continued to shake. The pointer went to 86 degrees, 87 degrees... What if the quake couldn’t be controlled? To give the impression that I was in control of the situation, I told Neil to get a water hose, just a case a few drops caught fire. What a load of rubbish! If something were to ignite, it would be a total inferno, in a room with thousands of litres that would burn like fuel. A single spark would be enough to send the good old distilling equipment through the roof, and us along with it on a journey of no return into the infinite reaches of space. 

The scale rose to 88 per cent alcohol. Only one degree more than before, but an uncomfortably more violent trembling of the still could be felt.  

This was getting serious; the rocket launch was obviously imminent. I pulled the emergency brake and shut off the temperature. Nevertheless, it continued to rise to just over 89 degrees. Slowly, with anxious hearts, we went back step by step, with nothing we could do but hope."

And thus, was born the X4. Jim described the liquid off the still as “full of fruity aromas, incredibly complex and multi-layered.” 

The spirit was filled into bourbon and Rivesaltes casks, undiluted. Former Bruichladdich Distillery CEO, Mark Reynier, PR’d the event like mad, inspiring headlines like “Perilous whisky distilled at Bruichladdich”, “Try the 92 per cent weapons-grade whisky that can take your breath away. Literally.”, and “Water of death”. Hyperbole added to hype and the crowds were clamouring for a taste. 

The first distillation of X4 wasn’t released until 2009: an X4+3 years. The first quadruple-distilled spirit to be bottled and sold was, in fact, the X4+1 Deliverance, distilled in 2007 and bottled in May 2008 as a 500ml Fèis Ìle valinch. A number of different distillations and bottle releases happened over the subsequent years. All in all, Bruichladdich has done a quadruple distillation five times. Even so, of the eight releases of X4, five of them have been bottlings of that very first distillation – the X4+18 included. The X4 with the highest ABV to be released was the Octomore X4+10 at 70% and 162ppm. Because... you know... ultra-high ppm just wasn’t enough of a challenge for Octomore. 

To our knowledge, Bruichladdich is the only distillery to ever have released bottles of quadruple-distilled whisky. See the chart at the bottom of the article for details of all X4 bottles released to date.

Despite criticisms from both the SWA and the health lobby on selling such a high-alcohol spirit, the only new spirit to ever be bottled was the X4 distilled in 2008 – the initial ABV of 90% was reduced to 50% for the bottling. 

The news about this 2008 distillation reached the ears of the BBC and provoked Top Gear’s James May to investigate, joined by wine expert Oz Clarke in the Great British Adventure Series. The mission: to attempt to run a high-performance race car on the “high-octane” X4. 

The two filled the racecar (used for the La Mans race by a Bruichladdich Distillery shareholder) with the potent X4 distilled to 92% and roared up the Strand, successfully arriving at the gates of the distillery. 

Thrilling though this was, as James May points out, the cost per litre of biofuel produced in a whisky distillery is prohibitively higher than what we pump at the station. Such luxuries are better suited for palates than petrol. 

Bruichladdich, unlike many distilleries, puts their new spirit into cask at full strength, and the X4 is no exception. (As we like to say to our warehouse visitors, “What’s the point in aging water?”). The latest release, X4+18 went into cask at 85% and has been bottled at 63.5%. Interestingly, this bottling strength of 63.5% is the ABV at which most distilleries fill their casks. But how does a spirit age differently when it’s laid down at such a high proof? And does this signify that there is greater potential for ageing for much longer periods and still bottle above the legal limit of 40%? 

All whiskies gradually lose their strength as they age in cask until eventually, they dip below 40% ABV, at which point they can no longer be called whisky. In theory, if you put a higher ABV spirit into cask, it can age for longer. However, it will be more volatile at a higher strength and therefor lose more alcohol in the earlier years. That said, the X4+18 was at approximately 63.5% after 18 years – only two percentage points below the strength Bruichladdich fills their new spirits into casks at!  

There’s also the quality of wood and how it influences the spirit’s development to consider. If a cask with thicker staves and tighter grain were used, this would reduce evaporation, allow for less alcohol loss over time, and therefore, give us the potential for significantly longer ageing periods. Of course, at the end of the day, it’s all about what will produce the best flavours, not the most impressive age statement.  

The X4+18 is an incredibly exciting release because the spirit is so different. Adam Hannett, who incidentally first joined Bruichladdich Distillery in 2006, the same year the spirit was distilled, recalls tasting it in its early days. 

“It was so light! As you’d expect, it didn’t have the same body or texture [as a double-distilled spirit]. It’s always been really light. In terms of how it sits on the palate, it’s really floral and really, really gentle. Gentle but strong. You realise every time you taste it, although it’s really strong, there’s nothing aggressive about it. It’s so soft. It’s always been that way – even as a young spirit. 

Over the last couple of years as it’s got a lot older, you see the impact of the wood really coming through. And particularly with the Rivesaltes... when you taste the X4+18 as it is now, it’s like really sweet Wine Gums – like light, sweet fruit. Quadruple distilled at 18 years old in a fortified wine cask – French oak – you'd expect it to be so tannic and bitter, but what you actually see in the cask is completely different. You just have to watch and sit back and taste it to see what happens.” 

This uncertainty of the result is exactly what makes the X4 so interesting. And yet, thanks to the skill and experience of the distiller, they can be pretty confident they’re producing something exceptional. Because the spirit is being further refined each time, you expect it to get cleaner and better. However, it depends on how you take the cuts.  

“You could end up with something that’s a bit rough and ready. But what we’re doing is looking for the flavour and quality of the spirit, so we’ve been careful about how we distill and what cuts we take.” 

Bruichladdich Distillery has now done five distillations of the X4, with X4+18 the oldest quadruple distilled whisky to ever be released. The risk has truly turned into reward. 

Every first step into new territory is a risk – some minor and non-threatening, some imperative. But occasionally, an opportunity presents itself to take a risk that is entirely unnecessary and threatens to overturn our world... for a reward that may never come. These are the risks that few have the courage (some might say madness) to take, but they are also the ones that bear the sweetest fruit (if they don’t burn our livelihood to the ground).  

So, in celebration of this newest release of X4, we encourage you to pour yourself a dram and ask yourself: “What new, undiscovered territory would I risk it all for?”