Lowland single malt from Kingsbarns comes of age

by Amy Hopkins

Kingsbarns Distillery will “make some choices” regarding the bottling of its first single malt as the liquid hits the minimum age requirement for Scotch whisky.

Family-owned Scotch whisky bottler Wemyss Malts opened the Lowlands-based Kingsbarns Distillery on St Andrew's Day (30 November) 2014. Its liquid, which was filled into casks by distillery manager Peter Holroyd in March 2015, reached three years old on Saturday and can now be legally called Scotch whisky. Kingsbarns’ whiskies have been matured in first-fill ex-Bourbon barrels from Heaven Hill. The distillery uses local barely grown in Fife as its base ingredient. William Wemyss, managing director of Wemyss Malts, commented: "This is a very exciting time for us at Kingsbarns Distillery uniting the excellent quality barley from local Fife farms, the attention to detail in distilling and the great effort dedicated to acquiring the finest casks for maturing our precious spirit. “Now that we have reached the minimum legal age, we can move forwards to sample whisky from our early casks and make some choices regarding the first bottling of our new Lowland malt." Kingsbarns’ inaugural single malt is planned for release this summer. It will initially be exclusively be available to Kingbarns Founders' Club members. Wemyss Malts opened a dedicated gin distillery for its Darnley’s brand on the site of Kingsbarns Distillery in June last year.