Thompson brothers are building a new distillery
Established in 2016, Dornoch Distillery operates out of a small building at the back of Dornoch Castle. At one time, this building served as a garage for a fire truck and a fire storage facility, hence its size essentially corresponds to that of a larger garage.
Meanwhile, announcements of what the Thomson brothers are capable of doing in the matter of whisky production and the expectations of whisky lovers have grown to unimaginable proportions. Sooner or later, their distillery had to grow as well.
The Thompson brothers, owners of the award-winning whiskey bar at the Dornoch Castle Hotel and, since 2016, distillers and independent bottlers, have just submitted documentation for a new distillery, which will soon be put out for public consultation, and once that is successfully completed, construction work will begin.
It is worth mentioning that the uniqueness of the Thompson brothers' approach to whisky production is that from the very beginning of their business they have placed great emphasis on reproducing as faithfully as possible old, often forgotten methods and raw materials. From the barley varieties used, to floor malting and unusually long fermentation periods using low-yielding, specially reconstituted yeast strains, to careful distillation, to barrel selection. Their whisky debuted in 2020 as an extremely limited edition sourced from the distillery's first flooded cask. The first edition was warmly received, even though few of the available bottles were actually opened. Most of the lucky ones chosen by fate see a lot of investment potential in it. Since then, only a few casks have appeared on the market, and invariably the number of those willing to buy a bottle exceeds the availability several times, so these whiskeys - like the aforementioned first edition - are sold by drawing lots.
Dornoch is a small town on the east coast of Scotland, located just north of the Dornoch Firth bay, which, despite its relatively short distance from Inverness, makes Dornoch one of the northernmost distilleries in Scotland. Then there are only Brora/Clynelish, Pulteney and Wolfburn.
We will follow the fate of the new Dornoch distillery closely, as it is one of the most promising ventures in the new wave of Scottish distilling. In recent years, whisky distilleries have been popping up like mushrooms in Scotland, and it's hard not to lose count of the number of distilleries and their individual locations by now. By force of fact, we will only mention the most important ones for various reasons.
[26.01.2023 / photo: Dornoch Distillery]