Ardnamurchan Distillery

[solera]

Another new distillery gets planning permission -

http://www.lochaber-news.co.uk/News/Gre ... 042012.htm

[Willie JJ]

What a fantastic location for a distillery. I can hardly wait.

[Willie JJ]

I guess it will have the marketing tag of being the most westerly mainland distillery.

[solera]

What a fantastic location for a distillery. I can hardly wait.

I'm with you on that Willie but it's still a long haul from planning to the stills actually running. Don't know much about Adelphi or whether they have all the funding in place.

[Willie JJ]

Likewise I have no idea what stage they are at, but they are serious people and I suspect things will move along apace.

[solera]

Plan to commence distilling before end of 2013 according to their website.

[Peat Sampras]

I guess it will have the marketing tag of being the most westerly mainland distillery.

As long as they don't label it Speyside that is okay I guess

[ABZ12]

The Aberdeen Malmaison bar manager hosted a tasting evening last night with Antonia from Adelphi as the speaker. That sorted the Father’s Day present this year! A very enjoyable evening had by all. There were about 15 people there, and 6 rather good whiskies for tasting.

For completeness, they were

Glen Keith, 20 yr old, 59.9%
Bunnahabhain, 13 yr old, 55.2% from a 1st fill sherry cask,
Aberlour, 11 yr old, 55.8%, refill sherry
Fascadale (5 casks of Highland Park), 46%
Tamdhu, 27 yr old, 51%
BenRiach 1979, Cask 515, not yet bottled (to be released shortly; Charles MacLean still needs to do the tasting notes), 48.4% - the outstanding whisky of the night undoubtedly – there was no mention of what it may cost though!

I haven’t checked out their website (maybe this is all there already), but Antonia did discuss their plans in a wee bit of detail.

They are hoping to provide 30% of the barley from the new owner’s farm in Fife, and malt it themselves. 4 washbacks, 1 wash still (10,000 litres), 1 spirit still (6,000 litres). Forsyth’s (unsurprisingly) makes the stills for them; logistics getting from Rothes to Ardnamurchan proving to be a challenge – anyone got a spare chopper, give them a call. Aiming for 100,000 litres in the first year, increasing to 250,000 litres after that.

They’ll eventually go for 3 house styles, using the –dale nomenclature, after some of the locations on the peninsula. The majority of the output will have a similar style to the current Fascadale, with a more sherried variant as the 2nd. Still ruminating on the 3rd style apparently, but likely to be more peaty. And they’ll use local Ardnamurchan peat where required for malting, and heat/power from new eco-friendly bio-mass burner unit (ie use the local trees).

Antonia was full of enthusiasm for the new distillery, and getting the planning permission (site visit by the council, with great local support on the day apparently) was the biggest hurdle. I think they have opted not to go down the Kilchoman route, at the moment, of selling casks with new spirit to individuals. This is largely based on Kilchoman experience of lots of people turning up at odd times, wanting to have a look at their one!

Overall, it appears to be all go at the moment.

alan

[corbuso]

Thanks for the infos, but anything was mentioned about the funding of the distillery?
Duncan Taylor had similar plans, but their distillery is still on the project phase.

[ABZ12]

There was positive talk during the tasting without the specifics (probably not our place), but as you asked, a wee email to Adelphi on the issue of funding got the following response:

Adelphi can confirm that they are preparing to start the ground works, ahead of building - completion anticipated by Oct 2013.

Presumably this ties in with the chat on their website (can't access from work).

Had a look at the Glenborrodale area on Google maps, and street view is available even out there now! These are indeed narrow roads along which the stills must travel. Unless a boat is involved. Or a helicopter.

[Douglas]

Had a look at the Glenborrodale area on Google maps, and street view is available even out there now! These are indeed narrow roads along which the stills must travel. Unless a boat is involved. Or a helicopter.

It's a brilliant drive from the Corran ferry out to Glenborrodale and on to Sanna and the lighthouse. Heartily recommended if you have the weather and are not in a hurry.

There are indeed a lot of single track stretches and some tight squeezes on the road. I would think bringing the big stuff in by ship might be a bit easier.

[ABZ12]

Following a wee tasting of a new Adelphi product (Clynelish, 14 yr old, cask 6510, excellent dram - apparently voted dram of the day at a recent Liverpool Whisky Lounge tasting; looks like a few share the view it's quite good), I got back in touch with Antonia, to see if there was any progress on the new distillery work....

The good news is that they have started the groundworks; excavation is currently underway, albeit with some areas being done by hand, following the discovery of some flint stone that "may be of historical interest". Stones around in Ardnamurchan pensinula shocker!