This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Isle of Arran’s Lagg Distillery gains copper pot stills
The construction of Isle of Arran’s second distillery is edging closer to completion, with plans for production of its heavily-peated Lagg single malt Scotch whisky to begin in early 2019.
Lagg Distillery in Arran moves closer to completion
The Lagg Distillery is being built on the south of the Isle of Arran, and workers recently welcomed the arrival of new custom-made copper pot stills.
Construction of the new site began in February 2017. The distillery is based next to fields of barley that provide a portion of the malt currently used in production at the group’s other site, Lochranza.
The stills, produced by Forsyths, travelled from Ardrossan to Brodick before heading to the Lagg Distillery site.
The stills have been tailored to create a heavily-peated (50ppm) “earthy” spirit that will become the flagship Lagg single malt.
The wash still has a capacity of 10,000 litres and the spirit still has a capacity of 7,000 litres. The new stills will allow for a production level within the first year of 200,000 litres of alcohol.
Three on-site warehouses have also been completed, allowing the team to start preparations for storing the casks.
When fully operational next year, the site will increase the firm’s production capacity to two million litres. Total visitor numbers to both distillery sites is expected to exceed 200,000 by 2020.
The team consists of newly appointed Lagg Distillery manager Graham Omand, centre manager Faye Waterlow and master distiller James MacTaggart.
MacTaggart said: “The copper pot stills will now be installed into their new home and complete a commissioning phase. The anticipation of waiting for them and then watching them arrive has created a great buzz on the site and on the island.
“Now the stills are here, it truly feels like the start of an exciting new chapter, not just in the story of whisky production on Arran, but for the island as a whole. I look forward to working closely with Graham to ensure that they get up-and-running and that the spirit produced at Lagg is of the highest quality.”