Fancy a wee dram?

A new community-owned Highland distillery has marked its latest construction milestone with the announcement that a new share offer will launch in August.

GlenWyvis Distillery Community Benefit Society has brought forward the launch of a second open share offer to open the door to new members, as visitor numbers to the area increase. The new share offer will be launched on Thursday August 3rd at the *Black Isle Show in the Scottish Highlands.

Increased tourism interest in the area has come about as a result of the North Coast 500 route taking in Dingwall, where GlenWyvis has set up its new Basecamp visitor centre. 

It has also seen an influx of "Outlander" fans adding GlenWyvis to their route map as they look for the site of the original "Ferintosh" distillery in the area - the whisky of choice of the time, by lead character "Jamie", before moving on to another Outlander pit-stop at nearby Castle Leod in Strathpeffer - the inspiration for Castle Leoch in the TV series.

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Top travel destinations for gin lovers

IT seems as though the UK has gone gin crazy at the moment! Our city centers aren't quite like the famous 'Gin Lane' painting by William Hogarth from 1751 but it is defiantly the UK's top trending drink statistics show UK gin sales have grown by up to 40% in the last 5 years! SkyParkSecure has put together their list of top travel destinations for gin lovers.

London

Gin wasn’t invented in London but few would deny it found a ‘spiritual home’ there during the infamous ‘Gin Craze’ of the seventeenth century.

Today the legacy of this proud history can be found all over London, not least at the Beefeater Distillery, which is located just a short walk over the bridge from Westminster Abbey. Gin enthusiasts are welcome to visit for an hour-long distillery tour most weekdays, and best of all a refreshing Gin and Tonic is included in the £12 entrance fee.

Scotland

It’s a little known fact that over 70% of the gin enjoyed by Brits is distilled in Scotland. In fact the tradition of Scottish gin production runs very deeply indeed, due in no small part to the juniper bushes which are common across the Highlands. Juniper berries are – of course – an essential ingredient of gin, and the Scottish variety is known for its distinctive rich and mellow flavour. 

If you want to take in as many of Scotland’s gin-based delights as possible, the Wine and Spirit Trade Association has helpfully mapped out the Scottish Gin Trail. Stretching from Edinburgh all the way up to Caithness, the trail takes in all of Scotland’s best gin distilleries and bars. Only got time for a flying visit?

Specialist tour company Gin Journey organise regular events in Edinburgh, during which you can enjoy chauffeur-driven transport between the cities premier gin-themed hot-spots.

Spain

Spain is the second largest gin market in the world, principally due to the phenomenal popularity of ‘Gin-Tonic’, the Spanish take on the familiar Gin and Tonic which is served in a balloon glass with plenty of ice and garnish. So a trip to Spain is a great choice if you’re trying to decide where to travel to if you love gin.

You can enjoy gin in any Spanish city, but if you have to choose one head for Barcelona, where you’ll find a vibrant gin bar scene to rival any in the world, including the Old Fashioned Gin Tonic & Cocktail Bar, Bobby Gin, and Xixbar to name but a few. Head just out of the city to the fishing village of Vilanova and you can pay a visit to the Gin Mare distillery, where the Ribot family has been producing Spain’s most famous home-grown gin since the 1940s.

Amsterdam

Experience the delights of ‘Genever’, the more complex juniper-based spirit forerunner of gin which the Dutch have been enjoying since the middle ages.

An altogether maltier proposition than modern Gin, Genever often has a light, honey-like colour. While the taste of Juniper still dominates, Genever also boasts smooth, creamy flavours. It is equally enjoyable straight, with a mixer, or when used to add a new dimension to classic cocktails. Head to Amsterdam’s House of Bols Cocktail and Genever Experience where you can discover how a great cocktail is made, and immerse yourself in the history and heritage of this exquisite spirit. Tickets are priced at just €16, which includes a cocktail.

Appetite whetted, you’re probably going to want to sample even more varieties of Dutch gin. So pay a visit to the De Drie Fleschjes tasting room where they’ve been welcoming enthusiastic Genever drinkers since 1650.

Philippines

The Philippines is the largest gin market in the world consuming over 22 million cases every year! It all started back in 1830’s when the first brand was formed by a family-owned Spanish era distillery. Ginebra San Miguel was the one that started the Filipino gin trend. An average Filipino consumes 1.4 liters of gin every year, largely due to the effective marketing and distribution of Ginebra San Miguel.

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Source credit: SkyParkSecure

£2.25 million for Dingwall whisky venture

GLENWYVIS and Community Shares Scotland have hit the £2.25 million mark in an effort to raise investment for the world's first community-owned distillery project.

With more than 2,300 investments from people in more than 30 countries, founder John F. McKenzie of GlenWyvis Community Benefit Society says: ‘We hoped for £1.5 million, we were delighted when we hit £2 million, and we are ecstatic reaching £2.25 million so quickly. It really does underpin our ambition to make whisky history in Dingwall. The distillery will bring employment and added tourism, and put Dingwall on the world whisky map after a gap of 90 years.’

The GlenWyvis Distillery will be built on a farm above Dingwall and will be 100% community-owned distillery and 100% powered by green energy.

www.glenwyvis.com

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OZ whisky distillery targets tourists

BUILDING a whisky distillery in the middle of an Australian wine region famous for its shiraz might seem a gamble, but John Rochfort thinks he is on to a winner. The McLaren Vale Distillery is opening its A$2.5 million HQ south of #Adelaide this month after securing an A$500,000 regional development grant from the state government. 

Rochfort, founder and general manager, said McLaren Vale’s climate and access to high quality water, barley, and wine barrels makes it an ideal location to distil #whisky. But he acknowledged that the 400,000 visitors to the region looking for a food and drink treat every year was a major attraction.

The distillery will include a malting plant and a cooper on site.

‘We will be able to do tours of the cooperage, we’ll have our own traditional floor malting so people who come to the distillery can actually help us mash in and help grind the grain or smoke the grain with the peat, and just really get involved with the business,’ Rochfort says. .

“We’ll not only have the cooperage and the malting plant but also glass blowers and artisan cheesemakers and one of the local breweries is moving up on to the site as well. We want to create an artisan village with complementary businesses … so for a visitor, what an amazing day. Get some whisky, have the bottle blown for you in front of your eyes, see your barrel coopered and go across to the cheesemaker and get some cheese for your tasting.’

While McLaren Vale continues to attract international accolades for its wine, recent road and rail upgrades have made the region easier to access, while the addition of micro-breweries and a gin distillery have broadened the region’s appeal.

Raised in South Australia, Rochfort spent many years working at distilleries in Tasmania before returning to set up the McLaren distillery, which also employs his brothers Nicholas and Lachlan, and his father.

“I found in Tasmania that one of the biggest parts of the business was engaging the customers and when they really started to understand the product and became educated on single malts, the pockets opened and the appreciation of what we were doing grew and all of a sudden the private ownership of barrels took off,” Rochfort said.

‘Particularly with McLaren Vale, when you’ve got 400,000 tourists a year who are primarily going there for a food and beverage experience, and when you’re the only dedicated single malt whisky distillery in the region, just about every visitor puts it on their list for their week’s tour.’

There are also plans for a hospitality, research, and conference centre as part of the project 

The first McLaren Vale whiskies are expected to be ready for release in 2018. The range of whiskies will start with the McLaren Vale single malt at A$120-A$150 through to the Bloodstone Collection featuring whiskies matured in the “best of the best” barrels from South Australia, ranging in price from A$500 to A$1000.

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Picture Credit: McLaren Vale Distillery

It’s whisky … and English!

CAN good whisky – and a good single malt at that – be produced in England?

Paul Currie, co-founder of the award winning Isle of Arran Distillers, believes it can, so much so that he’s turned a Victorian model farm near Keswick in the Lake District into a craft distillery. 

It opened in December last year, when it started production of its Lakes Single Malt, which is now maturing in casks and which will be bottled in April 2018.

Gin and vodka are also produced at the distillery, in handmade copper pot stills. Its gin is created with wild Cumbrian juniper, heather and meadowsweet foraged nearby.

The Lakes Distillery – close to the River Derwent and Bassenthwaite Lake – is open to visitors seven days a week from 11am to 6pm for tours, on which they can see the stillmen at work, have a look at the maturing barrels – the woods used are different to those in north of the border – and enjoy a glass or two in the tasting rooms.

 

There’s also a bistro, serving breakfasts, lunches, afternoon teas, and dinners.

www.lakesdistillery.com

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Picture Credit: www.lakesdistillery.com