A Scottish whiskey manufacturer plans to reopen an Islay distillery that was put out of business 80 years ago by Prohibition in the United States.

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Executives at Bruichladdich, a private company that reopened another distillery on Islay in 2001, said their plan to bring the Port Charlotte distillery back to life is part of an effort to keep at least some Scotch-manufacturing in Scottish hands, The Scotsman reported. Seven of the eight distilleries now on Islay are foreign-owned.

"The only Scottish one here is us. There are very few truly Scottish distilleries left now in the country," said Mark Reynier, the managing director. "We have independence, variety and quality. But what other distillers do is standardize the product. We have the freedom to do things how we want, rather than be dictated to by a manager in an office in Paris or Tokyo."

The company plans to make environmentally friendly whiskey distilled from organic barley. Even the machinery for the plant was acquired from a closed distillery on the mainland.