Scotland’s Kingsbarns Distillery Comes of Age With its Scotch

Among the crop of young Scotch whisky distilleries to emerge of late, Kingsbarns Distillery is one which has patiently been waiting three years to legally be able to call its aging spirit Scotch single malt whisky. The time for this has now come, and for them, this is a cause for celebration.

The distillery’s very first casks were laid down on March 23rd back in 2015. Spirit distillation initially began a few months prior, allowing the distillery manager, Peter Holroyd, to perfect what would be come the house style. Initially, all the casks selected were first fill ex Bourbon barrels from Heaven Hill Distillery in Kentucky.  The very first cask filled from this batch has been on display for distillery visitors to see, but since it is not resting in a bonded warehouse it couldn’t legally be called Scotch.

However, to give a preview of what is to come, it is said Holroyd recently took the chance to take a sample from this first cask. “I was very proud to fill this first cask from the spirit I distilled three years ago and am delighted to see the impact that it has had on the colour,” he said in a prepared statement. “On the nose I get custard and apricot Danish pastry, but you still get the Kingsbarns light fruity character. On the palate, there is a wonderful balance of spirit and wood and you can really taste the Kingsbarns signature style.”

“This is a very exciting time for us at Kingsbarns Distillery uniting the excellent quality barley from local Fife farms, the attention to detail in distilling and the great effort dedicated to acquiring the finest casks for maturing our precious spirit,” added William Wemyss on behalf of the family owners stated. “Now that we have reached the minimum legal age, we can move forwards to sample whisky from our early casks and make some choices regarding the first bottling of our new Lowland malt.”

The first release of Kingsbarns Single Malt Scotch Whisky will be exclusively available to Kingsbarns Founders’ Club members and is expected in summer 2018.