GlenWyvis marks construction with single malt

Scotland’s “first” community-owned whisky distillery GlenWyvis is celebrating the start of its development with the release of a limited edition bottling.

Just 1,600 bottles of Highland Inspiration are available

Just 1,600 bottles of single malt Scotch whisky Highland Inspiration has been selected and bottled for GlenWyvis to mark the laying of foundation stone for the distillery in the Highland town of Dingwall.

Plans for the distillery moved forward after the GlenWyvis Distillery Community Benefit Society smashed its crowdfunding target earlier this year, raising £2.6 million.

The distillery is based on an area of land donated by farmer and helicopter pilot John McKenzie, who is also the managing director of GlenWyvis.

According to the distillery, Highland Inspiration celebrates the fact that GlenWyvis is building on historic foundations that stretch back to the 17th century and the original Ferintosh Distillery with its links to Forbes of Culloden, the Jacobites and Robert Burns himself.

Distilled just outside Dingwall, the closure of Ferintosh Distillery in the late 18th century moved Robert Burns to lament its passing in verse.

GlenWyvis also honours two other former local distilleries, Glenskiach and Ben Wyvis, which both closed in 1926, and it is the stories and characters from these past centuries of whisky distilling that have inspired the new distillery – which will be 100% powered by renewable energy.

The new offering will initially be made available to the distillery’s 2600+ investors before it is released to the public in March.

The launch of Highland Inspiration follows the distillery’s release of a collection of gin that celebrates four local areas in Edinburgh.