Scotland’s Distillery Boom

New Morrison Distillery planned for Perthshire

Ernie – Ernst J Scheiner, The Gateway to Distilleries at www.whisky-distilleries.net

The Exchequer of James IV put the Tironensian and Lindores monk John Cor on the agenda of Scottish whisky history in 1495 by writing: “To Friar John Cor, by order of the King, to make aqua vitae VIII bolls of malt.” In Latin he noted: „Et per liberacionem factam Fratri Johanni Cor per preceptum compotorum rotulatoris, ut asserit, de mandato domini regis ad faciendum aquavite, infra hoc compotum viij bolle brasii.“

The wider Lindores area around Newburgh will become a distilling centre again with the working farm distillery Daftmill and the proposed micro Lindores-McKenzie-Smith-Distillery.

A further distillery will join the two Lowland distilleries according to plans which have been lodged with local planning authority and revealed just recently to The Gateway to Distilleries. The new whisky plant will be located just some miles west from the overgrown ruin of Frair Johanni’s Lindores Abbey in the small village of Aberargie, near Abernethy which is just south-east of the blending centre Perth.

The famous whisky dynasty, the Morrison Family of Bowmore, who sold their distilleries Bowmore, Auchentoshan and Glen Garioch to the Japanese drinks giant Suntory in 1994, will join in the distilling industry with verve again. Mid October plans were published by Tim Morrison who will built a 500,000 litre distillery in Glasgow’s famous Queen’s docks. After about 100 years the River Clyde will see a whisky distillery again.

His brother Brian, former chairman of Morrison Distillers, and his son Jamie will also invest in a distillery project in rural Aberargie where they own farmland around the proposed production site. Their intention is to use barley grown by their own farm and adjoining local farms. It is said that the new commercial distillery will produce double distilled single malt only. „Capacity has not been decided yet,“ explained Kenny MacKay, managing director of the Scottish Liqueur Centre in Perth. The Mackays and the Morrisons are the main shareholders (89%) of the Perth bottling and blending firm which has revived the former Thomson label Old Perth this year. Kenny MacKay has also set up the distinguished Cárn Mór cask bottlings launched in 2008. In their portfolio are also the Highland liqueur Bruadar and the premium cream liqueur Columba with single malt whisky sourced from Tullibardine distillery.

The new  distillery will not produce any grain whiskies but double distilled malts which would supply the whiskies for the new Blended Malt Old Perth. It would also allow „swapping spirits“ with other distilleries to secure further single cask bottlings of the Cárn Mór series. Thus they are following the footsteps of other successful Scottish independent bottlers like Andrew Symington and Ian Macleod who had aquired the Highland distilleries Edradour, Glengoyne and the Speyside Distillery Tamdhu.

‘Our project  is now in for planning permission, and once, and if, we know that we have it then we can start to look at the build project in much more detail, it doesn’t happen overnight,“ said Kenny MacKay, one of the main shareholders of the Scottish Liqueur Centre.

The distillery will be owned by a company (KIC Holdings Ltd, Perth) controlled by The Morrison family and the new site which will also contain a bottling and blending plant which will be operated by the Scottish Liqueur Centre.

Information:

www.scottish-liqueur-centre.com

www.whisky-distilleries.net

Photos

Kenny Mackay at the Whisky & Tobacco Days 2013 in Hofheim, Germany. Copyright Ernie- Ernst J. Scheiner 2013.

About the Author: Ernie – Ernst J. Scheiner M.A. was a director in an adult education centre. Ernie offers courses on whisky distilling, writes for newspapers, magazines and blogs in Germany. He is the editor of The Gateway to Distilleries at www.whisky-distilleries.net which gives an excellent photographic and educational insight into the whisky industry of Scotland, Ireland, Europe and Asia.

Please see also: http://www.whisky-distilleries.net