With just three weeks left until launch, life with The Hearach in the world is starting to feel very real. These are exciting times for all of us here in Harris as we bring the collective efforts of this young endeavour ever closer to fruition. If you’d like to help spread the good news about the forthcoming launch then please feel free to share our emails and social media messages with friends and family. And, if you have any questions then simply click HERE, HERE , and HERE to find the answers to lots of queries from your fellow whisky lovers. This week, we’re sharing some details about our batch numbering system, the creative sounds of ceremony, and a few words on tasting notes done Harris-style…

Slàinte mhor, and as ever here’s to The Hearach!

Le gach deagh dhùrachd,

Mike Donald, Chief Storyteller

Be Here With Us In Harris – 22.09.23 and 23.09.23

We are releasing our whisky with a ‘strip code’ – a special combination of letters and numbers found on every stopper seal. The code may refer to a specifically married batch, or a batch from a single cask, or a batch from a certain type of maturation, or other unique factor in its release. These codes will also be found on a dedicated page of our website at launch, allowing you to download an accompanying ‘batch sheet’ to help you learn about your whisky.  We aim to be as transparent about our drams as we can, by sharing information on our yeasts, barleys, peating levels, cut-points, fermentation times, and more… You’ll also be able to enjoy stories from the island written at the time of bottling alongside tasting notes from Harris people, more on which can be found below…

We want everyone who enjoys The Hearach to connect with us here in the Isle of Harris. One of the ways we can help you do this is through beautiful objects, audio, and a quiet sense of ceremony. We hope you’ll be able to put life on pause when you can, pour a dram of our whisky, and press play on our specially created immersive soundscapes.  The first creative collaboration from launch is with young island audio artist Fraser MacBeath. Fraser spent much of 2023 with us at the distillery, traveling around Harris, getting to meet local people and exploring hidden corners of our community with his recording equipment. The resulting piece of experimental work weaves past and present, the noises of the natural world, and the musings and music of the men and women who call this place their home.

We feel that the flavour of our whisky will be perceived differently by different people as they allow the complex character of our dram to unfold in their glass over time. So, we won’t issue any ‘official’ tasting notes and instead encourage folk to explore the scents and sensory experience of The Hearach single malt from a more personal point of view. We also understand that identifying notes on the nose, flavours, and finishes can be daunting for those not used to the more formal way of dissecting a dram. Therefore, each batch will come with some simple words written by someone from our local community as they enjoy a glass and delve a little deeper into their island memories and imagination, to help things along. We’d love you to share your notes with us too and any stories which become spun as you too spend time with our island spirit.

September 2023 is just the beginning. When the dust settles, rest assured there are a great many good things yet to come, and no end of creative ideas still to explore. We look forward to sharing every moment with you and hope you will be inspired to be part our our plans as The Hearach story progresses.

Slàinte!

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Our mailing address is:

Isle of Harris Distillers Ltd is registered in Scotland.
Tarbert, Isle of Harris, HS3 3DJ