THE TOAST OF THE TOWN
Glasgow has two new whisky distilleries – the first in the city for over a century
Will other cities follow suit as Glasgow leads the way in the rise of urban distilleries?
In recent years we have welcomed the arrival of several new whisky distilleries across Scotland. Now it’s Glasgow’s turn: the city is set to see two new distilleries begin operations in 2015, the first in over a hundred years, with the Glasgow Distillery Company narrowly beating AD Rattray in getting its operation up and running.
Based in Hillington Park, the Glasgow Distillery Company has already got its gin still in place and has been producing Makar Glasgow Gin since August. Its whisky stills were installed in December and should be running very soon. In the meantime, it has released a whisky, much sooner than expected, after acquiring some rare 30-year-old Speyside single malt casks. The new bottling, called Prometheus, was the result of a chance meeting between Liam Hughes, the Glasgow Distillery Company’s chief executive, and the owner of the casks.
The Glasgow Distillery Company takes its name from the original company that operated from 1770 until 1902 at Dundashill in Glasgow. At the time it was one of the largest distilleries in Scotland, with 12 pot stills producing both peated and unpeated whisky. Its new namesake will concentrate much more on producing small batches of spirit.
On a much larger scale is AD Rattray’s £10 million distillery at Queen’s Dock near the Hydro arena, only a few miles from Hillington Park. Confusingly, AD Rattray is calling its planned facility the Glasgow Distillery. I wonder if one of them will budge and change their name – otherwise there could be quite a bit of confusion.
The Glasgow Distillery has been in planning for some time. Tim Morrison, who is behind the project and who is formerly of Morrison Bowmore, says that ‘we began thinking about building a distillery in the spring of 2011 to help secure supplies for AD Rattray’ .
Glasgow City Council gave the green light to start construction last July and the work should be completed by the autumn. The plans incorporate an old pump house at Queen’s Dock, on the banks of the Clyde, that was built by Morrison’s great-grandfather in 1877.
Despite these distilleries opening at around the same time just a few miles apart, they are very different projects. The Glasgow Distillery Company is a compact set-up with a small gin still and very small whisky stills. It is truly a craft distillery, but in a city as opposed to a picturesque spot in the Highlands, and it will only be producing single malt in very small batches. It won’t have a visitor centre, though interested parties can see it by appointment.
At the other end of the spectrum, Rattray’s distillery will be capable of producing around 500,000 litres of spirit per year. There are plans to build a visitor centre, café and shop, which it is anticipated will draw over 50,000 visitors a year, helped by the city-centre location.
It is great to see so much whisky-related activity in Glasgow. Tim Morrison notes that ‘the city was once home to many whisky distilleries and we think ours will put Glasgow right back on the Scotch whisky map’. Liam Hughes, meanwhile, says, ‘Our hope is that there will be many distilleries in Glasgow in the next few years and that we will all work together to help make the Glasgow association with distilling a byword for quality across the globe. There are, after all, eight distilleries on Islay.’
This, I suspect, is just the start, and we will see more and more ‘ metropolis’ distilleries being set up in our city centres in the years to come.
‘It is truly a craft distillery, but in a city as opposed to a picturesque spot in the Highlands’