GlenWyvis

GlenWyvis (pronounced glen-wiv-is) is an innovative community-owned distillery in the north Highlands. It sits at the foot of the imposing Ben Wyvis mountain, close to the Cromarty Firth - Scotland's deepest sea loch.

When founded, it was the first in Scotland to be 100% owned by the local residents. The concept has paved the way for numerous similar projects elsewhere in the UK. The distillery produces Scotch single malt whisky made from barley grown locally and gin using Scottish botanicals.    

With only one official single malt whisky bottling existing from GlenWyvis to date, it is difficult to assess the style. New make spirit aged for around one year in American oak barrels has been released also. This shows a promising preview of the future with a combination of green fruit (especially apple and pear) and fresh grass notes. The single malt exhibits notes of floral honey, malty sweetness and vanilla.    

GlenWyvis uses renewable energy, with much generated and recycled by the distillery itself. All grain used is grown locally. This is malted elsewhere before being milled and mashed on-site. The distillery is equipped with a 500kg mash tun and they operate six mashes per week.

There are six stainless steel washbacks with each holding one of the six weekly mashes. Fermentation times range from 96-144 hours, depending on the time of year. One pair of copper pot stills produce the single malt.

There is also another smaller still dedicated to the distillation of gin. There is one traditional dunnage warehouse for maturation with another being created from an old farm building. The annual capacity is 140,000 litres, although production has been approximately half that to date.    

GlenWyvis was founded by the GlenWyvis Distillery Ltd. in 2015. This was formed by farmer John Mackenzie who had the idea to build and operate a distillery that was completely owned by the local community. It is located in the north Highland town of Dingwall to the north of Inverness. The town's last distillery, Ben Wyvis, had closed in 1926.    

Just over 3,000 local people invested in the project with £2.5 million raised from a community share offer. The result created Scotland's first-ever 100% community-owned distillery. Construction began in January 2017 with the official opening taking place on St. Andrew's Day (November 30), 2017. The first distillation of Scotch single malt in Dingwall for over 90 years was run on January 30, 2018.

The first Master Distiller was industry legend Duncan Tait. He was succeeded by Matthew Farmer in August 2020. A fire stopped progress in October 2019 with the distillery decommissioned for six months. Production restarted in March 2020. The first whisky was bottled on October 12, 2021, and made available to the community investors and members of the distillery's cask ownership programme. It was named GlenWyvis Vintage Distillation 2018.