The Cairn, a new distillery in Speyside
As is well known, one of the biggest problems facing new distilleries, which have been emerging at an unprecedented rate in recent years, is the question of financing their operations in the first years of. Another issue, directly related in the first, is the need to release whiskey as soon as possible, usually at the beginning of the fourth year of operations. According to regulations, Scotch whisky must be aged in oak barrels for a minimum of three years, so it is quite common practice to release young, 3-4 year old distillates that are at best only a substitute for what can possibly be expected from whisky aged two or three times longer. It usually helps here to produce gin, vodka, or even rum, or other alcohol that does not require aging and can be bottled and sold soon after distillation.
The owners of the new Cairn distillery, launched last summer, have found an alternative to having to produce another alcohol that doesn't require aging and devoting some of their production capacity to distilling it, and a sizable marketing effort to promote it. The Cairn is betting on, as they put it, traveling into the future. At this distillery we will taste today the kind of whisky that is produced today, but will be bottled in 12, 18, 25 and more years.
How is it possible? Mainly due to the fact that Cairn is a distillery owned by one of the oldest and best-known independent distributors, Gordon & MacPhail. The almost immeasurable storage resources have allowed the Cairn's managers to prepare blended malt whiskies aged 12, 18, 25, 30, 57 and even 70 years, which was intended to be composed in such a way as to give us today a foretaste of what will leave the company's warehouses in more than a decade, or even much later.
CRN57 blended malt whisky is available exclusively at the distillery and is offered only to visitors touring the new plant or attending tastings held at Cairn. Unlike other distilleries that operate stores in their Visitor Centers, at Cairn you can't just walk into a store and buy a bottle of whisky without first taking a tour or tasting.
The Cairn Distillery is a thoroughly modern facility, erected between 2020 and 2022 and opened on May 27, 2022. It was built on the edge of the Cairngorms Mountains National Park, and the glazed walls of the tasting area offer breathtaking views of the Spey Valley and the nearby mountains.
The plant operates six alembics - two for first distillation and four for second distillation - which are fed with the product of fermentation taking place in stainless steel vats. Modern distillery employs only two people directly in whisky production. Given the layout, size and shape of the alembics, the whisky coming from Cairn will be heavy, and its maturation mainly in sherry casks allows you to expect a rich, heavy, fleshy liquor.
In addition to the standard offering of its blended malt whiskies, the Cairn distillery has just released the first of its annual limited editions of 12-year-old blended malt whiskies. CRN57 Step One 12yo is a whisky with a strength of 43% vol., released 1,309 bottles, also available exclusively to guests of the distillery. The size of the first edition is no coincidence - 1309 is the height, expressed in meters, of the highest peak of the Cairngorms mountains, a range visible from the distillery. And the number 57, included in the name of the whiskies on offer, is the northern latitude where the distillery is located.
The new whisky's aroma is expected to offer accents of toffee, baked apples, pineapple, black currants, raisins and oak. On the palate, expect notes of raspberries, Seville orange peel, marzipan, coffee, cane sugar and roasted oak.
The whisky is available, as mentioned, only at the distillery, and the price of a single bottle is £49.99.
[22.05.2023 / photo: The Cairn Distillery]