Award-winning Aviemore distillery reveals ambitious expansion plans
A gin distillery by Aviemore has won a gold medal at the prestigious Spirits Business Global Spirits Masters awards and revealed plans to take the business to the next level.
Inshriach Distillery has claimed the prize for its 43 per cent Original Speyside Dry Gin.
Distiller Walter Micklethwait told the Strathy: “I’ve been quietly refining the way I make the Inshriach gins over the last few years, so it’s very flattering to see my efforts being recognised.”
Making award-winning gin is not all that has been going on at the estate.
A plan was hatched during the Covid lockdown and the estate is working with Grantown-based Highland Woodchip Company on the start of construction of a district biomass system – initially designed to heat all the buildings on the farm.
Mr Micklethwait is looking to develop a brand new £120,000-plus distillery and to run it off the same system.
It will take the business operation a long way from its humble roots in a chicken shed – albeit an award-winning Amazing Spaces one on Channel 4 – landing it squarely and sustainably in the 21st Century.
The entrepreneur said: "The main issue we face at the moment is a boring practical one – storage.
"We now make four different gins and we have plans for three more. Each of those needs its own bottles and boxes.
"Since 2018 we have done everything here at Inshriach – distilling, blending, bottling, packaging – but to take it forward we need more space.
"The farmyard where all this started is the fun bit where we hold parties and open days and have visitors but it's pretty and quirky and it's getting difficult to hide away all the stuff.
"It would be a leap of faith financially but getting everything under one roof and running on renewables would set us up for the next 20 years.
"So right now we are designing a building which would bring the stills, all the storage and the bottling lines into one space.
"The current bottling room might become a gin school, the farm steading could be a space for pop up events and the current bar and distillery could be even more fanciful once it didn't need to function as a distillery any more'.
"As with most of our schemes all that stands between us and success is that we don't have enough money, time or previous experience.
"But if we ask lots of questions, do some creative fundraising and then do a lot of the work ourselves I think this can work.
"This business has grown organically from nowhere in five years and it just won a gold medal against some of the biggest gin companies in the world so anything is possible."
The Spirits Business Global Spirits Masters features a series of blind tastings by a panel of expert judges. It is considered the entry point for the global gin masters later in the year.
