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HISTORICAL NOTES: Arbikie Highland Estate is a 2,000-acre farm overlooking the white sands of Lunan Bay with the Angus hills to the west. It has been owned by the Stirling family for four generations. The rich red earth of Angus is among the most fertile in Scotland, and there are records from 1794 of distilling on the site. Between 2013 and 2014 three Stirling brothers, Iain, John and David, built an artisanal distillery with both pot and column stills from CARL (the oldest still fabricators in Germany) to produce malt whisky; gin and vodka. All the spirits are made initially in the pot stills, with the vodka (made from potatoes, which is also the base material for the gin) then being rectified in the column stills.

It is a ‘single-site operation’: the raw materials (barley and potatoes) are grown on the farm, water comes from hills to the west and fills an underground lagoon, and bottling and labelling is done within the distillery building itself, which is housed in a refurbished cattle shed.

Kirsty Black and Christian Perez, both graduates in brewing and distilling from Heriot-Watt University, run the distillery and all the production within it. Arbikie launched Scotland’s first potato vodka in 2014, an ’ultra-smooth’ vodka, made from Maris Piper, King Edward and Cultra potatoes; subsequently Arbikie launched Kirsty s Gin, using locally sourced botanicals. At the end of 2015 Arbikie launched a chilli vodka, adding chipotle chillis (grown in Fife) to the same base.

In January 2018 the distillery released its first batch of home-grown rye whisky - 51% rye and 49% malted barley: 355 bottles, with sales proceeds going to charity.

CURIOSITIES: Arbikie is determined to continue to grow all its ingredients for producing alcohol. Expect a number of‘seasonal’ releases that reflect the growing seasons in Scotland.

• A downward-angled lyne arm combined with an optional purifier on the spirit still gives the possibility of making a range of new spirit styles.New Paragraph