PHOTO COURTESY OF COLLECTIVE ARCHITECTURE
Surrounded by the ghosts of whisky smugglers and illicit distillers, former Glenlivet master distiller Alan Winchester will make single malt whisky at a new distillery when it opens this August. Tucked away in a hidden corner of Speyside, farm buildings dating from 1849 are being transformed into The Cabrach Distillery, a new community-owned distillery, café, and heritage center at Inverharroch Farm. Scotland’s world-famous coppersmith, Forsyth’s Ltd, has made the new copper pot stills, ready for Winchester, The Cabrach’s master of malt, to begin creating new spirit. In anticipation of the opening, The Cabrach is launching The Feering, a series of three Speyside blended malts. A “feering” is a farming term for the first furrow plowed that acts as a guide for those that follow.
In a global limited release of 6,000 bottles, Winchester has blended stock from four nearby distilleries for the first expression, named The Feering Early Harvest, which costs $95 and is bottled at 46%. These casks were donated by Campari, Ian Macleod Distillers, Edrington, and Beam Suntory. It is available from The Whisky Shop and select retailers. Additionally, The Cabrach Collective, a founding members group limited to 1,849 people, is being launched, granting access to exclusive bottlings, the inaugural release, and other benefits. Membership is available for a one-time payment of £1,245 (approx. $1,550).
The Cabrach Trust, a registered charity founded in 2013 by Grant Gordon, a direct descendant of Glenfiddich founder William Grant, is leading the new project. Gordon ran William Grant & Sons during the late 1980s and early ’90s before the company transitioned to non-family management. The trust hopes to regenerate this beautifully wild part of Speyside with the new distillery, supporting the community and reversing long-term depopulation in The Cabrach. Winchester, a lifelong scholar of scotch whisky history, knows that The Cabrach was a hotbed of illicit distilling in the late 17th century, a time when rural distillers would try to outwit and actively resist the action of the excisemen. Whisky was last legally distilled in the area 170 years ago, when farm distilleries Blackmiddens, Lesmurdie, and Tomnaven operated in the area.
The Cabrach Distillery is 7.5 miles outside of Dufftown, and while distilling commences in August, the distillery tours, heritage center, and the café will open to the public at a later date. Speyside is the area with the greatest density of whisky distilleries in Scotland and has welcomed significant investment over the past decade. Winchester was at the heart of the project that led to the opening of the Chivas Brothers’ Dalmunach Distillery in 2015 on the site of Imperial Distillery. Currently, Chivas Brothers is upgrading Miltonduff and Aberlour Distilleries. Ballindalloch Distillery was officially opened in 2015, while the Macallan estate opened its impressive new distillery and world-class visitor facilities in 2018. A number of new distilleries have also opened this decade, including The Cairn, the second distillery of Gordon & MacPhail, Dunphail, the second distillery to Bimber, with Speyside Distillers Co. Ltd. receiving planning permission for a new distillery at Laggan last year.
