Distillery life begins early each morning as the whisky-makers and production men and women take the long and winding roads from their home villages to work. Our northerly latitude (around the 58th parallel – the same as Alaska) means that the slide into the dark months is a swift one and their daily drive to Tarbert is now well before dawn.

The young distillers are sometimes rewarded with a special sunrise, as the windows of the Spirit Hall look out across East Loch Tarbert. But, more often than not, it’s lashing rain that greets their peers through the glass.
Visitors and regular Journal readers will know our distillery fire well, a beacon of warmth which welcomes visitors who come through our doors, particularly at this colder time of year. Each day the guest team build a beautiful blaze with locally cut peat and both the flames and sweet smoky scent of this traditional fuel soon warms both hands and heart.

With the clocks here in the UK have gone back we’re plunged a little deeper into the depths but there’s beauty to be found even with the arrival of winter.

Empty beaches and bracing walks in the wild Harris winds are well rewarded with warming drams. Just wrap up well and ensure something worth pouring awaits your return home as we enjoy the last of the light…

Read on for more stories and have a great weekend wherever you are in the world…

Le gach deagh dhùrachd,

Mike Donald, Chief Storyteller

The Hearach single malt is a complex and elegant whisky, full of island character.

We encourage you to spend time in its company, and explore the scents and sensory experience from a personal point of view.

To help things along, here are the official tasting notes from our distillery blender, Shona Macleod, from the village of Carragreich:

“ I get a gentle peat smoke on the first sip which reminds me of island home fires burning when I was growing up. It comes along with a toasted maltiness. I can also taste homemade apple sauce and smell machair flowers, particularly white clover which springs up on our west coast every summer. Mixed spices appear, and an old-fashioned sweetness from things like candied ginger, vanilla, and honeycomb. Finally, there’s a long, clotted-cream note, mixed with a lasting sense of new leather.”

Let us know your thoughts on the flavours you find, and the memories they evoke, next time you enjoy your dram…

Order your bottle and open to discover more…

ORDER YOUR BOTTLE OF THE HEARACH