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Scotch Malt Whisky News
New Scotch Malt Whisky Distillery Projects |
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| 2003 sees 3 distillery projects moving forward. Amongst the key influences in these new projects are Springbank, Isle of Arran, the new distillery in Wales and local barley. Springbank is effectively expanding within its local town to re-create the old family distillery (same family as Springbanks owners) of Glengyle. Blackwood in Shetland is using expertise from Wales, copying The Isle of Arran Distillers Bond, and has a fairly extreme location 100 miles north of Highland Park in Orkney - currently the most northerly distillery. Ladybank is locating in the heart of a prime barley growing area and will be owned by a club of whisky enthusiasts. A fourth, Kilchoman, is mentioned in our footnote after 2 false starts in 2001 and 2002. |
Blackwood Distillery
Website: www.shetlandwhisky.com
Location: Shetland Isles
Unique selling points – Most northerly in Scotland, only distillery on Shetland
Advantages:
- Romantic island location
- No other distillery for 100’s of miles (Shetland is 100 miles north of The Orkneys and the current most northerly distillery of Highland Park).
- Has ex-Springbank Manager/Director as consultant
Futures (advance case sales) offer – 2 cases £560
Equals price per case – £280
Aged first whisky released (to advance buyers) – 3 year old and 5 year old
Current stated opening date – Spring 2003.
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click here to reserve your Ladybank Company of Distillers membership
Ladybank Distillery
Website: www.whisky.co.uk
Location: Kingdom of Fife (between Edinburgh & St Andrews)
Unique selling points – All barley sourced from close to distillery, Distillery owned by private club of whisky enthusiasts
Advantages:
- Enviable location very convenient/close to St Andrews, Edinburgh and airports but in quiet countryside setting and using old mill buildings.
- Within prime barley growing area.
- Has founding director with recent experience of starting new Scotch Whisky distillery (Isle of Arran Est 1995)
- Young team (all early 40’s) to see project to maturity over next 25 years.
Funding of business prior to bottling – undertaken by separate company focusing in whisky events and originators of The Whisky School.
Project owners – Club Members (those who also buy the 10 cask futures)
Futures (advance case sales) offer – 10 cases £1850
Price per case – £185
Age first whisky released (and to advance buyers) – only when each cask is determined to be exceptional but likely to initially be between 7 and 12 years old
Current stated opening date – Late 2003.
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click here to reserve your Ladybank Company of Distillers membership
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Glengyle Distillery
Website: www.sprinbankdistillers.com
Location: Campbeltown, Argyll
Unique selling points – Original distillery created by same family as Springbank
Advantages:
- From same original owning family as Springbank and will most likely share Sprinbank values and staff - Springbank has ultimate reputation with single malt aficiandos.
Project owners – J & A Mitchell (owners of neighbouring Springbank Distillery)
Futures (advance case sales) offer – 1/2 case for £950 including duty, tax and delivery within Europe.
Price per case – £1300 - based on 12 bottles before duty, VAT, postage
Age first whisky released (and to advance buyers) – 10 Years Old
First stated opening date (statement of January 2002) - will begin distilling in 2003 with first bottling of 10-year-old in 2013.
Current stated opening date – spirit will once again flow from GlenGyle early in 2004.
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| Shared features
Maltings
All plan in-house maltings or have access to in-house maltings (Springbank for Glengyle)
Variety of Sprit Style
All plan variety of finishes (peated, sherried etc) or have this tradition (Springbank produces also limited editions of ‘Hazelburn’ unpeated and ‘Longrow’ heavily peated).
NB. This tradition carried over also to new Bruichladdich owners/founders with a director who was previously a Springbank Director and from the Springbank owners family
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| FOOTNOTE : Kilchoman Distillery
This is the current news from the Kilchoman project founder. "There have been a few false starts, but obtaining of funding is moving forward and if all goes to plan, they hope to have everything in place on the site by the end of the year.(2003)".
Editors note: Kilchoman has not maintained its website after the 2nd false start (it fell out with a team with whisky marketing and new distillery experience) and it is not known if they plan any features for enthusiasts in terms of futures or special facilities at the distillery.
With Bruichladdich requiring additional finance after its takeover it must be noted that remote or island distilleries maybe more romantic but they are much less practical locations for visitor centre business, pretty hopeless for local barley growing (All Islay barley for malting is currently shipped in from England) and have countless additional costs because of their longer supply routes.
All of this requires additional up-front funding to cover the years prior to mature whisky becoming available. It was a very hard slog for Isle of Arran and the further out the location the greater the costs will be.
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