Wolfburn Scotch Whisky Rises Again Over 150 Years Later

150 years is a long time to wait for the return of whisky distillation to Scotland’s northernmost mainland distillery. That’s how long it has been, however, and now the folks behind the revived Wolfburn distillery are happy to report their first Scotch is now in bottles and making its way to retail in the United Kingdom and beyond.

First, the backstory. Back in mid-2011 those behind the modern Wolfburn label traveled to Thurso in Caithness, the most northerly town on the British mainland, in search of what was rumored to be left of a once mighty whisky distillery. What they found amounted to a pile of stones and the still flowing original water source which once fed the mash tuns and stills of the original Wolfburn. After purchasing some land “a short walk” away from the old site and building a new distillery, the first Wolfburn new make spirit was barreled on Burns Night in January, 2013.

The whisky which was produced, now three years old and legally able to be called a single malt, was done in the old school way. That is to say, according to Wolfburn, that they

crafted the latest incarnation of Wolfburn whisky from a blank canvas by pot still distillation, the old way; no automation, no rush and a lot of care. The worts are fermented for roughly 75 hours, allowing the yeast activity to mellow the wash, releasing a series of floral notes that carry through to distillation and maturation and are present in the finished whisky.

The spirit is double distilled, slowly, first through the wash still and then through the spirit still, which were specifically designed and handcrafted by coppersmith Forsyths of Rothes. Once the distillation is complete the whisky is left to mature on site, in Spanish and American oak casks that are stored using traditional dunnage methods; on their side, bung up, on stows, never higher than three.

What’s resulted in bottle initially comes in two different releases: the regular expression and a special Inaugural offering. The latter is the more interesting of the two from a collector’s standpoint, consisting of just 875 bottles that are each individually numbered and engraved. Presented in a hand-made oak box, the whisky inside was selected by master distiller “Shane Fraser specifically to become Wolfburn’s first. Using long fermentation, long slow distillation, and matured in hand-selected casks, it is genuinely something special.” It is pricing at £200 (around $290 USD), while the more regular Wolfburn comes in at about £45 (around $65 USD).

Both bottlings clock in at 46% ABV, and limited official tasting notes suggest a single malt that’s “light and fragrant with aromas of fruit, malt and a hint of peat, sweet and nutty on the pallet, leaving a pleasant flavour of smoke in the mouth.”