.Blackwood
Daftmill
Glengyle
Kilchoman
Kininvie
Ladybank

There has been a lot of buzz about the new Blackwood distillery on the Shetland islands.
The distillery is to be located near South Nesting, somewhere between Laxo and Lerwick.
Some of the people involved are Caroline Whitfield (CEO) and John McDougall (master distiller).
When it's completed, Blackwood will be by far Scotland's northernmost distillery, but it seems
that the ambitious plans that were revealed in November 2002 may have been just a tad too
optimistic in hindsight. They had planned to start the actual building work on the distillery in
the spring of 2003, but as far as I know they've only gotten as far as renting an office near
the planned location in May 2004. To the best of my knowledge they were still awaiting final
planning permission by then.

However, unlike most other 'upstarts', Blackwood already has a brand on the shelves.
I don't know if they actually produce the stuff themselves (yet), but there have been
Blackwood gins and vodkas on shelves in the UK for some time now. They even have a
wodka cream liqueur called 'Jago'. Blackwood plans to produce 40,000 cases of single
malt whisky at the distillery when it's completed - both peated and unpeated.
Bill Rankin and Forsyth's of Rothes will design and produce the stills.

(More information on www.shetlandwhisky.com or www.blackwooddistillers.com)
 

I've recently heard of this new distillery and already they seem almost ready to operate.
More news will follow as soon as I've received it.
 

The first 'Glengyle' distillery was built in 1872 or 1873 by William Mitchell.
He built Glengyle after a quarrel with his brother John prompted him to leave Springbank.
The Campbeltown distillery operated for half a century, until it was finally closed in 1925.
Finally? Well, apparently not, because around the start of the new millennium Springbank
(still owned by the Mitchell family) announced its plans to rebuild Glengyle on the original
site. The production buildings at Glengyle were pretty much restored by the end of 2002.

During the first half of 2003 the buildings were fitted with a mash tun, stills and a spent
grains removal system (among other things) by the main contractor, Forsyth's of Rothes.
The mash tun arrived in April 2003 and according to Distillery Manager Frank McHardy the
wooden washbacks (built by Arthur Brown of Dufftown) were in place by September 2003.
The rest of the necessary equipment (mill, dresser, dust extractor, cooling tower, pipework,
condensers, milling system,  electric supply, pumps & valves, etc.) was installed just a few
months later and Glengyle was officially opened by Winnifred Ewing and Hedley Wright on
March 25, 2004. The first 'whisky' (Kilkerran) won't be bottled until 2007 - probably later.

Springbanks marketing philosophy trickled through in Glengyles advance cask offer.
The first six casks filled from the first spirit will be set aside to be bottled at 10 years old.
All six casks will be of different wood types. A limited number (obviously) of 700 bottles of
each wood type will be bottled . You can pre-order a set of 6 bottles (one of each wood
type) for the princely sum of £950 - including duty, tax, etc.

Because people who have pre-ordered will also receive a miniature set after five years,
it seems they will have to select some big-ass casks if they want to have enough whisky
to fill 700 (70cl?) bottles at 46% after 10 years. If the miniatures are 5cl, that equals
another 35 litres or 50 bottles. To fill those 750 70cl bottles they will need 525 litres
of whisky at 46% in 10 years time. Most likely the whisky will have a higher proof than
 46% ABV by then, so they can add water to the whisky to increase the volume.
Assuming the cask strength whisky has reached 60% after 10 years, they still
would need more than 400 litres in each cask in the series by 2014.
Well - mathematics was never my strong suit, so I have no idea.

(More information on www.springbankdistillers.com or www.kilkerran.com)
 

Kilchoman is the first new distillery to be built on Islay for well over a century.
The driving force behind Kilchoman is Anthony Wills and he dreams of building the smallest
and most traditional distillery in Scotland - or at least on Islay. Kilchoman will be one of the
few distilleries that will be able to claim that every step of the production process is carried
out on site. Barley (Optic and Chalice) will be grown at Rockside Farm and malted on Kilchoman's
malt floor. The spirit will be produced, matured and bottled on site and everything produced at
the distillery will be bottled as single malt whisky. The whisky won't be chill filtered or coloured
and will be reduced to a standard bottling strength of 50% using Islay water.

Scotland's potentially most traditional distillery made a bit of an an odd start.
Instead of employing the traditional distillery cat they went for a distillery pig: Lucy.
Well, Anthony seems confident in Lucy's pest control abilities ;-)

During the summer of 2004 the traditional farm buildings at Rockside Farm (near Machir Bay)
were being converted into a visitor centre and the first distillery buildings. Two stainless steel
washbacks arived in February 2005 and the stills (a 2,000 litre spirit still with a long narrow
neck and a 3,000 litre wash still) were installed in February 2005 and will be directly heated.
The first spirit is scheduled to flow on June 2, 2005 during the Islay festival.

Anthony plans to produce some 35,000 litres of alcohol during the first year.
That's equivalent to 84,000 bottles of whisky bottled at 8 years and 50%. Production should
be steadily increased over the years until approximately 90,000 litres of alcohol after a decade.
Kilchoman will initially be in production for 28 weeks of the year. Fresh bourbon and refill barrels
will form the base of the maturation programme, but other casks (sherry, port, rum and wine)
may be used as well. Well, that's a break with 'tradition' I could certainly live with...

Anyway, when I write this (February 2005) the first Kilchoman 'whisky' is still a few years away.
Fortunately for visitors to Islay, a visitor centre, shop and cafe should be finished much sooner.
The visitor centre will tell the story of farm distilling on Islay in the 18th and 19th century from
its illicit beginnings to legislation. The shop will sell a range of Kilchoman merchandise including
miniature bottles of Kilchoman 'New Spirit' as well as a range of fresh and smoked venison and
beef from the Islay Fine Food Co. The café will sell home made soups, cakes and paninis
together with tea, coffee and other refreshments.

For those interested in owning a piece of history, Anthony has a special offer.
He will be offering 25% of the first year's production in wood, in quantities equivalent to
12 x 70cl bottles in ages ranging from 5, 8 & 10 years old. For more information about this
and up-to-date progress reports on building works, log on to the website.
Contact Anthony if you're interested in investing in Kilchoman.

Anthony Willis
Kilchoman Distillery Co Ltd
Rockside Farm, Bruichladdich
Isle of Islay PA49 7UT
www.kilchomandistillery.com
 

OK, I'll admit Kininvie is an 'active' distillery - it has been since 1990.
Still, I couldn't list it with the other active distilleries or write a distillery profile about it.
Why? Well, it seems like the owners of the distillery (WM Grant & Sons) are focussing their
marketing efforts on their two main malt brands; Glenfiddich and Balvenie. They need the
Kininvie malt whisky for their Grant's blends, but they don't seem overly eager to invest
heavily in a third malt whisky brand. That's probably why there hasn't been an official
bottling of Kininvie - yet? In fact, WM Grant & Sons are actively trying to prevent any
'Kininvie' single malt from ever reaching the shelves of malt mongers around the world.
I've been told adding minute quantities of malt whisky from another distillery to every cask
they sell to blenders or bottlers has been standard practice at WM Grant & Sons for decades.

I've heard they were quite cross when the German company Glenscoma released an 'Aldunie'
whisky a while ago. The back label claimed it was a vatting of Kininvie single malt with just a
few drops of 'another Dufftown single malt'. Obviously, that would be Balvenie or Glenfiddich.
Van Wees in Holland also had a 'Burn of Speyside' bottling with a similar story not too long ago.
The addition of whisky from another distillery instantly turns the contents of the cask into a
vatted malt whisky, preventing the contents of the 'polluted' cask to be sold as a Balvenie,
Glenfiddich or Kininvie single malt. Even though that particular Glenscoma I mentioned wasn't
even bottled as a single malt, the WM Grant people went beserk over it.

Since it's standard practice to transform all single malt whisky that's distilled at Kininvie into
a vatted malt as soon as possible, the malt maniacs decided Kininvie wasn't a real single malt
distillery - more like a vatted malt distillery, actually. That means we can safely ignore it on our
search for the perfect single malt whisky. It will make the distillery overview if they ever decide
to release a single malt bottling of Kininvie. Meanwhile, I won't hold my breath...
 

James Thompson of Scotchwhisky.com is very closely involved with the Ladybank project.
The whole project has been set up as a club, and I think this concept is actually quite unique.
Members can invest in the distillery and reserve their own stock. Here's a quote from the site;
'The Club intends, by focusing on very small production quantities, to create one of the world's
greatest single malt whiskies. By reducing yields so that we can always improve quality, and by
distributing our whisky only to members and special guests who visit the distillery, Ladybank will
add a new dimension to the world of Scotch Malt Whisky production.'

The Ladybank distillery itself is still on the drawing board. According to the plans it will be located
in the 'Kingdom of Fife', a site specifically chosen for its convenient location close to barley growers.

(More info on www.whisky.co.uk/intro.html)