Royal opening at 8 Doors Distillery
Last week, an unusual ceremony took place in the village of John o'Groats with King Charles III himself in attendance. We are talking about the official opening of 8 Doors Distillery, which is operating here.
The 8 Doors distillery managed to escape the attention of the trade press, and its launch went almost completely unnoticed. Mentions of construction plans appeared here and there - including here - in the spring of 2020, when Kerry and Derek Campbell obtained the necessary financing and began construction work. The first firing took place in September 2022.
During his visit to the distillery, King Charles toured the Visitor Center, looked at the tempering apparatus, tasted fresh distillate, and visited the bonded warehouse, where he personally filled a Pedro Ximenez sherry hogshead barrel made of American oak. The King also had the opportunity to taste both the Seven Sons whiskey bottled by the distillery's owners and the Five Ways whiskey-based liqueur produced on site.
8 Doors is a small, artisanal venture. Two alembics located in a modest building offering a breathtaking view of the Pentland Firth strait and, in good visibility, even the Orkney Islands. The alembics have a capacity of 1,700 (wash still) and 1,300 liters (spirit still), and the slow distillation carried out in them, combined with the neck and arm design, gives significant contact with copper. The distillate is matured in American and European oak barrels ranging from 50 (octave) to as much as 500 liters (butt). The barrels are supplied by the Casknolia cooperage located in the south of Spain. Long fermentation, reaching up to 100 hours, conducive to the high ester content of the whisky, maturation in a warehouse located on the premises, right on the oceanfront.
The 8 Doors distillery is also the northernmost Scotch whisky plant located on the mainland. Older Scotch whisky aficionados have grown accustomed to the fact that the palm of supremacy in this category was held for many years by Pulteney, located in the town of Wick. Later, in 2013, it was dethroned by Wolfburn, launched in Thurso. This one, however, had to succumb to the indisputable laws of local topography - first came the North Point distillery a little further north, and finally 8 Doors opened its doors. By the way, North Point Distillery hasn't even managed to make a name for itself in the minds of whisky lovers as the northernmost one. Like 8 Doors, it has not yet managed to "make" its own whiskey, focusing initially on gin and rum production.
John o'Groats is a settlement located slightly east of the base of the Dunnet Head peninsula, on which is the northernmost point of the British mainland, with a lighthouse. The settlement is famous for the fact that if you wanted to pull off the longest possible travel route in the British Isles, it would be the stretch measuring 874 miles (just over 1,400 km) connecting Cape Land's End in England's Cornwall just to John o'Groats in Scotland. The signpost located here, which includes a whole range of other towns in addition to the distance to Land's End, has become one of the more frequently photographed objects in this part of Scotland.
The distillery's name is a reference to the legend of Jan De Groot, after whom the settlement was named. He had seven sons, among whom there were disputes over who should sit at the head of the table. Jan, a Dutch settler, decided to solve the problem by building a house with eight doors and eight windows, one for each member of the family. Centrally located was the dining room, in the center of which stood an octagonal table. No one was privileged in any way, everyone occupied an equally important place.
[07.08.2023 / Photo: 8 Doors Distillery]