Dornoch

Dornoch is a small independent distillery on the grounds of the Dornoch Castle Hotel. It is owned and operated by brothers, Philip and Simon Thompson.

The distillery focuses on traditional practices and aims to produce older styles of spirits.

With a capacity of around 30,000 litres, Dornoch is one of the smallest distilleries in Scotland.

The Thompson brothers aim to produce Scotch whiskies that compare to pre-1960s bottlings. The goal is for the spirit to be complex, fruity and robust with good texture.

The distillery adopts old-fashioned techniques in order to recreate lost styles of single malt.

Organic barley varieties like Plumage Archer and Maris Otter are preferred. These heritage crops provide low yields but generate intense flavours. For Dornoch, flavour always trumps yield. The barley is floor malted in the traditional fashion at Warminster Maltings.

The distillery utilises a brewer’s yeast and adopts a long fermentation for a minimum of seven days. The result is a complex wash full of fruity esters.

Distillation is also a slow process with a single run often taking a whole day. This patient approach encourages a lighter, fruitier new make spirit.

The distillery is fitted with a heat exchange system that cools the by-products of distillation. The excess heat is then transferred to the next distillation run. This improves the site's energy efficiency and speeds up the recharging of the stills.

The spirit matures in an array of different cask types including ex-bourbon and ex-Montilla casks. However, the Thompson brothers also run an independent bottling business. Casks are sourced from all over Scotland and bottled under their Thompson Bros label. Once emptied, those casks are often filled with spirit from Dornoch, creating massive diversity in the distillery's warehouses.

The distillery also produces its own gin. Where others buy grain neutral spirit (GNS) and then flavour it on-site, Dornoch runs the entire process themselves.

Colin and Ros Thompson bought 15^th Century Dornoch Castle in 2000. The premises had been converted to a hotel back in 1947. The couple’s sons, Philip and Simon, began working in the bar as soon as they were old enough.

The two brothers began collecting whisky. In particular, they developed a passion for the flavour profiles in whiskies bottled prior to the 1960s.

As their interest grew, the brothers decided to establish their own distillery on the castle grounds. In 2015, planning permission was granted to convert a 19th-century fire station. The brothers put their flat up for sale and crowdfunded the rest of the required capital. Test runs began late in 2016 and the first cask was filled in February 2017.

Additional crowdfunding in 2018 saw the brothers go on to purchase a second site. The new location is used to house a bottling line.

July 2020 marked a milestone in the Dornoch story as the first four casks turned three years old. For the first time, the distillery had its very own whisky. As a thank you, a bottle was drawn from cask No 1 and made available to crowd funders. The whisky was matured in a first-fill oloroso butt and bottled at 59.4%.